There were two homework assignments from dog training class this week: sit and loose leash. After many, many, many failed attempts during class, Buckley and I have achieved a somewhat consistent sit. It is far from pretty, but he is going down on his butt with decidedly less jumping, biting, back peddling, and/or completely ignoring me. Today, in three distinct sessions, we achieved sit at least three times in a row. Houston, we have lift off. But as concerned as I was about "sit", I was doubly concerned about loose leash. Loose leash means the dog is on leash, but not pulling. With a crazy Beagle? Impossible!
Loose leash training is somewhat counter intuitive until you think about it. If the dog pulls, you simply stop allowing forward motion until the dog stops pulling, then you start forward motion again. Hmm. The trainer told us not to do this with a time limit and distance because it may take an hour to simply get down the driveway. Yowza! Armed with that knowledge, we went to the park to practice.
Buckley barely pulled at all going from the house to the car. It was unheard of, but I figured all of the work we'd done on "sit" had made him lethargic. That or all of the extra puppy treats. (I'm kidding, we're using Zuke's mini bites and 10 treats are about the size of one regular treat.) He loaded up into the car just fine, and when we got to the park, he was great waiting on leash for us to get all ready to go. Good dog! Thus encouraged, I decided to really go into full training mode on that walk.
Here is how it went. Every time Buckley pulled the leash taut, I'd stop walking and make a sound like eenh! (going forward, I'll simply refer to that sound as ! so I don't have to spell it over and over.) When he stopped pulling, I'd say "good boy" and we'd move forward. This is a sample of the walk (all of the dialogue is mine except for Brian's laughing in the background):
"Ok everybody, let's !. Good boy, let's try again. Let's go. ! Good boy, remember not to pull. So Brian, did you hear about !. Good boy. ! Um, ! Hey, I said ! ! ! Let's just stand here for awhile. Poor Katy, thank you for never pulling and for waiting with us every time. Let's go. Good boy! So, Brian, did you hear about ! Buckley, what did I tell you about pulling? Let's go. Good boy. ! Let's go. Good boy. ! Let's go. Good boy." (Repeat)
Shockingly, we were able to cover 3 miles in a mere two hours, which is slightly more than twice the time it usually takes. Considering that we were teaching a Beagle not to pull in a park where there are wild animals, dogs, human and all sorts of interesting smells, I'd say it went great! I was very proud of the work we both did. Towards the end, every time I'd say !, he'd look at me as if to say, oops, I didn't mean to do that, let's try again. He'd even run to the end of his leash, then walk there without pulling. Obviously, this will take much more practice, but he did such a great job. Good dog! Good Linda, too. I tried very hard to be consistent and not allow him to pull. Go us!
That is it for today. Katy, Buckley and I are all ready for bed. It is a whole lot of work learning how to be well behaved. I think we all earned our bedtime.
Be happy and healthy!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Coincidence? You be the judge.
I saw two "unrelated" stories on the news last night. In the first story, a cow had fallen into a swimming pool and had to be pulled out. In the second story, a 5 year old boy almost drowned at a community pool and was rescued by a lifeguard who had to give mouth to mouth to resuscitate the boy. Coincidence? I don't think so!
In other news, Buckley and I had a tough training session today. We were supposed to learn "sit" but he didn't want to learn it. The trainer came over to help and got the super extra special delicious treats to tempt the little guy to sit. After approximately 20 attempts, he sat. Good boy? We've practiced several times since getting home, and he is doing better. We'll keep it up for the next week and see what comes out of this. Wish us luck.
Still no wind or rain to wash away the pollution. The stagnation alert was lengthened until tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how breathing goes tomorrow.
Be happy and healthy!
Saturday, December 28, 2013
We Need a Breeze
My sister and her family are on vacation in Florida, where they are experiencing gale force winds. Wow, am I jealous! We're on our fifth day in a row of air stagnation. Ugh! My eyes and lungs are burning from the pollution.
Who'd have thought that we'd have really bad pollution during the week between Christmas and New Year in the Pacific Northwest? You think of the PNW as clean and green. The air has been foggy and still for several days with an inversion layer. Even hiking in Forest Park leaves me breathless, and not from the ever present beauty. Instead it is from the building levels of pollution from cars and factories (Intel, anyone?) that just isn't leaving because there is nowhere for it to go. Ahh, the joy of allergies.
Hopefully, we'll get some fresh air overnight, but I'm not really thinking it will happen. The weather report is calling for more of that freezing fog, where the super saturated air simply freezes on the road, plants, sidewalks... you know, anything that gets into its way. So in the morning, I expect that the air will still be sick. I just checked and there is another "Air Stagnation Advisory" in place until 10 pm tomorrow. Maybe I'll go find a water aerobics class tomorrow, since walking outside is not a great option for me. Poor dogs, they may have to go two days without a walk. Poor me! I don't get those much needed walks, either.
On a happier note, my guitar playing seems to be coming along. This week I'm learning 2 new scales, continuing to work on chords (notice the absence of the phrase "damn chords") and learning The Entertainer. You'll laugh at the thing that made it easier for me... learning to hold the guitar the right way. I'm still not 100% holding it steady, but I'm definitely getting better.
Also, tomorrow is dog training class #2 for Buckley and me. We have been working on "watch" this week, where I get him to look at me. Of course. I'm holding food every time I use the command, which he then gets upon successful completion of the command, but hey - I consider it progress. Hopefully, we'll get some help with "sit" tomorrow.
Until then, be happy and healthy!
Who'd have thought that we'd have really bad pollution during the week between Christmas and New Year in the Pacific Northwest? You think of the PNW as clean and green. The air has been foggy and still for several days with an inversion layer. Even hiking in Forest Park leaves me breathless, and not from the ever present beauty. Instead it is from the building levels of pollution from cars and factories (Intel, anyone?) that just isn't leaving because there is nowhere for it to go. Ahh, the joy of allergies.
Hopefully, we'll get some fresh air overnight, but I'm not really thinking it will happen. The weather report is calling for more of that freezing fog, where the super saturated air simply freezes on the road, plants, sidewalks... you know, anything that gets into its way. So in the morning, I expect that the air will still be sick. I just checked and there is another "Air Stagnation Advisory" in place until 10 pm tomorrow. Maybe I'll go find a water aerobics class tomorrow, since walking outside is not a great option for me. Poor dogs, they may have to go two days without a walk. Poor me! I don't get those much needed walks, either.
On a happier note, my guitar playing seems to be coming along. This week I'm learning 2 new scales, continuing to work on chords (notice the absence of the phrase "damn chords") and learning The Entertainer. You'll laugh at the thing that made it easier for me... learning to hold the guitar the right way. I'm still not 100% holding it steady, but I'm definitely getting better.
Also, tomorrow is dog training class #2 for Buckley and me. We have been working on "watch" this week, where I get him to look at me. Of course. I'm holding food every time I use the command, which he then gets upon successful completion of the command, but hey - I consider it progress. Hopefully, we'll get some help with "sit" tomorrow.
Until then, be happy and healthy!
Friday, December 27, 2013
American Hustle vs. Saving Mr Banks
Ah, Christmas! It is my favorite time of year because the movie season is upon us. This week, I saw two very different but highly entertaining films. I promise not to give any spoilers, so read on to find out about these two cinematic endeavors.
American Hustle was just plain fun. You could tell that the director and the cast enjoyed making it and that they had a great time "doing" the 70's thing. Amy Adams showed the sides of her breasts and pretty much all of her chest (minus the nipples) in almost every outfit she wore. I suppose this is a case of "if you've got it, flaunt it" but she is pretty small. She never once fell out of those uber-revealing shirts, which I found to be quite surprising, given how very little fabric there was. Christian Bale's hairstyle was a work of make-up brilliance, and I fully believe the makeup artists should win a Oscar for that alone. The set designers had a great time as well, which made this film particularly enjoyable.
Bradley Cooper is working hard to be a serious actor. Those piercing blue eyes of his flash as he gets manic in his role. Unfortunately, Christian Bale didn't work as well for me. I felt like he was working, and I felt like I was watching the work rather than the art. Which, I felt, was too bad, since his character was so well created. Jennifer Lawrence, on the other hand, was absolutely effortless in her portrayal of the crazy wife. Seriously, that girl can act and make it look easy. I never think, "oh yeah, that Jennifer Lawrence is awesome" because I'm thinking about how bat shit crazy that person on the screen is. See what I mean? And Amy Adams, well, she was really great. My favorite scene with her was a domestic fight where her accent kept changing, proving that she was blurring the lines between the scam and reality. It was beautifully done.
My favorite scene was early in the movie when Amy and Christian first meet and he takes her to his dry cleaning business. The kiss was so romantic! Who knew that a dry cleaning business could be so beautiful and sexy. There are too many other terrific scenes to mention. I will simply say that I recommend this film and that adults will enjoy it.
The second film from this week was Saving Private Banks. No, that isn't right... Saving Mr. Ryan? No... Saving Mr. Banks. That's it! Sorry, Tom Hanks is in both films and I got confused. Actually, I tried to get Brian to ask for tickets to Saving Private Banks, but he wouldn't do it. Spoil sport! All joking aside, I thought this was one of the best Disney pictures I've seen in awhile. Yes, it was uber-smarmy in a few places, but the making of Mary Poppins is just really cool and interesting.
There were two story lines in this film: 1) the making of Mary Poppins the movie and 2) the back story on P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. I'll start with the back story. Colin Farrell plays her father, who is a man with a severe drinking problem. He is not a bad man, in fact, he is a dreamer who works as a bank manager (you know, like Mr. Banks, the dad in Mary Poppins) and his favorite times are the make-believe play moments with his daughters. I loved him in this role. It was the gentlest portrayal of alcoholism I've ever seen in the movies, and you understand that it is clearly a debilitating illness. These scenes are some of the best of what Disney is really good at and I enjoyed them thoroughly.
The 'making of' scenes were just plain fun. I've been a huge fan of the Sherman brothers who brought us all of the music and lyrics from Mary Poppins and many other Disney greats. Jason Schwartzman played the piano playing brother with joy and energy and I LOVED watching him. The other brother was played by BJ Novak (I think he was on The Office?) and the chemistry between them was exceptional.
Emma Thompson was cringe inducing and almost laughable in her stiffness as the authoress. Her fights with Walt were legendary. I loved watching her and she really made the film. What a great actress! I thought Tom Hanks was good, but I had a similar problem with him as I did with Christian Bale. In this case, I don't think he was working too hard, in fact, his portrayal of Walt seemed almost effortless. It is just that I watched Walt introduce his show every Sunday night when I was a kid and damn it, that was TOM HANKS up there, NOT Walt Disney. Tantrum over. But it did bug me.
Just be forewarned, this is a Disney movie, so it has a sappy happy ending, which wrings THOUSANDS of tears from every eyeball. Even my eyes were wet, and I have an autoimmune disease that prevents me from making tears most of the time. So, in retrospect, that was a great thing for me. But my nose was running for the last third of the film and the rest of the day.
Bottom line, these two movies were both excellent. The second one is totally family friendly, unlike the first. But for sheer enjoyment, I give them both two thumbs up.
Be happy and healthy!
American Hustle was just plain fun. You could tell that the director and the cast enjoyed making it and that they had a great time "doing" the 70's thing. Amy Adams showed the sides of her breasts and pretty much all of her chest (minus the nipples) in almost every outfit she wore. I suppose this is a case of "if you've got it, flaunt it" but she is pretty small. She never once fell out of those uber-revealing shirts, which I found to be quite surprising, given how very little fabric there was. Christian Bale's hairstyle was a work of make-up brilliance, and I fully believe the makeup artists should win a Oscar for that alone. The set designers had a great time as well, which made this film particularly enjoyable.
Bradley Cooper is working hard to be a serious actor. Those piercing blue eyes of his flash as he gets manic in his role. Unfortunately, Christian Bale didn't work as well for me. I felt like he was working, and I felt like I was watching the work rather than the art. Which, I felt, was too bad, since his character was so well created. Jennifer Lawrence, on the other hand, was absolutely effortless in her portrayal of the crazy wife. Seriously, that girl can act and make it look easy. I never think, "oh yeah, that Jennifer Lawrence is awesome" because I'm thinking about how bat shit crazy that person on the screen is. See what I mean? And Amy Adams, well, she was really great. My favorite scene with her was a domestic fight where her accent kept changing, proving that she was blurring the lines between the scam and reality. It was beautifully done.
My favorite scene was early in the movie when Amy and Christian first meet and he takes her to his dry cleaning business. The kiss was so romantic! Who knew that a dry cleaning business could be so beautiful and sexy. There are too many other terrific scenes to mention. I will simply say that I recommend this film and that adults will enjoy it.
The second film from this week was Saving Private Banks. No, that isn't right... Saving Mr. Ryan? No... Saving Mr. Banks. That's it! Sorry, Tom Hanks is in both films and I got confused. Actually, I tried to get Brian to ask for tickets to Saving Private Banks, but he wouldn't do it. Spoil sport! All joking aside, I thought this was one of the best Disney pictures I've seen in awhile. Yes, it was uber-smarmy in a few places, but the making of Mary Poppins is just really cool and interesting.
There were two story lines in this film: 1) the making of Mary Poppins the movie and 2) the back story on P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. I'll start with the back story. Colin Farrell plays her father, who is a man with a severe drinking problem. He is not a bad man, in fact, he is a dreamer who works as a bank manager (you know, like Mr. Banks, the dad in Mary Poppins) and his favorite times are the make-believe play moments with his daughters. I loved him in this role. It was the gentlest portrayal of alcoholism I've ever seen in the movies, and you understand that it is clearly a debilitating illness. These scenes are some of the best of what Disney is really good at and I enjoyed them thoroughly.
The 'making of' scenes were just plain fun. I've been a huge fan of the Sherman brothers who brought us all of the music and lyrics from Mary Poppins and many other Disney greats. Jason Schwartzman played the piano playing brother with joy and energy and I LOVED watching him. The other brother was played by BJ Novak (I think he was on The Office?) and the chemistry between them was exceptional.
Emma Thompson was cringe inducing and almost laughable in her stiffness as the authoress. Her fights with Walt were legendary. I loved watching her and she really made the film. What a great actress! I thought Tom Hanks was good, but I had a similar problem with him as I did with Christian Bale. In this case, I don't think he was working too hard, in fact, his portrayal of Walt seemed almost effortless. It is just that I watched Walt introduce his show every Sunday night when I was a kid and damn it, that was TOM HANKS up there, NOT Walt Disney. Tantrum over. But it did bug me.
Just be forewarned, this is a Disney movie, so it has a sappy happy ending, which wrings THOUSANDS of tears from every eyeball. Even my eyes were wet, and I have an autoimmune disease that prevents me from making tears most of the time. So, in retrospect, that was a great thing for me. But my nose was running for the last third of the film and the rest of the day.
Bottom line, these two movies were both excellent. The second one is totally family friendly, unlike the first. But for sheer enjoyment, I give them both two thumbs up.
Be happy and healthy!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Ho Ho Ho!
Merry Happy Holly Jolly! What a fun day. I got up at 5:30 and started making the crust for the Chocolate Peppermint Tart. This recipe has almost 5 cups of heavy whipping cream, my oh my. It was really good. The rest of the meal was awfully good, too: a lovely chicken liver moose, chicken b'stilla, lamb and prune tagine, almond/raisin couscous, and roasted Mediterranean vegetables. We had a Moroccan theme going on. We wanted to have lots of spices for our Christmas dinner. Brian made all of the savory stuff and I made dessert. Yum!
After dinner and before dessert, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. We saw loads of families out playing with their Christmas toys. My favorite was the boy who got a Rip-Stick and was riding it with confidence after about 5 minutes. He learned how by watching a You-Tube video. How cool! Later we saw a really little boy, maybe 5 or 6, who just got a new Razor scooter. He was looking wistfully at my dog, so I asked if he wanted to pet Buckley. He looked at my dog and said, "No, he'll probably try to kiss me. I don't like dog kisses." The look he had on his face was priceless. Sort of sad and wistful, but determined. I told him that Buckley would indeed try to kiss him, so he made a good decision. I wished him well with his Razor and a Merry Christmas. He smiled and said Merry Christmas back. It was a strange and sweet interaction.
Of course, here it is 8:04 pm and I haven't even touched the guitar today. And, rather than practicing, here I am writing my blog. Hmmm. Once again, my priorities seem a bit out of place. My lesson yesterday was pretty good. I'm definitely making progress, especially after last week's horrible performance at the lesson. I can now get through most of Jingle Bells and Greensleeves without making too many mistakes. The cussing is down a bit too. This week's assignment is 4 new scales and a new song: The Entertainer. Of course, that is really for piano, but so what? It has some quick parts, so we'll see how it goes. As soon as I post, I'll go practice.
I really miss my Georgia family today. My nephew Alex sent a UGA dog toy to my dogs, so that we could have a dog eat dawg Christmas. He also wrote us a special Gift Rap. Very goofy, silly, awesome fun! Of course, I got a dog toy for Christmas, too, but I won't share with the dogs. It is a little orange squeaky dragon. They already have a blue and a purple dragon, so this one is mine... paws off! Merry Christmas to Mom, Laura, Scott, Fred, Jeannie, Alex, Kristen, Mandy and Caleb!
OK, I've stalled long enough. Now I'm off to practice my guitar.
After dinner and before dessert, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. We saw loads of families out playing with their Christmas toys. My favorite was the boy who got a Rip-Stick and was riding it with confidence after about 5 minutes. He learned how by watching a You-Tube video. How cool! Later we saw a really little boy, maybe 5 or 6, who just got a new Razor scooter. He was looking wistfully at my dog, so I asked if he wanted to pet Buckley. He looked at my dog and said, "No, he'll probably try to kiss me. I don't like dog kisses." The look he had on his face was priceless. Sort of sad and wistful, but determined. I told him that Buckley would indeed try to kiss him, so he made a good decision. I wished him well with his Razor and a Merry Christmas. He smiled and said Merry Christmas back. It was a strange and sweet interaction.
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| Speaking of Buckley... here he and I are, wishing you and yours a Happy day! |
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| Here is a photo of Brian and me enjoying the dog's new toy. Not a dog in sight. This was taken about a millisecond after Brian said, "I'm not putting that thing in my mouth! |
Of course, here it is 8:04 pm and I haven't even touched the guitar today. And, rather than practicing, here I am writing my blog. Hmmm. Once again, my priorities seem a bit out of place. My lesson yesterday was pretty good. I'm definitely making progress, especially after last week's horrible performance at the lesson. I can now get through most of Jingle Bells and Greensleeves without making too many mistakes. The cussing is down a bit too. This week's assignment is 4 new scales and a new song: The Entertainer. Of course, that is really for piano, but so what? It has some quick parts, so we'll see how it goes. As soon as I post, I'll go practice.
I really miss my Georgia family today. My nephew Alex sent a UGA dog toy to my dogs, so that we could have a dog eat dawg Christmas. He also wrote us a special Gift Rap. Very goofy, silly, awesome fun! Of course, I got a dog toy for Christmas, too, but I won't share with the dogs. It is a little orange squeaky dragon. They already have a blue and a purple dragon, so this one is mine... paws off! Merry Christmas to Mom, Laura, Scott, Fred, Jeannie, Alex, Kristen, Mandy and Caleb!
OK, I've stalled long enough. Now I'm off to practice my guitar.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Clicker Training
I can't hear about clicker training without thinking about a conversation between a whole bunch of customer service trainers at AirTouch, or maybe it was Verizon Wireless at that time. I was training a class about training customer service skills and folks had to give a short presentation. Tren's was all about clicker training a chicken. I think he got the idea from Ann, who was big into dog training at the time. The details are hazy, but I do remember all of us laughing uproariously. I really loved that team.
Anyway, today I learned the first steps on how to clicker train a dog. Essentially, you click the clicker at the moment the dog is doing something right, and it freezes them in the moment, which allows the human to give a reward, generally in the form of a treat. It sounds like a good idea, but it seems a bit unwieldy. I admit that I learned just enough to be dangerous, so I need to learn more before using it or drawing any conclusions.
Perhaps you can tell from the topic so far that today was the first day of the dog training class I'm taking with Buckley at Petco. Shockingly, Buckly was really well behaved for the first class. He was calm, did almost no whining at all, and (although restrained) rarely pulled to get to other dogs. I was pretty happy with his behavior. At least his behavior there. Today. I'm not super happy with his behaviors when we're out walking, and that is why we're in class.
Today's lesson was two fold. 1) Dogs are not people. 2) Teaching your dog to watch you and only you. Sounds simple, no? Lesson number one was a good reminder that yelling at, hitting, and getting excited when a dog has done something bad are all forms of positive reinforcement for poor behavior on the part of the dog. All of those things are attention, which are better than no attention, which is often why the dog has poor behavior in the first place. So, finding a single "no" sound (like eenh, or uh uh) to show your displeasure is better than all of those other responses because it is less confusing for the dog. Upon reflection, that sounds fair. The second lesson involves hand signals and lots of food. It can also involve clicker training, if we want. Essentially, you put food in front of the dog's nose, then move the food to your forehead (click once the dog looks at you), then give the dog a treat for looking at you. Eventually, with consistent use, the dog will always look to you for guidance. Cool!
So that is it for the dog lesson. It took about an hour to train the humans those two things to work on with our dogs for the rest of the week. Next week involves sit, down and stay. I can't wait! In the meanwhile, I'll be working on watch. Oh, one other thing... it seems like my poor behavior is causing Buckley's aggressive behavior against other dogs. I'll have to work on that! Whenever we come across other dogs he gets really aggressive. Since he did that before and I gave negative reinforcement (attention), it seems he'll just keep doing it. So this week, I have to work on MY response to meeting other dogs. Wish me luck!
Be happy and healthy!
Anyway, today I learned the first steps on how to clicker train a dog. Essentially, you click the clicker at the moment the dog is doing something right, and it freezes them in the moment, which allows the human to give a reward, generally in the form of a treat. It sounds like a good idea, but it seems a bit unwieldy. I admit that I learned just enough to be dangerous, so I need to learn more before using it or drawing any conclusions.
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| Buckley roasting by an open fire. |
Perhaps you can tell from the topic so far that today was the first day of the dog training class I'm taking with Buckley at Petco. Shockingly, Buckly was really well behaved for the first class. He was calm, did almost no whining at all, and (although restrained) rarely pulled to get to other dogs. I was pretty happy with his behavior. At least his behavior there. Today. I'm not super happy with his behaviors when we're out walking, and that is why we're in class.
Today's lesson was two fold. 1) Dogs are not people. 2) Teaching your dog to watch you and only you. Sounds simple, no? Lesson number one was a good reminder that yelling at, hitting, and getting excited when a dog has done something bad are all forms of positive reinforcement for poor behavior on the part of the dog. All of those things are attention, which are better than no attention, which is often why the dog has poor behavior in the first place. So, finding a single "no" sound (like eenh, or uh uh) to show your displeasure is better than all of those other responses because it is less confusing for the dog. Upon reflection, that sounds fair. The second lesson involves hand signals and lots of food. It can also involve clicker training, if we want. Essentially, you put food in front of the dog's nose, then move the food to your forehead (click once the dog looks at you), then give the dog a treat for looking at you. Eventually, with consistent use, the dog will always look to you for guidance. Cool!
So that is it for the dog lesson. It took about an hour to train the humans those two things to work on with our dogs for the rest of the week. Next week involves sit, down and stay. I can't wait! In the meanwhile, I'll be working on watch. Oh, one other thing... it seems like my poor behavior is causing Buckley's aggressive behavior against other dogs. I'll have to work on that! Whenever we come across other dogs he gets really aggressive. Since he did that before and I gave negative reinforcement (attention), it seems he'll just keep doing it. So this week, I have to work on MY response to meeting other dogs. Wish me luck!
Be happy and healthy!
Saturday, December 21, 2013
A Fantastic Day
Today was a red letter day! It started with an early morning session with the guitar book, followed by a session with the instrument. I did pretty well with Greensleeves, my newest song. Jingle Bells is coming along, too. There was a moment when I realized that I was the proverbial "Mr. White Keys" from the song of that same title by the Cherry Popping Daddies. All of the notes I know on the guitar are the same notes as are on the white keys of the piano. That song stuck with me for most of the day.
We missed all of the farmers markets since Thanksgiving. Today was the last day of the PSU farmers market and we took full advantage of it. Besides the squash, carrots, giant yam, eggs, kale and cipollini onions, we also got truffle oil, truffle caramel, a baguette, peppermint/spearmint tea, two kinds of pate (or a pate and a moose), challa, corn tortillas, lamb, chicken thighs, prunes, and a small box of chocolates, not to mention the breakfast burrito, the pork confit crepe, three mini cookies, the slice of almond brioche, the cup of coffee, the cup of mint tea and the cup of hot apple cider that we ate on site. It was a terrific farmers market, especially considering that it is late December.
After the market, we came home, put the food away, and took the dogs out for a 3 mile walk. We moved pretty quickly because our friends Ben and Kate were on their way down from Seattle and we (along with Marty) were going to meet them and my brother at the Dim Sum restaurant for Brian's birthday lunch. We got home just in time to get ready to go, so we piled into Marty's car and went to lunch.
Dim Sum is one of the foods that we missed in the 6+ years we were out of the Northwest. It is a Chinese small plate lunch where servers bring loads of dumpling type foods to the table in carts and the diners select what they wish to eat. I think we selected almost everything that came our way. We had sticky rice, 4 kinds of shrimp/fish dumplings, Chinese broccoli, stuffed eggplant, calamari, hum bao, shumai, a sweet sesame ball and a savory sesame ball, taro dumplings, and probably a couple of other things I forgot to mention. Even if we only had half of each type of food option, it would have been a bunch of food. I'm pretty sure everyone had at least one of each thing. And, wow, it was GOOD!!!
After lunch, we split up and Ben, Kate, Brian and I all went down town. We found some 3 hour street parking and walked through Chinatown towards the waterfront. Based on a news report we saw a few weeks ago, I expected to be approached by loads of folks trying to sell me drugs. Instead, a couple of homeless guys wished me a happy holiday, but that was it. Maybe next time. We went on down to the Saturday market, where they were having the Festival of the Last Minute, with longer hours for the merchants hoping to sell more stuff for Xmas. I'm not sure if it was successful, but it was certainly busy.
From there, we walked back up to the Pearl district to Cupcake Jones, the world's best cupcake shop. We each got a small cupcake to eat right there, then got a big cupcake to take home to share later. That may not have been the best of ideas. (See, that there is called foreshadowing!) After our cupcakes, we stopped for a drink at the bar across the street, then walked back to our car to go home. By this time it was 6:30.
Inexplicably, we were hungry when we got home. To fix that, we pulled out the two types of pate, some crackers, some cookies, some cheese, humus, prunes and the baguette. Yeah, a healthy, well balanced meal was had by all. Then we pulled out the cupcakes. Kate carefully cut each one into 4 parts, so we could each try all of the flavors. After eating 2 parts (or half a cupcake) we were all feeling just a little gross. Perhaps it is time to go back to my original 8 week challenge. I ate MUCH better then.
While we were eating, we played a new board game that Ben and Kate gave Brian for his birthday. It was called Funglish and is really fun. Essentially, using only adjectives (selected from a list), you have to describe a word and others have to guess that word. Example: the clue giver might show the words black, white, and striped, and the guessers might correctly guess Zebra. It is much harder than it sounds and is all sorts of fun. Kate kicked our butts, with Brian and I coming in a far second and Ben a close third. We will definitely play that game again.
After the game, we hung out in the living room for a bit, playing Mad Libs. Yes, Garmon family , the word "underwear" was mentioned at least once in every round... except for the first one, which didn't have a noun blank. Crazy! By the time each of us had been the scribe, three of us had completely crashed, and we went to bed. I realized that this day had to be documented as an amazing and super fun day, so I stayed up all the way to 10:42 pm (!!!!!) to write this blog.
Be happy and healthy!
We missed all of the farmers markets since Thanksgiving. Today was the last day of the PSU farmers market and we took full advantage of it. Besides the squash, carrots, giant yam, eggs, kale and cipollini onions, we also got truffle oil, truffle caramel, a baguette, peppermint/spearmint tea, two kinds of pate (or a pate and a moose), challa, corn tortillas, lamb, chicken thighs, prunes, and a small box of chocolates, not to mention the breakfast burrito, the pork confit crepe, three mini cookies, the slice of almond brioche, the cup of coffee, the cup of mint tea and the cup of hot apple cider that we ate on site. It was a terrific farmers market, especially considering that it is late December.
After the market, we came home, put the food away, and took the dogs out for a 3 mile walk. We moved pretty quickly because our friends Ben and Kate were on their way down from Seattle and we (along with Marty) were going to meet them and my brother at the Dim Sum restaurant for Brian's birthday lunch. We got home just in time to get ready to go, so we piled into Marty's car and went to lunch.
Dim Sum is one of the foods that we missed in the 6+ years we were out of the Northwest. It is a Chinese small plate lunch where servers bring loads of dumpling type foods to the table in carts and the diners select what they wish to eat. I think we selected almost everything that came our way. We had sticky rice, 4 kinds of shrimp/fish dumplings, Chinese broccoli, stuffed eggplant, calamari, hum bao, shumai, a sweet sesame ball and a savory sesame ball, taro dumplings, and probably a couple of other things I forgot to mention. Even if we only had half of each type of food option, it would have been a bunch of food. I'm pretty sure everyone had at least one of each thing. And, wow, it was GOOD!!!
After lunch, we split up and Ben, Kate, Brian and I all went down town. We found some 3 hour street parking and walked through Chinatown towards the waterfront. Based on a news report we saw a few weeks ago, I expected to be approached by loads of folks trying to sell me drugs. Instead, a couple of homeless guys wished me a happy holiday, but that was it. Maybe next time. We went on down to the Saturday market, where they were having the Festival of the Last Minute, with longer hours for the merchants hoping to sell more stuff for Xmas. I'm not sure if it was successful, but it was certainly busy.
From there, we walked back up to the Pearl district to Cupcake Jones, the world's best cupcake shop. We each got a small cupcake to eat right there, then got a big cupcake to take home to share later. That may not have been the best of ideas. (See, that there is called foreshadowing!) After our cupcakes, we stopped for a drink at the bar across the street, then walked back to our car to go home. By this time it was 6:30.
Inexplicably, we were hungry when we got home. To fix that, we pulled out the two types of pate, some crackers, some cookies, some cheese, humus, prunes and the baguette. Yeah, a healthy, well balanced meal was had by all. Then we pulled out the cupcakes. Kate carefully cut each one into 4 parts, so we could each try all of the flavors. After eating 2 parts (or half a cupcake) we were all feeling just a little gross. Perhaps it is time to go back to my original 8 week challenge. I ate MUCH better then.
While we were eating, we played a new board game that Ben and Kate gave Brian for his birthday. It was called Funglish and is really fun. Essentially, using only adjectives (selected from a list), you have to describe a word and others have to guess that word. Example: the clue giver might show the words black, white, and striped, and the guessers might correctly guess Zebra. It is much harder than it sounds and is all sorts of fun. Kate kicked our butts, with Brian and I coming in a far second and Ben a close third. We will definitely play that game again.
After the game, we hung out in the living room for a bit, playing Mad Libs. Yes, Garmon family , the word "underwear" was mentioned at least once in every round... except for the first one, which didn't have a noun blank. Crazy! By the time each of us had been the scribe, three of us had completely crashed, and we went to bed. I realized that this day had to be documented as an amazing and super fun day, so I stayed up all the way to 10:42 pm (!!!!!) to write this blog.
Be happy and healthy!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Stocking Stuffers
We went to Cost Plus World Market today to pick up some stocking stuffers. My plan was to go around 10:00 am, but things happened and we got there a little closer to 12:30. What on earth were we thinking? Less than a week to go until Xmas, and we just happen to be at a store right next to the mall with 200 of our closest strangers, looking at unnecessary things to put into stockings. After about 5 minutes of looking around in something close to panic, we decided to go home and nap or hike instead. We ended up doing both.
The plus side of our aborted trip was that we found a restaurant I'm interested in trying. It is called something like Strada (not sure exactly) and it sells "Italian street food". There was a restaurant like it in Columbus and it sold what were essentially Italian burritos: a thin, pizza-like tortilla, spaghetti noodles, veggies (zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, etc.) and marinara sauce with plenty of fresh grated Parmesan cheese... all rolled up into a burrito-like bundle. It was fantastic. The best of all worlds. So now I know where to go to find such a thing on this side of the country.
We didn't eat there today, because we had just had a late "second breakfast" at Biscuits Cafe. Brian had blueberry pancakes and I had a waffle smothered in strawberries. Sadly, the berries were frozen because it is winter, but Biscuits always serves them ripe and fresh when we're in strawberry season. As always, I had exactly the right strawberry to waffle ratio, with each bite having both strawberry and waffle. Yum! I have no idea how Brian's breakfast was because I was so very much into my own.
For dinner, I think we're having left over shrimp and grits (the recipe from last month's Southern Living magazine) and cheddar-cumin scones, then birthday cake for dessert. It is only 4:40 now and I can hardly wait for dinner. Patience!
With echoes of food in my head, I think I'll close for today. Be happy and healthy!
The plus side of our aborted trip was that we found a restaurant I'm interested in trying. It is called something like Strada (not sure exactly) and it sells "Italian street food". There was a restaurant like it in Columbus and it sold what were essentially Italian burritos: a thin, pizza-like tortilla, spaghetti noodles, veggies (zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, etc.) and marinara sauce with plenty of fresh grated Parmesan cheese... all rolled up into a burrito-like bundle. It was fantastic. The best of all worlds. So now I know where to go to find such a thing on this side of the country.
We didn't eat there today, because we had just had a late "second breakfast" at Biscuits Cafe. Brian had blueberry pancakes and I had a waffle smothered in strawberries. Sadly, the berries were frozen because it is winter, but Biscuits always serves them ripe and fresh when we're in strawberry season. As always, I had exactly the right strawberry to waffle ratio, with each bite having both strawberry and waffle. Yum! I have no idea how Brian's breakfast was because I was so very much into my own.
For dinner, I think we're having left over shrimp and grits (the recipe from last month's Southern Living magazine) and cheddar-cumin scones, then birthday cake for dessert. It is only 4:40 now and I can hardly wait for dinner. Patience!
With echoes of food in my head, I think I'll close for today. Be happy and healthy!
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Happy Birthday!!!
Brian turned 45 today. To celebrate, he stayed in bed, rather than going to water aerobics, chopped two pounds of steak to make chilli for his birthday dinner, had a very large beer at Rogue, helped me vacuum the living rooms, went grocery shopping, made chilli, hosted his own dinner, and ate WAY TOO MUCH. He is now moaning about how much he ate. Sounds about perfect.
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It was a pretty good day. I went to water aerobics without him and it may have been the best class, yet. Lisa was the instructor and she did some really fun moves. Let's see if I can explain a couple. One of the moves was jumping jacks in the deep end (no actual jumping involved). You move your arms and legs as if you are doing jumping jacks, but as you are doing them, you move from a vertical position to a horizontal position. It takes 4 jacks to go from one position to the other. This is a really good ab workout and is fun to do, too. We did frog kicks the same way. You could tell that it was a good workout because the ladies were all working, rather than chatting away in the pool. I enjoy the chatting, but only do it when I am not challenged by the workout.
The big event, other than Brian's birthday, was that I finished The Traitor's Kiss by Gerald Seymour. That guy can really write. I've read several of his books and they are all good. He is a British spy novelist, but of the school where if things can go wrong, they will. Most of his books end with everyone dead except the bad guy or the mid-level administrator who made bad decisions that left everyone else dead. Even if folks make it out alive, they are usually disillusioned or live out a sad little life of bitterness and disappointment. I know, this does not sounds like the kind of book I'd like and certainly not like I'm recommending it... but I do strongly recommend this guy's stuff. He can write suspense and action like nobody's business and you really get close to the characters. Just know, that the books will always end badly for everyone involved. Once you know that, you can enjoy the rest of the book. So, pick up one of his books and give it a try.
Dinner tonight was chili, cheddar-cuman scones, and baby greens salad with apple, cheddar and avocado. My brother Trade and his wife Sharon enjoyed Brian's birthday dinner with us. Katy and Buckley watched in frustration as two more people didn't share their food with them. Sigh, it is tough to be a dog in our house. No one ever feeds them from the table. No chocolate cake ever goes their way, either. Poor, abused and neglected beasts. (Note: Buckley had his head in my lap as I write this with the computer balanced precariously on one knee.) It was a very fun little birthday party with loads of laughing.
Today is not only Brian's birthday, but it is also the birthday of my good friends Toby and Bob, as well as the half birthday of my favorite cousin-in-law: Di Di. Happy full and half birthdays to you all!
That is it for today.
Be happy and healthy!
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It was a pretty good day. I went to water aerobics without him and it may have been the best class, yet. Lisa was the instructor and she did some really fun moves. Let's see if I can explain a couple. One of the moves was jumping jacks in the deep end (no actual jumping involved). You move your arms and legs as if you are doing jumping jacks, but as you are doing them, you move from a vertical position to a horizontal position. It takes 4 jacks to go from one position to the other. This is a really good ab workout and is fun to do, too. We did frog kicks the same way. You could tell that it was a good workout because the ladies were all working, rather than chatting away in the pool. I enjoy the chatting, but only do it when I am not challenged by the workout.
The big event, other than Brian's birthday, was that I finished The Traitor's Kiss by Gerald Seymour. That guy can really write. I've read several of his books and they are all good. He is a British spy novelist, but of the school where if things can go wrong, they will. Most of his books end with everyone dead except the bad guy or the mid-level administrator who made bad decisions that left everyone else dead. Even if folks make it out alive, they are usually disillusioned or live out a sad little life of bitterness and disappointment. I know, this does not sounds like the kind of book I'd like and certainly not like I'm recommending it... but I do strongly recommend this guy's stuff. He can write suspense and action like nobody's business and you really get close to the characters. Just know, that the books will always end badly for everyone involved. Once you know that, you can enjoy the rest of the book. So, pick up one of his books and give it a try.
Dinner tonight was chili, cheddar-cuman scones, and baby greens salad with apple, cheddar and avocado. My brother Trade and his wife Sharon enjoyed Brian's birthday dinner with us. Katy and Buckley watched in frustration as two more people didn't share their food with them. Sigh, it is tough to be a dog in our house. No one ever feeds them from the table. No chocolate cake ever goes their way, either. Poor, abused and neglected beasts. (Note: Buckley had his head in my lap as I write this with the computer balanced precariously on one knee.) It was a very fun little birthday party with loads of laughing.
Today is not only Brian's birthday, but it is also the birthday of my good friends Toby and Bob, as well as the half birthday of my favorite cousin-in-law: Di Di. Happy full and half birthdays to you all!
That is it for today.
Be happy and healthy!
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Next New Thing: Dog Training
I was planning on trying yoga next, but dog training kinda jumped out at me today. Not in the way you think! We were at Petco getting the dogs' nails trimmed and I saw a sign saying that I could save $40 off the regular price of a training class. So I did! Starting this Sunday, December 22 at 2:30, Buckley and I have a date with a dog trainer, along with several other dogs and owners. Woo hoo!!! Finally, I'll get the training I need to stop barking at the dog.
Today was my 4th guitar lesson. It was not pretty. Danny, my instructor, was very kind. Seriously, it looked like I hadn't practiced once in the last week. Nothing worked and it was a terribly lesson on my part. I rarely get insecure, but every time I touched the guitar during my lesson I got worse! The especially bad part is that I had an awesome practice session this morning around 5:30 and I was stoked to show him what I could do. Yeah, that didn't go well at all. There is always next week, I guess. In the meanwhile, my fingers just need to toughen up. More practice!
Let's see... what else is going on? Water aerobics was fun this morning. There is some weird current in the pool and my friends and I were sent all the way around the edge of the deep end (even venturing some into the shallow end) during the ab workout session. There were three of us who were caught in the current and we were cracking ourselves up. You try laughing while doing crunches. Yowza! Oh, and the music was horrible! Think: Debbie Gibson sings Freddie Mercury. Oh my.
Our hike today was super fun, too. We ran into Stephanie and Ozzie, dog walking service again. Stephanie is human and Ozzie is the tiny mohawked dog. They had 5 other dogs, including a GIANT Bernese Mountain dog, a bull dog, a lab mix, a poodle and a miniature Doberman. Steph's hands were very full. Brian and I moved quickly around her without causing a riot with her dogs or ours. Well done, us!
Brian and I walked for about three miles today in some pretty dense fog. The closer we got to the parking area, the denser it got, until we realized that the pin pricks of light we saw were actually headlights... not too far away. We drove home going no faster than 30 mph on those windy roads, worried about all of the invisi-bikers who ride on those streets in this kind of weather. No joke... we saw several bicyclists wearing black, navy and grey in the fog. What are they thinking? I wanted to give them a red light to put on their noses like Rudolph. Then we could have said it glowed.... or at least we could have seen them.
After the walk, when their paws were nice and muddy, we took the dogs to Petco to have their nails trimmed. Buckley screams in abject terror when we try to cut his nails (and no, we never hurt him while doing it), but for some reason, is quite OK with us spending $10 - 15 to have someone else trim his nails. Fine with me. And now we've come full circle to dog training. So that was the big day.
Be happy and healthy!
Today was my 4th guitar lesson. It was not pretty. Danny, my instructor, was very kind. Seriously, it looked like I hadn't practiced once in the last week. Nothing worked and it was a terribly lesson on my part. I rarely get insecure, but every time I touched the guitar during my lesson I got worse! The especially bad part is that I had an awesome practice session this morning around 5:30 and I was stoked to show him what I could do. Yeah, that didn't go well at all. There is always next week, I guess. In the meanwhile, my fingers just need to toughen up. More practice!
Let's see... what else is going on? Water aerobics was fun this morning. There is some weird current in the pool and my friends and I were sent all the way around the edge of the deep end (even venturing some into the shallow end) during the ab workout session. There were three of us who were caught in the current and we were cracking ourselves up. You try laughing while doing crunches. Yowza! Oh, and the music was horrible! Think: Debbie Gibson sings Freddie Mercury. Oh my.
Our hike today was super fun, too. We ran into Stephanie and Ozzie, dog walking service again. Stephanie is human and Ozzie is the tiny mohawked dog. They had 5 other dogs, including a GIANT Bernese Mountain dog, a bull dog, a lab mix, a poodle and a miniature Doberman. Steph's hands were very full. Brian and I moved quickly around her without causing a riot with her dogs or ours. Well done, us!
Brian and I walked for about three miles today in some pretty dense fog. The closer we got to the parking area, the denser it got, until we realized that the pin pricks of light we saw were actually headlights... not too far away. We drove home going no faster than 30 mph on those windy roads, worried about all of the invisi-bikers who ride on those streets in this kind of weather. No joke... we saw several bicyclists wearing black, navy and grey in the fog. What are they thinking? I wanted to give them a red light to put on their noses like Rudolph. Then we could have said it glowed.... or at least we could have seen them.
After the walk, when their paws were nice and muddy, we took the dogs to Petco to have their nails trimmed. Buckley screams in abject terror when we try to cut his nails (and no, we never hurt him while doing it), but for some reason, is quite OK with us spending $10 - 15 to have someone else trim his nails. Fine with me. And now we've come full circle to dog training. So that was the big day.
Be happy and healthy!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Day 36: Abolishing the Day as Part of the Title
Is anyone else annoyed at the "Day:XX" posting as title each day? I am, since this second 8 week challenge is not turning out to be a count down, or count up for that matter. So, as the creator of this blog, I'm making an executive decision to drop the "Day:" part and simply post stuff. Whew, I feel better already.
Today started off with the updating of my blog since I had forgotten to update it in five days. Water aerobics followed that, then errands, reading and lunch at the Rock Creek Corner bar. Everyone will be fully unsurprised that I had fish and chips. After lunch, we ran a few more errands, then took the dogs out for a walk.
Buckley is a very excitable little dog. Today, the thing that excited him most was gross stuff on the ground. Some of his favorite gross things were: goose poop, duck food, melted candy canes, dog poop, and unidentifiable objects. The melted candy cane got him so excited that he ran under my foot as I was setting it down, which made me step on him pretty hard, accidentally. After that, my little buddy was on high placed choke chain and very short leash. I hated doing it, but it is the only way to calm him down when he gets "nose crazy". Those of you with hound dogs know exactly what that means.
Guitar practice came next, after the walk, and the dogs hung out with me while I played. I think they were less interested in music and more hopeful to be fed. but I took it as a compliment anyway. I'm getting better on the damned chords, but oh so slowly. I am now trying to read the really low notes (below middle C), which have always been hard for me to read. I'm sure using those notes will make them easier to read, eventually. I rarely got below a low B or A on the French horn.
Now, I'm typing my blog single-handedly, since Buckley is sitting on my left hand. Silly dog. Please forgive any typos. We'll finish watching the Peter O'Toole/Audrey Hepburn movie (How to Steal A Million) tonight, then off to bed.
Be happy and healthy!
Today started off with the updating of my blog since I had forgotten to update it in five days. Water aerobics followed that, then errands, reading and lunch at the Rock Creek Corner bar. Everyone will be fully unsurprised that I had fish and chips. After lunch, we ran a few more errands, then took the dogs out for a walk.
Buckley is a very excitable little dog. Today, the thing that excited him most was gross stuff on the ground. Some of his favorite gross things were: goose poop, duck food, melted candy canes, dog poop, and unidentifiable objects. The melted candy cane got him so excited that he ran under my foot as I was setting it down, which made me step on him pretty hard, accidentally. After that, my little buddy was on high placed choke chain and very short leash. I hated doing it, but it is the only way to calm him down when he gets "nose crazy". Those of you with hound dogs know exactly what that means.
Guitar practice came next, after the walk, and the dogs hung out with me while I played. I think they were less interested in music and more hopeful to be fed. but I took it as a compliment anyway. I'm getting better on the damned chords, but oh so slowly. I am now trying to read the really low notes (below middle C), which have always been hard for me to read. I'm sure using those notes will make them easier to read, eventually. I rarely got below a low B or A on the French horn.
Now, I'm typing my blog single-handedly, since Buckley is sitting on my left hand. Silly dog. Please forgive any typos. We'll finish watching the Peter O'Toole/Audrey Hepburn movie (How to Steal A Million) tonight, then off to bed.
Be happy and healthy!
Days 31-35: What the Heck Have I Been Doing?
Obviously, I have NOT been updating my blog. My goodness, what HAVE I been doing that would keep me away from my very important updates? Hmmmm... no clue, really. Let's see if I can back track and figure this all out. My last post was Wednesday, so we just have to go back in time and determine what happened from then to now. Everyone, load up in the Way Back Machine and awaaaaayyyyy we go!
Oh, now I remember. On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon with my brother and sister-in-law and I killed many brain cells by watching and exceptionally bad movie adaptation of The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones. While watching the movie, their kitten, Mingus - evil jazz kitty- tried to sit on my head. Oh, the movie was bad and the allergies were, too. I took 180 mg of Allegra so that I didn't die the evil kitty allergy death, so I managed to make it out alive, but oh... the movie was terrible.
Next day, I forgot to eat a decent breakfast before going to the pool and I crashed and burned oh so hard about 1/3 of the way into my workout. oops! I will not do that again. I really don't remember much of that day, so I'll bet that nothing much happened other than a huge lunch and a hike.
Friday was our water aerobics pot luck xmas party at the pool. It was fun. I met a lovely, silly lady named Viv Hall who told us about her xmas joke of "Decking the Halls", where her family pretends to hit each other in a photo every year. She was super goofy and loads of fun. That was the highlight on Friday, since my hair appointment was moved to Saturday.
I found a really good hair gal at the mall, quite by accident, while getting my car fixed a few months ago. For some reason, my appointment was moved from Friday at 11:30 am to Saturday at 5:30 pm (two Saturdays before xmas). It was crowded, but highly entertaining. I saw one man completely melt down. (We're leaving NOW. I am DONE with this HELL HOLE. NO, I don't want to sit somewhere and wait for you to finish. WE ARE FINISHED NOW and WE ARE LEAVING.) Hmmmmm... he seemed to have misplaced his xmas spirit.
I had plenty of spirit, after watching the Tuba Christmas Spectacular earlier in the day. We were at the Courthouse Square in downtown Portland and there were more than 270 tubas and euphoniums there, playing anything from Greensleeves to Carol of the Bells. It was great and not even too cold. The weather was quite friendly to us that day.
Let's see. What else happened? Yesterday was my first attempt at making beer cheese soup. Lesson learned: get a malty beer, not a hoppy beer. Hoppy beers are really, really, really, really bitter. Did I mention how bitter they are? They are ultra bitter. Brian, of course, has a thing for hoppy beer. ICK. So, even with some sugar added to the mix (which toned down the bitterness to a nice burnt cheese flavor) it was still not exactly what I was looking for. Next time I'll use Bass or something like that.
Peter O'Toole died yesterday. We didn't know that when we selected an old Peter O'Toole movie to watch last night. I don't remember the name of it, but it was with Audrey Hepburn about an art heist. Oh, he was so smooth and charming. What a cutie. If I remember, he is the person who said he wasn't an actor, he was a movie star! I think he may have been a bit of both.
Guitar practice is coming along, slowly. The chords are starting to sound more like music and less like dying plunks. My poor fingertips are still a mess between water aerobics, cold weather, guitar and dry skin. Ah well, I suppose I could say that I'm suffering for my art. I'm not, of course, but I could say it.
So that gets everyone caught up with the last 5 days. Sorry for missing so long.
Be happy and healthy!
Oh, now I remember. On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon with my brother and sister-in-law and I killed many brain cells by watching and exceptionally bad movie adaptation of The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones. While watching the movie, their kitten, Mingus - evil jazz kitty- tried to sit on my head. Oh, the movie was bad and the allergies were, too. I took 180 mg of Allegra so that I didn't die the evil kitty allergy death, so I managed to make it out alive, but oh... the movie was terrible.
Next day, I forgot to eat a decent breakfast before going to the pool and I crashed and burned oh so hard about 1/3 of the way into my workout. oops! I will not do that again. I really don't remember much of that day, so I'll bet that nothing much happened other than a huge lunch and a hike.
Friday was our water aerobics pot luck xmas party at the pool. It was fun. I met a lovely, silly lady named Viv Hall who told us about her xmas joke of "Decking the Halls", where her family pretends to hit each other in a photo every year. She was super goofy and loads of fun. That was the highlight on Friday, since my hair appointment was moved to Saturday.
I found a really good hair gal at the mall, quite by accident, while getting my car fixed a few months ago. For some reason, my appointment was moved from Friday at 11:30 am to Saturday at 5:30 pm (two Saturdays before xmas). It was crowded, but highly entertaining. I saw one man completely melt down. (We're leaving NOW. I am DONE with this HELL HOLE. NO, I don't want to sit somewhere and wait for you to finish. WE ARE FINISHED NOW and WE ARE LEAVING.) Hmmmmm... he seemed to have misplaced his xmas spirit.
I had plenty of spirit, after watching the Tuba Christmas Spectacular earlier in the day. We were at the Courthouse Square in downtown Portland and there were more than 270 tubas and euphoniums there, playing anything from Greensleeves to Carol of the Bells. It was great and not even too cold. The weather was quite friendly to us that day.
Let's see. What else happened? Yesterday was my first attempt at making beer cheese soup. Lesson learned: get a malty beer, not a hoppy beer. Hoppy beers are really, really, really, really bitter. Did I mention how bitter they are? They are ultra bitter. Brian, of course, has a thing for hoppy beer. ICK. So, even with some sugar added to the mix (which toned down the bitterness to a nice burnt cheese flavor) it was still not exactly what I was looking for. Next time I'll use Bass or something like that.
Peter O'Toole died yesterday. We didn't know that when we selected an old Peter O'Toole movie to watch last night. I don't remember the name of it, but it was with Audrey Hepburn about an art heist. Oh, he was so smooth and charming. What a cutie. If I remember, he is the person who said he wasn't an actor, he was a movie star! I think he may have been a bit of both.
Guitar practice is coming along, slowly. The chords are starting to sound more like music and less like dying plunks. My poor fingertips are still a mess between water aerobics, cold weather, guitar and dry skin. Ah well, I suppose I could say that I'm suffering for my art. I'm not, of course, but I could say it.
So that gets everyone caught up with the last 5 days. Sorry for missing so long.
Be happy and healthy!
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Days 29 and 30: Very Busy and Important
We made a rosemary/apple pie with a cheddar crust last night, Brian and I. When I asked him if he would let the dogs in while I was peeling the apples, he said that he was much too busy and important to do such a menial task. Later, when I asked him to roll out the pie crust, once again, he was much too busy and important to assist (even though, in this instance, he did roll out the crust). So, for the rest of the night, we were all much too busy and important for... well, whatever. Of course, once the pie was out of the oven, we were all free and fully available to enjoy the pie, which was, quite tasty.
Chords have been giving me the biggest amount of trouble with my guitar practice. That, and the fact that I can't seem to keep the guitar held comfortably or still. Today's lesson focused on those two things. Danny, my instructor, gave me some really helpful tips on chords, including a tip to build the chord from the 4th finger to the 1st finger, rather than the other way. Who'd have thought it would make such a difference. He also gave me several positions to try out for sitting with the guitar. It turns out that if the guitar slips around while you are (I am) playing it, your (my) fingers lose track of where everything is. Once I had the guitar situated snugly, my fingering instantly improved. Go figure. I left today's lesson feeling really good.
The other fun thing about today's lesson was learning yet another new technique. It is called hammering and is accompanied by something that might be called a pull off (might not... I learned a lot of new things today and now my brain is unsuccessfully trying to recall all of them). Anyway, you use just the hand that is on the neck of the guitar (left hand) to make the sounds, rather than strumming with the right hand. I pretty fully suck at it at the moment, but practicing it should help my fingers get stronger, which will help with, oh pretty much every part of my guitar practice.
In other news, Portland is still in the grips of a massive winter crazy season. I know, our weather doesn't compare with anyone else in the country (except that we're super cold) but it is monumental to Portland-ites. We had snow drifting in banks up to 1/2 an inch. Ice forming impassible lakes in the gutters of the streets, and even a flake or two that fell in the middle of the day. Literally, I saw two flakes fall yesterday afternoon. We Portlanders have a real concern because so often, the precipitation that falls in frigid temperatures is not snow, but ice. I don't care where you live, ice is really dangerous. But luckily, the ice never showed and our light dusting of snow made the roads pretty, not messy.
Happily, the frozen tundra-like conditions did not cancel water aerobics today. I did shallow water again (for the second time since I started) and really enjoyed it. The workout is very different, and my body hurts in all new ways. Woo hoo. Actually, my arms have been aching since Saturday's massive arm workout, then the class yesterday and today were both all about arms, too. Yowza. They want a break.
Speaking of learning new ways to be more effective, the instructor gave us a new visualization to help with abdominal work. Instead of simply focusing on the movement of legs and chest when doing crunches in the water, she had us imagine that there was a large sponge on our stomachs and that we were squeezing the water out of the sponge every time we did a crunch. Holy cow! That was MIGHTY effective and my muscles are aware of their workout.
In other news, Monday was my second phone interview with Kaiser and it turns out that I'm back in the running for the manager position, as well as the consultant. The manager is more about strategy and the consultant role is more about implementation. I enjoy both parts, although given the choice, I'd pick the more strategic role if offered. Either way, the more I hear about the jobs and the team and their plans... the more I'd like to be a part of it. Wish me luck.
One final thing. I forgot to publish the blog last night, so I can add a line from this morning. We experienced "freezing fog" here today. The fog descended while we were in the pool and when we came out, the parking lot had a layer of frozen fog on it. It was slightly slippery to walk on, with no impact to driving, but it looked really cool. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it.
Be happy and healthy!
Chords have been giving me the biggest amount of trouble with my guitar practice. That, and the fact that I can't seem to keep the guitar held comfortably or still. Today's lesson focused on those two things. Danny, my instructor, gave me some really helpful tips on chords, including a tip to build the chord from the 4th finger to the 1st finger, rather than the other way. Who'd have thought it would make such a difference. He also gave me several positions to try out for sitting with the guitar. It turns out that if the guitar slips around while you are (I am) playing it, your (my) fingers lose track of where everything is. Once I had the guitar situated snugly, my fingering instantly improved. Go figure. I left today's lesson feeling really good.
The other fun thing about today's lesson was learning yet another new technique. It is called hammering and is accompanied by something that might be called a pull off (might not... I learned a lot of new things today and now my brain is unsuccessfully trying to recall all of them). Anyway, you use just the hand that is on the neck of the guitar (left hand) to make the sounds, rather than strumming with the right hand. I pretty fully suck at it at the moment, but practicing it should help my fingers get stronger, which will help with, oh pretty much every part of my guitar practice.
In other news, Portland is still in the grips of a massive winter crazy season. I know, our weather doesn't compare with anyone else in the country (except that we're super cold) but it is monumental to Portland-ites. We had snow drifting in banks up to 1/2 an inch. Ice forming impassible lakes in the gutters of the streets, and even a flake or two that fell in the middle of the day. Literally, I saw two flakes fall yesterday afternoon. We Portlanders have a real concern because so often, the precipitation that falls in frigid temperatures is not snow, but ice. I don't care where you live, ice is really dangerous. But luckily, the ice never showed and our light dusting of snow made the roads pretty, not messy.
Happily, the frozen tundra-like conditions did not cancel water aerobics today. I did shallow water again (for the second time since I started) and really enjoyed it. The workout is very different, and my body hurts in all new ways. Woo hoo. Actually, my arms have been aching since Saturday's massive arm workout, then the class yesterday and today were both all about arms, too. Yowza. They want a break.
Speaking of learning new ways to be more effective, the instructor gave us a new visualization to help with abdominal work. Instead of simply focusing on the movement of legs and chest when doing crunches in the water, she had us imagine that there was a large sponge on our stomachs and that we were squeezing the water out of the sponge every time we did a crunch. Holy cow! That was MIGHTY effective and my muscles are aware of their workout.
In other news, Monday was my second phone interview with Kaiser and it turns out that I'm back in the running for the manager position, as well as the consultant. The manager is more about strategy and the consultant role is more about implementation. I enjoy both parts, although given the choice, I'd pick the more strategic role if offered. Either way, the more I hear about the jobs and the team and their plans... the more I'd like to be a part of it. Wish me luck.
One final thing. I forgot to publish the blog last night, so I can add a line from this morning. We experienced "freezing fog" here today. The fog descended while we were in the pool and when we came out, the parking lot had a layer of frozen fog on it. It was slightly slippery to walk on, with no impact to driving, but it looked really cool. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it.
Be happy and healthy!
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Days 27 & 28: Portland, Unheated
I had a very full and fun weekend. Saturday morning, I went to a new water aerobics class (new to me) at a pool I had not yet visited. It was about 20 degrees outside, so imagine my shock, surprise and delight when I jumped in to a pool that was close to 100 degrees. Imagine my red face 30 minutes later as I got pretty darned hot from exercising in a warm pool. Still, it was so nice to not be cold in a Portland venue. Later that night, we attended a Rose City Roller Girls bout at the Veterans Memorial Colosseum and it couldn't have been more than 50 degrees inside. Brrrrr. Today, we attended a play and it couldn't have been more than 60 degrees in the theater. I'm beginning to think that Portland heaters are having a tough time working against all of this record breaking cold. At this moment, I'm sitting quite comfortably in front of a gas fireplace, along with my dogs, who are also enjoying the warmth.
To make matters even colder, we got up this morning to participate in the Jingle Bell Run (walk) downtown in the windy waterfront district, where is was a whopping 10 degrees. BRRRRRRRR. Seriously, even my Ohio friends will agree that 10 is cold. I had on 2 pairs of wool socks, wool long underwear (top and bottoms), fleece lined running pants, a long sleeved high tech fabric running shirt, a down jacket, a fleece lined hat with neck and ear flaps, a Santa hat, a long scarf and some gloves. Oh yes, and a couple of jingling bells. We made that walk in record time! OK, maybe not record, but we clocked in at 54 minutes, which at a fun run, is pretty quick walking, especially considering how many people you have to scoot around in the first mile to be able to make any time. By then end of the walk, both hats were soaked with sweat and my toes were almost thawed.
I forgot to practice the guitar yesterday (the middle of my day was taken up with a visit to St. Helens, OR to attend a TGIO (Thank Goodness It's Over) celebration for NaNoWriMo), so I got up early today to practice. I had a small breakthrough when my chords only sort of sucked, instead of being horrific. Hooray! I'll try to practice again tonight. My fingertips are still a bit sore. Between the water aerobics, the cold weather, the guitar and my constant dry skin, my fingertips are taking a beating. That is OK, though, I'm having a good time.
I will be in bed early tonight. With all of the activity of the last couple of days, my sleep patterns are a bit off. Between getting good sleep and having a good food day tomorrow, I will be right back on track.
Be happy and healthy!!!
To make matters even colder, we got up this morning to participate in the Jingle Bell Run (walk) downtown in the windy waterfront district, where is was a whopping 10 degrees. BRRRRRRRR. Seriously, even my Ohio friends will agree that 10 is cold. I had on 2 pairs of wool socks, wool long underwear (top and bottoms), fleece lined running pants, a long sleeved high tech fabric running shirt, a down jacket, a fleece lined hat with neck and ear flaps, a Santa hat, a long scarf and some gloves. Oh yes, and a couple of jingling bells. We made that walk in record time! OK, maybe not record, but we clocked in at 54 minutes, which at a fun run, is pretty quick walking, especially considering how many people you have to scoot around in the first mile to be able to make any time. By then end of the walk, both hats were soaked with sweat and my toes were almost thawed.
I forgot to practice the guitar yesterday (the middle of my day was taken up with a visit to St. Helens, OR to attend a TGIO (Thank Goodness It's Over) celebration for NaNoWriMo), so I got up early today to practice. I had a small breakthrough when my chords only sort of sucked, instead of being horrific. Hooray! I'll try to practice again tonight. My fingertips are still a bit sore. Between the water aerobics, the cold weather, the guitar and my constant dry skin, my fingertips are taking a beating. That is OK, though, I'm having a good time.
I will be in bed early tonight. With all of the activity of the last couple of days, my sleep patterns are a bit off. Between getting good sleep and having a good food day tomorrow, I will be right back on track.
Be happy and healthy!!!
Friday, December 6, 2013
Days 25 & 26: Brrrrrrrrrr.....
A crazy winter storm is racing across the country, dumping ice and freezing rain on the heads of people from Texas to Maine. Meanwhile, in the PNW (Pacific Northwest, for those of you not from around here) it is COLD. The high for the week was 33 degrees, and that was on Tuesday. Tonight, it is going down in the single digits. So, as I said in the title... Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Getting to water aerobics this morning was pretty entertaining. I left a couple of minutes early, since there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, but, foolish me.... I thought it would be a relatively normal day of driving. WRONG. It took me about 50 minutes to go the three miles from our house to the pool. I only left 20 minutes before class started, so we got there about 30 minutes after class started. Boo. Ah, well, 30 minutes of water aerobics is better than none, especially since I followed it up with 10 minutes of "aqua jogging".
Today, everyone did shallow aerobics since so few folks showed up. By the time I got there, they were working with the noodles, which are long, Styrofoam floatation devices. Most of the time was spent sitting on them or having them behind our back, but in one instance, she had us kneel on them in the water. Those of you who have spent more than 30 seconds with me know what a klutz I am. I was seriously falling off the noodle in the pool. THEN, she wanted us to go from kneeling on the noodle (funny to say and hear!) to sitting on the noodle, and back again... over and over. Yeah. That never happened for me. I was, of course, cracking myself up completely, and laughing uproariously, but these folks are used to that by now and they simply ignored me.
Buckley has become a permanent fixture in front of the fireplace. He won't even sit on my lap, because I'm not warm enough for him. I'm going through dog on the lap withdrawal. Brian and I had to stop by the animal shelter to update Buckley's rabies information (he got his shot last week) and I seriously thought about picking up a new puppy since my lap is empty. Shockingly, Brian said no thank you. He thought that Buckley might not like it. Go figure.
Yesterday we went over to the Columbia Sportswear Employee Store and bought bunches of stuff for 1/2 price. I'm kicking myself today for not buying the super insulated pink Sorel boots that I admired. When I decided not to buy them, my thought was, "how often will it be cold enough to need these?" Um, it was cold enough today and will be cold enough tomorrow, too. What was I thinking?
Good thoughts go out to my lovely friend, the lovely Margaret. She is going through some health problems that are a bit stressful, especially on top of the other chronic disease she deals with daily. Best wishes for a very speedy and safe recovery. BIG LOVE to you, Lovely Margaret.
One final bit of news. I found out yesterday that the Kaiser Manager position got reopened and I may be reconsidered. I'm talking to someone about it on Monday, so everyone keep your fingers crossed and think good getting-hired thoughts for me. Even if I'm not considered for the manager, I'm still in the running for the consultant position, but without a manager to hire me, I'm not sure how that will work.
Be happy and healthy!!!
Getting to water aerobics this morning was pretty entertaining. I left a couple of minutes early, since there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, but, foolish me.... I thought it would be a relatively normal day of driving. WRONG. It took me about 50 minutes to go the three miles from our house to the pool. I only left 20 minutes before class started, so we got there about 30 minutes after class started. Boo. Ah, well, 30 minutes of water aerobics is better than none, especially since I followed it up with 10 minutes of "aqua jogging".
Today, everyone did shallow aerobics since so few folks showed up. By the time I got there, they were working with the noodles, which are long, Styrofoam floatation devices. Most of the time was spent sitting on them or having them behind our back, but in one instance, she had us kneel on them in the water. Those of you who have spent more than 30 seconds with me know what a klutz I am. I was seriously falling off the noodle in the pool. THEN, she wanted us to go from kneeling on the noodle (funny to say and hear!) to sitting on the noodle, and back again... over and over. Yeah. That never happened for me. I was, of course, cracking myself up completely, and laughing uproariously, but these folks are used to that by now and they simply ignored me.
Buckley has become a permanent fixture in front of the fireplace. He won't even sit on my lap, because I'm not warm enough for him. I'm going through dog on the lap withdrawal. Brian and I had to stop by the animal shelter to update Buckley's rabies information (he got his shot last week) and I seriously thought about picking up a new puppy since my lap is empty. Shockingly, Brian said no thank you. He thought that Buckley might not like it. Go figure.
Yesterday we went over to the Columbia Sportswear Employee Store and bought bunches of stuff for 1/2 price. I'm kicking myself today for not buying the super insulated pink Sorel boots that I admired. When I decided not to buy them, my thought was, "how often will it be cold enough to need these?" Um, it was cold enough today and will be cold enough tomorrow, too. What was I thinking?
Good thoughts go out to my lovely friend, the lovely Margaret. She is going through some health problems that are a bit stressful, especially on top of the other chronic disease she deals with daily. Best wishes for a very speedy and safe recovery. BIG LOVE to you, Lovely Margaret.
One final bit of news. I found out yesterday that the Kaiser Manager position got reopened and I may be reconsidered. I'm talking to someone about it on Monday, so everyone keep your fingers crossed and think good getting-hired thoughts for me. Even if I'm not considered for the manager, I'm still in the running for the consultant position, but without a manager to hire me, I'm not sure how that will work.
Be happy and healthy!!!
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Day ... I have no clue what day it is
I woke up this morning determined to do a better job on the guitar today. I practiced my new exercises for the first 30 minutes of the day, until my muscles were kind of sore. A few minutes ago, 12 hours later, I practiced again. Damn, but those chords are elusive. I'm getting better at notes, scales and finding the 2nd string. So that is a real win. But, curse those chords. Perhaps tomorrow they will be better.
We had flights of drinking chocolate today. Oh my! Dark chocolate, milk chocolate with cinnamon, and Mexican dark chocolate. The first two were my favorite. I'm still a bit hyped up from all of the sugar and caffeine. But it was gorgeous. The Portland original that sells these delicious drinks is a place called Cacao. Brilliant!
Just listening to the happy sounds of the Great Brittan Ukulele Orchestra. Very entertaining. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, I posted it. Go check it out.
OK, I'm done for the day.
Be happy and healthy!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Day 23: Guitar Updates
I went to my guitar lesson today, as promised. My instructor is a very cool and calm fellow named Danny Oakes, who has been teaching guitar for years and years. I told him about my water logged finger epiphany, that one should wait a couple of hours after soaking in a pool before trying to play the guitar, and he thought that might be prudent. I told him about my challenges with spreading my fingers out and he gave me a couple of exercises. I told him about my challenges finding all of the damned strings, and he gave me a couple of other exercises. I told him about my challenges with getting the chords right consistently, and he gave me yet another exercise. Then, worried about all of the exercises, he gave me Jingle Bells to learn. It was pretty funny. Interestingly, Jingle Bells is really similar to Ode to Joy. Go figure. So, practice, practice, practice.
Water aerobics is still kicking my butt, but in a really good way. I had to buy a new suit today because the one I was wearing is worn incredibly thin. I'm worried it will fall apart soon. The new suit has quite a bit more fabric in the fabric areas. I look forward to wearing it tomorrow.
Our instructors vary greatly from day to day. The best of our current crew is the substitute for the guy who broke his toe. Her name is Lisa and she gives an amazing workout. The new gal, Ashly, is very new and not terribly consistent. Monday's workout was not well planned and most of the ladies in my class ended up doing their own thing since the instructor didn't change up the exercises very often. We'll see how she does tomorrow. If her class isn't very good then, I may switch to the shallow aerobics or go to the other pool.
Let's see... what else to share... hmmm.... Oh yeah, I GOT A CALL BACK on the Kaiser Permanente job that I thought I didn't get. I guess the rejection email was for the manager job that I had already been told that I didn't get. So tomorrow I get to schedule a phone interview. Wish me luck. I really want this job - it is a Leadership Training Consultant and I'd be perfect for it, and I think KP would be perfect for me. Fingers crossed, everyone.
Finally, a movie review: Philomena, with Steve Coogan and Judy Dench. It was excellent, as if it could possibly be anything else. I loved it. I liked the flashbacks, I liked the fact that it was based on a true story, I liked the chemistry between the main characters, and I liked the supporting cast. The only thing I didn't like about it was the guy sitting next to me trying to clear his throat with some amazing maneuvers, including sounding like he was trying to start a steam engine. That was a bit distracting, but the movie managed to make me ignore even that. Like I said, it was a really good movie.
That is all of the news for the day.
Be happy and healthy!
Water aerobics is still kicking my butt, but in a really good way. I had to buy a new suit today because the one I was wearing is worn incredibly thin. I'm worried it will fall apart soon. The new suit has quite a bit more fabric in the fabric areas. I look forward to wearing it tomorrow.
Our instructors vary greatly from day to day. The best of our current crew is the substitute for the guy who broke his toe. Her name is Lisa and she gives an amazing workout. The new gal, Ashly, is very new and not terribly consistent. Monday's workout was not well planned and most of the ladies in my class ended up doing their own thing since the instructor didn't change up the exercises very often. We'll see how she does tomorrow. If her class isn't very good then, I may switch to the shallow aerobics or go to the other pool.
Let's see... what else to share... hmmm.... Oh yeah, I GOT A CALL BACK on the Kaiser Permanente job that I thought I didn't get. I guess the rejection email was for the manager job that I had already been told that I didn't get. So tomorrow I get to schedule a phone interview. Wish me luck. I really want this job - it is a Leadership Training Consultant and I'd be perfect for it, and I think KP would be perfect for me. Fingers crossed, everyone.
Finally, a movie review: Philomena, with Steve Coogan and Judy Dench. It was excellent, as if it could possibly be anything else. I loved it. I liked the flashbacks, I liked the fact that it was based on a true story, I liked the chemistry between the main characters, and I liked the supporting cast. The only thing I didn't like about it was the guy sitting next to me trying to clear his throat with some amazing maneuvers, including sounding like he was trying to start a steam engine. That was a bit distracting, but the movie managed to make me ignore even that. Like I said, it was a really good movie.
That is all of the news for the day.
Be happy and healthy!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Days 21 and 22: From Slug to Butterfly
I know that slugs don't really turn into butterflies, but yesterday, I was a complete and total slug. The only time I got up was to eat, and I'm not sure if I left a trail of slime or not. I did make a mean turkey pot pie, but even there, Brian did all the chopping. Slug. I practiced the guitar a couple of times, but since I have no fingertip stamina, I don't think it really counts as actually doing something. Slug. I thought about going to water aerobics at 10 am, but I didn't. Slug.
Today, on the other hand, was highly productive. I started at 5:00 am. Part of that was because I had crazy foot cramps for much of the night, so at 5:00, I couldn't take it anymore and I got up. Once up, I started surfing for jobs. There is still not a whole lot out there, but I figure something will show up at some point. By 7:15, I remembered that it was time for water aerobics, so I had a banana, a potassium pill and a great big glass of water to try to stop the foot cramps, and went to class. I was mildly successful. The first 30 minutes were cramp free, but by 45 minutes in, my left foot was in such pain I had to get out of the pool. After a hot shower and putting shoes on, it was mostly better.
On the way home, I stopped and got an 8 GB memory stick so that I could make copies at FedEx (Kinko's) without having to pay to send it to them directly. It saves about $.20 per page, so after a few pages, it is worth it. I also had been meaning to pick one up, so it wasn't just about the copies. Can you believe that an 8 GB stick cost $8? Be historical with me for a minute. First off, it wasn't too many years ago that our 2 GB computer (now fried) was touted as more memory than you could imagine needing. Now 2 GB is nothing. Less than nothing. Of course, the 2 GB memory sticks in the shape of penguins, super heroes, South Park characters, etc. costs more than the plain black 8 GB product that I purchased, but still. Secondly, $8.00!!! What a deal.
There was a Barnes and Nobles right next door, so I perused the young adult fiction section. There were love stories, teenaged angst stories, fantasy stories, and of course, the supernatural teenaged stories (vampires, etc.). There were no books about well adjusted kids doing interesting things with nice people. So, either I'm filling a much needed niche, or there is no way in hell that I'll get published. Since my title is Optimistic, I think I'll take that approach. We'll see how it goes. I've now printed out all 97 pages (12 point font, 8 1/2 x 11 paper, regular spacing) and plan on reading it tomorrow, then start editing after that.
After making copies, I popped over to Trader Joe's for some quick groceries, then back home to make an awesome pizza. The toppings included: mild Italian sausage (just a touch), onions, peppers, zucchini, spinach, raw tomatoes, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. It was quite delicious. It had so many toppings on there that we could only eat one slice each, so there are left overs. We also had a green salad on the side. Excellent lunch.
I practiced my guitar for a while once my lunch settled. I'm getting more comfortable with individual notes, but chords and moving from string to string is really hard. I decided not to postpone my lesson for tomorrow, but instead to ask the instructor to give me some help with finger placement, finger stretching, and strumming. Those things are giving me loads of trouble. My clever (smartypants) sister suggest I practice patting my head and rubbing my belly simultaneously to get some improved coordination. Hmmm.
Our hike today started at the same place that we have for the past several days, but took a one mile detour down a new and absolutely beautiful trail. Love it! The next trail head in that direction is 7 miles away from the one we've been using, so we're planning on taking two cars and parking on either end. You know, I could hike 14 miles in one trip, but I really don't want to.
So that is my vastly different last couple of days.
Be happy and healthy!
Today, on the other hand, was highly productive. I started at 5:00 am. Part of that was because I had crazy foot cramps for much of the night, so at 5:00, I couldn't take it anymore and I got up. Once up, I started surfing for jobs. There is still not a whole lot out there, but I figure something will show up at some point. By 7:15, I remembered that it was time for water aerobics, so I had a banana, a potassium pill and a great big glass of water to try to stop the foot cramps, and went to class. I was mildly successful. The first 30 minutes were cramp free, but by 45 minutes in, my left foot was in such pain I had to get out of the pool. After a hot shower and putting shoes on, it was mostly better.
On the way home, I stopped and got an 8 GB memory stick so that I could make copies at FedEx (Kinko's) without having to pay to send it to them directly. It saves about $.20 per page, so after a few pages, it is worth it. I also had been meaning to pick one up, so it wasn't just about the copies. Can you believe that an 8 GB stick cost $8? Be historical with me for a minute. First off, it wasn't too many years ago that our 2 GB computer (now fried) was touted as more memory than you could imagine needing. Now 2 GB is nothing. Less than nothing. Of course, the 2 GB memory sticks in the shape of penguins, super heroes, South Park characters, etc. costs more than the plain black 8 GB product that I purchased, but still. Secondly, $8.00!!! What a deal.
There was a Barnes and Nobles right next door, so I perused the young adult fiction section. There were love stories, teenaged angst stories, fantasy stories, and of course, the supernatural teenaged stories (vampires, etc.). There were no books about well adjusted kids doing interesting things with nice people. So, either I'm filling a much needed niche, or there is no way in hell that I'll get published. Since my title is Optimistic, I think I'll take that approach. We'll see how it goes. I've now printed out all 97 pages (12 point font, 8 1/2 x 11 paper, regular spacing) and plan on reading it tomorrow, then start editing after that.
After making copies, I popped over to Trader Joe's for some quick groceries, then back home to make an awesome pizza. The toppings included: mild Italian sausage (just a touch), onions, peppers, zucchini, spinach, raw tomatoes, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. It was quite delicious. It had so many toppings on there that we could only eat one slice each, so there are left overs. We also had a green salad on the side. Excellent lunch.
I practiced my guitar for a while once my lunch settled. I'm getting more comfortable with individual notes, but chords and moving from string to string is really hard. I decided not to postpone my lesson for tomorrow, but instead to ask the instructor to give me some help with finger placement, finger stretching, and strumming. Those things are giving me loads of trouble. My clever (smartypants) sister suggest I practice patting my head and rubbing my belly simultaneously to get some improved coordination. Hmmm.
Our hike today started at the same place that we have for the past several days, but took a one mile detour down a new and absolutely beautiful trail. Love it! The next trail head in that direction is 7 miles away from the one we've been using, so we're planning on taking two cars and parking on either end. You know, I could hike 14 miles in one trip, but I really don't want to.
So that is my vastly different last couple of days.
Be happy and healthy!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Days 18-20: Where Did The Time Go?
Wow, it has been a big three days. I finished my novel, made and ate Thanksgiving dinner, took my first shallow water aqua aerobics class, and waited for my fingertips to heal enough so that I can practice the guitar again. I'll start with that last one.
I made a rookie mistake. I came home from water aerobics on Wednesday and practiced the guitar for about 20 minutes. I didn't think about my fingers being water logged and extra soft. All I thought about was wanting to be able to play guitar. Yep, rookie mistake. I couldn't touch the strings on Thursday or Friday with my left hand. I'll practice tonight before I go to bed, but I think I need to push back my lessons for another week to give myself time to practice before going back to see the teacher. I am nowhere near through the exercises he assigned, especially with two days without practice.
Moving backwards... Thanksgiving. We had a really nice dinner this year. It was just Brian, Marty and me, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We had turkey, dressing (loaded with vegetables), sweet potatoes, green beans sauteed with garlic, cornbread, pumpkin pie and salted caramel chocolate pecan pie. It was all quite delicious. Just as dinner was finishing, my sister called from the assisted living place where my mom is staying and I got to talk to my mom for Thanksgiving. That may have been the best part of the day. Her Alzheimer's has been causing her to have awful delusions and we weren't able to talk to her for several weeks. My sister and I hated it, but we didn't want to cause my mom even more distress. I am NOT thankful for Alzheimer's. It sucks. I am thankful to have an awesome sister who made sure to include me on Mom's good day.
Continuing backwards, I finished the first draft of my novel: Optimistic. It is a slice of life story about a teen boy who gets a bag of poop from his parents for Christmas, and it turns out to be the start of a garden. I think it is pretty readable. My next step is to read the whole thing and start editing. I'm going to see how far I can take it. Wish me luck.
Oh, I skipped the part about shallow water aerobics. I did that on the Friday after Thanksgiving. My pool was closed, so I went to the next pool over, where they had the shallow water workout. It was really fun and a great aerobic workout. The teacher was peppy and really helpful when folks weren't sure about the movements. She also did the best stretching of any class I've attended, both before and after the class. I gave her class two thumbs up and I worked extremely hard.
Today's big events were getting Christmas cards out and watching college football. I sent 80 cards (including a Christmas letter), each with a handwritten note. I think about what I like to get in Christmas cards, then send that kind of thing out to others. Also, we have moved so many times in the past few years, I just want folks to know where I am and what is going on. Hopefully, I'll get similar information back from all of my friends.
So, that is what I've been up to for the last several days. I hope your holiday was festive, happy and filling.
Be happy and healthy!
I made a rookie mistake. I came home from water aerobics on Wednesday and practiced the guitar for about 20 minutes. I didn't think about my fingers being water logged and extra soft. All I thought about was wanting to be able to play guitar. Yep, rookie mistake. I couldn't touch the strings on Thursday or Friday with my left hand. I'll practice tonight before I go to bed, but I think I need to push back my lessons for another week to give myself time to practice before going back to see the teacher. I am nowhere near through the exercises he assigned, especially with two days without practice.
Moving backwards... Thanksgiving. We had a really nice dinner this year. It was just Brian, Marty and me, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We had turkey, dressing (loaded with vegetables), sweet potatoes, green beans sauteed with garlic, cornbread, pumpkin pie and salted caramel chocolate pecan pie. It was all quite delicious. Just as dinner was finishing, my sister called from the assisted living place where my mom is staying and I got to talk to my mom for Thanksgiving. That may have been the best part of the day. Her Alzheimer's has been causing her to have awful delusions and we weren't able to talk to her for several weeks. My sister and I hated it, but we didn't want to cause my mom even more distress. I am NOT thankful for Alzheimer's. It sucks. I am thankful to have an awesome sister who made sure to include me on Mom's good day.
Continuing backwards, I finished the first draft of my novel: Optimistic. It is a slice of life story about a teen boy who gets a bag of poop from his parents for Christmas, and it turns out to be the start of a garden. I think it is pretty readable. My next step is to read the whole thing and start editing. I'm going to see how far I can take it. Wish me luck.
Oh, I skipped the part about shallow water aerobics. I did that on the Friday after Thanksgiving. My pool was closed, so I went to the next pool over, where they had the shallow water workout. It was really fun and a great aerobic workout. The teacher was peppy and really helpful when folks weren't sure about the movements. She also did the best stretching of any class I've attended, both before and after the class. I gave her class two thumbs up and I worked extremely hard.
Today's big events were getting Christmas cards out and watching college football. I sent 80 cards (including a Christmas letter), each with a handwritten note. I think about what I like to get in Christmas cards, then send that kind of thing out to others. Also, we have moved so many times in the past few years, I just want folks to know where I am and what is going on. Hopefully, I'll get similar information back from all of my friends.
So, that is what I've been up to for the last several days. I hope your holiday was festive, happy and filling.
Be happy and healthy!
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Day 17: OW! My fingers hurt.
Today was a very full day. I got up around 5 am and started writing. I had skipped yesterday because I was so tired, so I had word counts to improve. I wrote about 2000 words before leaving for water aerobics at 7:30. We are still loving water aerobics. Brian makes the attempt to join me and he is successful about every other time. Every session works every muscle and I can both feel and see my body getting stronger and less jiggly. With the daily hikes/dog walks on top of the water aerobics, I'm feeling really good, if slightly tired from all of the activity.
I started to make a bowl of cereal when we got home, but unfortunately, the shelf the cereal was on fell down, scraping the top of my right foot, but causing very little hurt. Marty was kind enough to grab an ice pack for me, which kept the swelling and bruising down, and Brian picked up the stuff that fell on the floor. I kept my foot elevated for the next 20 minutes or so, just in case. I was able to go for a hike several hours later, so no harm done. Brian rehung the shelf and we went on with our day.
Today was my first full guitar practice. Without any whining in my voice, I can truly say that it is difficult for me to learn. The strings are close together and difficult to discern without looking, my fingers aren't sure they want to stretch far enough to reach the frets for note changes, and even strumming is tricky for me. This is why I'm taking lessons, so that I can learn how to do all of these things. BUT, they take practice. And this is where the whining starts. My fingers hurt! I can only practice for about 15 minutes, then my finger tips are out of commission for the rest of the day. Yikes! Today, I played 3 notes OK and 3 notes poorly. SIX notes of learning was all my sad fingers were up for. Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Whining is done for now.
In preparation for Thanksgiving, we made pies this afternoon. Brian was kind enough to make the crusts for me while I whipped up the pie innards. The two pies are: Salted Caramel Pecan Chocolate Pie and Pumpkin Pie. The one with the long name is from the front cover of last month's Southern Living magazine and looks kind of like the cover. The pumpkin pie recipe is from McCormicks spices and was stupid easy to make. We'll see how they are tomorrow. I made cranberry sauce last week, so now all the sweet stuff is done. Everything else gets cooked tomorrow.
Before the pie-a-thon, we took the dogs for a walk in Forest Park again. I love that place. We can walk there for years without getting bored with it, I believe. It hasn't rained for awhile, which makes it much easier to walk and less muddy for the dogs. I like it! Of course, I like it when it rains, too, so make of that what you will.
I think I'll try to get in another hour or so of my book tonight. I still haven't come up with a name for my hero, so my sister started calling him Little Opti. The name seems to have stuck. Now Brian and Marty and I all refer to him that way. Who knows, maybe he'll never have a name. We'll see.
Be happy and healthy!
I started to make a bowl of cereal when we got home, but unfortunately, the shelf the cereal was on fell down, scraping the top of my right foot, but causing very little hurt. Marty was kind enough to grab an ice pack for me, which kept the swelling and bruising down, and Brian picked up the stuff that fell on the floor. I kept my foot elevated for the next 20 minutes or so, just in case. I was able to go for a hike several hours later, so no harm done. Brian rehung the shelf and we went on with our day.
Today was my first full guitar practice. Without any whining in my voice, I can truly say that it is difficult for me to learn. The strings are close together and difficult to discern without looking, my fingers aren't sure they want to stretch far enough to reach the frets for note changes, and even strumming is tricky for me. This is why I'm taking lessons, so that I can learn how to do all of these things. BUT, they take practice. And this is where the whining starts. My fingers hurt! I can only practice for about 15 minutes, then my finger tips are out of commission for the rest of the day. Yikes! Today, I played 3 notes OK and 3 notes poorly. SIX notes of learning was all my sad fingers were up for. Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Whining is done for now.
In preparation for Thanksgiving, we made pies this afternoon. Brian was kind enough to make the crusts for me while I whipped up the pie innards. The two pies are: Salted Caramel Pecan Chocolate Pie and Pumpkin Pie. The one with the long name is from the front cover of last month's Southern Living magazine and looks kind of like the cover. The pumpkin pie recipe is from McCormicks spices and was stupid easy to make. We'll see how they are tomorrow. I made cranberry sauce last week, so now all the sweet stuff is done. Everything else gets cooked tomorrow.
Before the pie-a-thon, we took the dogs for a walk in Forest Park again. I love that place. We can walk there for years without getting bored with it, I believe. It hasn't rained for awhile, which makes it much easier to walk and less muddy for the dogs. I like it! Of course, I like it when it rains, too, so make of that what you will.
I think I'll try to get in another hour or so of my book tonight. I still haven't come up with a name for my hero, so my sister started calling him Little Opti. The name seems to have stuck. Now Brian and Marty and I all refer to him that way. Who knows, maybe he'll never have a name. We'll see.
Be happy and healthy!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Day 16: Guitar Hero
I took my first guitar lesson today. My sister gave me a guitar for my 40th birthday and now, six years later, I am finally taking lessons. The lesson was 30 minutes long and chock fill of information. I played a few notes and a couple of chords, and now, the fingertips on my left hand hurt. My right hand never really figured out what it needed to do, so it feels fine. I figure it will be a bit touchy once I learn how to strum.
Essentially, the lesson was designed to give me an overview and some guidelines, then send me home to practice on my own. Since my finger tips are so soft, I will probably only be able to practice 10-15 minutes in one sitting, and maybe as much as two sittings in a day. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying hard to learn by feel, rather than sight, since looking at the strings puts your guitar in a bad position relative to your fingers. Or so said Danny, my instructor. More details later.
Now, more about my new laptop. It is really small and light, yet just as powerful as our regular sized laptop. It is Windows 8, which takes a bit of getting used to, but since I've used a tablet for a few years now, it is very similar to that. I love the fact that there is a keyboard, a mouse pad and a touch screen, so you can go back and forth between them, depending on what you are doing. Love it! Also, when Buckley sits on me while I'm working on this, it is much less aggravating then when he sits on me with the larger laptop. I guess because the smaller one is easier to balance. Hooray for the new laptop!!!
My finger tips are a little sore, but I have a couple of thousand words to type in my story. Before I go, I have to share dinner. Brian and I took the dogs to Forest Park for our walk tonight and I was daydreaming about food. Again. We just bought some orzo at Pike Place Market while in Seattle, so I thought that needed to be the base for our dinner. When we got home, Brian was sous chef for me. As I cooked 3 pieces of bacon, he chopped 1/2 and onion, a bell pepper and some broccoli. I got rid of the bacon grease and switched to olive oil to saute the vegetables, adding just a bit of garlic to the mix. Once the veggies were sauteed, I added a can of rinsed great northern beans and a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes, along with a ton of oregano and some basil. I added about 2 cups of water to that mix and about a cup of orzo. The orzo sucked up all of the water, and cooked beautifully. Finally, we added about 1/3 cup of grated extra sharp cheddar to the mix and served it with crusty bread. YUM!!!!!
Be happy and healthy!
Essentially, the lesson was designed to give me an overview and some guidelines, then send me home to practice on my own. Since my finger tips are so soft, I will probably only be able to practice 10-15 minutes in one sitting, and maybe as much as two sittings in a day. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying hard to learn by feel, rather than sight, since looking at the strings puts your guitar in a bad position relative to your fingers. Or so said Danny, my instructor. More details later.
Now, more about my new laptop. It is really small and light, yet just as powerful as our regular sized laptop. It is Windows 8, which takes a bit of getting used to, but since I've used a tablet for a few years now, it is very similar to that. I love the fact that there is a keyboard, a mouse pad and a touch screen, so you can go back and forth between them, depending on what you are doing. Love it! Also, when Buckley sits on me while I'm working on this, it is much less aggravating then when he sits on me with the larger laptop. I guess because the smaller one is easier to balance. Hooray for the new laptop!!!
My finger tips are a little sore, but I have a couple of thousand words to type in my story. Before I go, I have to share dinner. Brian and I took the dogs to Forest Park for our walk tonight and I was daydreaming about food. Again. We just bought some orzo at Pike Place Market while in Seattle, so I thought that needed to be the base for our dinner. When we got home, Brian was sous chef for me. As I cooked 3 pieces of bacon, he chopped 1/2 and onion, a bell pepper and some broccoli. I got rid of the bacon grease and switched to olive oil to saute the vegetables, adding just a bit of garlic to the mix. Once the veggies were sauteed, I added a can of rinsed great northern beans and a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes, along with a ton of oregano and some basil. I added about 2 cups of water to that mix and about a cup of orzo. The orzo sucked up all of the water, and cooked beautifully. Finally, we added about 1/3 cup of grated extra sharp cheddar to the mix and served it with crusty bread. YUM!!!!!
Be happy and healthy!
Days 13-15: A VERY Full Weekend
My goodness, it has been a full few days! On Saturday, Brian and I loaded up early and drove up to Seattle to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of Bob and Virginia, our friend Kate's parents. On our way up, we stopped to have lunch and several knock knock jokes with my cousins, and then bought a mini laptop for me (hooray!) so that Brian doesn't have to stop whatever he is doing anytime I want to write a blog, an email or a book. On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast of pumpkin spice waffles with whipped cream (thanks Kate, it was wonderful!!!), off we went to Pike Place market for our weekly grocery shopping and our market fix. Then, a quick three hour drive back to Portland where we were just in time to watch the Trans Siberian Orchestra. By Monday, we were complete zombies and could barely function. A great time was had by all!
The anniversary party was loads of fun. Kate and her sister Gretchen spent months planning and getting ready for this party. See, Bob and Virginia had a very small wedding and no reception 50 years ago. Not this time around! There were about 50 people there and everyone was celebrating the lovely couple. Bob had a short film of their wedding and a dinner afterwards where they were eating cake. Virginia had never seen it since they didn't have any way to view the super 8 film. Gretchen took the film somewhere to have it transferred to DVD and voila!, they had it at the party. They looked so young and in love.
Later, Gretchen showed a slide show of pictures of Bob and Virginia and their family over the years. It was such a nice present to their parents and oh so appreciated. Everyone had a great time. Oh, and the couple never had a wedding cake. So Kate and Gretchen ordered one from Boraccini's bakery in Seattle. It was beautiful and delicious. After the party, we stayed to help clean up so that they could get home a little sooner. Gretchen's husband Mike got the Iron Man award for cleaning all of the dishes and the kitchen while the rest of us took down the decorations and cleaned up the main room. It was so much fun hanging out with Ben, Kate, Lauren, Gretchen, Mike and Jessica that we didn't care what we did with them, so cleanup was fun. Oh, we have missed them while we were off gallivanting around the rest of the country.
On Sunday, I slept in until 7, which is unheard of for me When I got up, I hung out with Ben chatting about Lauren's college choices, dogs and other things. Ben offered us some toys back that we had given them when Lauren was younger. We happily took them to share with my birthday buddy, Finn Dewey, who is three. After a wonderful breakfast, Brian and I spent time at the market... mostly eating and buying food. Oh, and Mike from Sossio's vegetable stand totally remembered us. He was SHOCKED that we had been gone for almost 7 years. He felt like he just saw us a couple of months ago. That was cool. Being regulars somewhere for 15+ years certainly has its advantages, even 7 years later.
We stopped by my cousin Brent's house on the way home to give the toys to Finn. The toys are Rochenboch remote controlled dump trucks with a cool 2 story working structure and lots of balls to scoop up and dump. Finn currently wants to be a garbage man when he grows up, so these toys are perfect. Also, Brent used to play with them with us (long story - just know that Brian and I had disposable income and no kids, so we could buy all of the coolest toys, back in the day). Anyway, Finn was super excited, but Brent had to figure out how to make everything work before he could give it to Finn. The toys are probably more for 8 years and up, but with supervision, they'll be fine.
We got back on the road after a sadly short stop, and worked our way back down to Portland. As we went, we played the alphabet picnic game. You know the one... "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing an avocado. I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking an avocado and some bacon." etc. We got down to the letter U, and I said I was bringing Underwear. Brian had the letter V and he said that he was bringing Vitamins because underwear was not a vegetable. That sounded very much like Finn Dewey's knock knock jokes (did I mention he is 3 and his jokes are surreal?) so Brian and I made it into a knock knock joke and cracked ourselves up.
We got to Portland about an hour before the concert, so we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went on to the Moda Center. It is a big old place Our seats were pretty high up but right next to the stage. The lights were between us and the stage and we were very concerned about our view of the concert. Luckily, with the first strum of guitar and toss of hair, up came the lights, revealing a perfect view of the stage.
It was a mixed concert. TSO is a hair metal Jesus rock group. I knew about the metal rock, but not about the hair and the Jesus parts. They told a maudlin Christmas story that was used to loosely tie together a bunch of OK songs (a couple of the songs were spectacular, but they were few and far between). All of the songs were accompanied by lots of swinging hair, along the lines of Poison and Night Ranger. In one song, they did a chorus line with hair, one person at a time swinging their hair from left to right, then on the way back, from right to left. I was cracking up. Brian punched me at one point because I was giggling so much. Once the story part was over, it looked like they might be done, but then the started the concert that I was there to see.
If you haven't heard TSO, you are missing something fun. They take classical music and turn it into head banging rock and roll. They did a mash up of Beethoven's 5th and Mozart's Requium. They played Carmina Burana, and then they played Pachabel's Cannon. It was so much fun. There was a crazy light show and lasers, fog and projection work on the castle/sceen on the back of the stage. It was awesome. We really enjoyed ourselves in the second half and the arena was on their feet yelling. Great fun!
So that was our weekend. Monday was a zombie day; we were so tired from the weekend. I went to water aerobics and did some shopping, but until I took a nap and a walk, I was pretty much worthless. I wrote about 3000 words for my book (we're in the last week) and watched Kiss of the Spider Woman, then went to bed. It was a long three days and I slept for 10 hours. Now on to today.
Be happy and healthy!
The anniversary party was loads of fun. Kate and her sister Gretchen spent months planning and getting ready for this party. See, Bob and Virginia had a very small wedding and no reception 50 years ago. Not this time around! There were about 50 people there and everyone was celebrating the lovely couple. Bob had a short film of their wedding and a dinner afterwards where they were eating cake. Virginia had never seen it since they didn't have any way to view the super 8 film. Gretchen took the film somewhere to have it transferred to DVD and voila!, they had it at the party. They looked so young and in love.
Later, Gretchen showed a slide show of pictures of Bob and Virginia and their family over the years. It was such a nice present to their parents and oh so appreciated. Everyone had a great time. Oh, and the couple never had a wedding cake. So Kate and Gretchen ordered one from Boraccini's bakery in Seattle. It was beautiful and delicious. After the party, we stayed to help clean up so that they could get home a little sooner. Gretchen's husband Mike got the Iron Man award for cleaning all of the dishes and the kitchen while the rest of us took down the decorations and cleaned up the main room. It was so much fun hanging out with Ben, Kate, Lauren, Gretchen, Mike and Jessica that we didn't care what we did with them, so cleanup was fun. Oh, we have missed them while we were off gallivanting around the rest of the country.
On Sunday, I slept in until 7, which is unheard of for me When I got up, I hung out with Ben chatting about Lauren's college choices, dogs and other things. Ben offered us some toys back that we had given them when Lauren was younger. We happily took them to share with my birthday buddy, Finn Dewey, who is three. After a wonderful breakfast, Brian and I spent time at the market... mostly eating and buying food. Oh, and Mike from Sossio's vegetable stand totally remembered us. He was SHOCKED that we had been gone for almost 7 years. He felt like he just saw us a couple of months ago. That was cool. Being regulars somewhere for 15+ years certainly has its advantages, even 7 years later.
We stopped by my cousin Brent's house on the way home to give the toys to Finn. The toys are Rochenboch remote controlled dump trucks with a cool 2 story working structure and lots of balls to scoop up and dump. Finn currently wants to be a garbage man when he grows up, so these toys are perfect. Also, Brent used to play with them with us (long story - just know that Brian and I had disposable income and no kids, so we could buy all of the coolest toys, back in the day). Anyway, Finn was super excited, but Brent had to figure out how to make everything work before he could give it to Finn. The toys are probably more for 8 years and up, but with supervision, they'll be fine.
We got back on the road after a sadly short stop, and worked our way back down to Portland. As we went, we played the alphabet picnic game. You know the one... "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing an avocado. I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking an avocado and some bacon." etc. We got down to the letter U, and I said I was bringing Underwear. Brian had the letter V and he said that he was bringing Vitamins because underwear was not a vegetable. That sounded very much like Finn Dewey's knock knock jokes (did I mention he is 3 and his jokes are surreal?) so Brian and I made it into a knock knock joke and cracked ourselves up.
We got to Portland about an hour before the concert, so we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went on to the Moda Center. It is a big old place Our seats were pretty high up but right next to the stage. The lights were between us and the stage and we were very concerned about our view of the concert. Luckily, with the first strum of guitar and toss of hair, up came the lights, revealing a perfect view of the stage.
It was a mixed concert. TSO is a hair metal Jesus rock group. I knew about the metal rock, but not about the hair and the Jesus parts. They told a maudlin Christmas story that was used to loosely tie together a bunch of OK songs (a couple of the songs were spectacular, but they were few and far between). All of the songs were accompanied by lots of swinging hair, along the lines of Poison and Night Ranger. In one song, they did a chorus line with hair, one person at a time swinging their hair from left to right, then on the way back, from right to left. I was cracking up. Brian punched me at one point because I was giggling so much. Once the story part was over, it looked like they might be done, but then the started the concert that I was there to see.
If you haven't heard TSO, you are missing something fun. They take classical music and turn it into head banging rock and roll. They did a mash up of Beethoven's 5th and Mozart's Requium. They played Carmina Burana, and then they played Pachabel's Cannon. It was so much fun. There was a crazy light show and lasers, fog and projection work on the castle/sceen on the back of the stage. It was awesome. We really enjoyed ourselves in the second half and the arena was on their feet yelling. Great fun!
So that was our weekend. Monday was a zombie day; we were so tired from the weekend. I went to water aerobics and did some shopping, but until I took a nap and a walk, I was pretty much worthless. I wrote about 3000 words for my book (we're in the last week) and watched Kiss of the Spider Woman, then went to bed. It was a long three days and I slept for 10 hours. Now on to today.
Be happy and healthy!
Friday, November 22, 2013
Day 12: Ham!
I'm not much of a bacon eater, and I'm generally not much of a meat eater, but I do love some ham. Ham is that perfect mixture of sweet and salty, pink and delicious. There is nothing like sweet potatoes and ham, ham and cheese, ham and eggs, green eggs and ham, and ham with, well, just about anything. I rarely eat it, and when I do eat it, I eat it sparingly, but I wanted to let everyone know just how great ham is. Celebrate ham!
With that out of the way, I have some great news. First, today was my 5th session of deep water aerobics. I'm absolutely loving the class and I can currently feel almost every muscle in my body, especially the abs and arms. While I'm not losing any more weight, I can see and feel my body getting more toned. It is terrific! This is something that I will absolutely continue. I will try shallow water aerobics at some point, but for now, I'm loving deep water aerobics.
Second, I have my first guitar lesson next Tuesday at noon. I am very excited about this. My sister gave me the awesome present of an acoustic guitar for my 40th birthday. That was six years ago and I still have no idea how to play it. I tried to teach myself, but I was a poor teacher and a poor student. So, now I'm excited to have a real teacher to help me learn this thing. I'll be going to 5 Star Guitars. The fellow who helped me get set up was really helpful I told him that I was a true novice, to the point of not even knowing how to hold the darned thing. He said that was no problem, I just need to tell the teacher what I'm looking to get out of lessons. I told him I hadn't thought much further than simply learning how to hold, tune and play the guitar. He told me to think about what me playing the guitar successfully looked like. What kind of music was I playing? Was I reading music or just using basic chords? Was I performing in a band or just with myself? Things like that. Really helpful!
Third, I found something else new to try. Next Thursday is a Turkey Trot over at Washington Park, near the zoo. It is a 4-mile walk/run early on Thanksgiving morning. I can park at a transit station and take Max over. I've always wanted to do one, but never got around to it. So, this year is the year. I'm also thinking about doing the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis on December 8th. We used to do that one in Seattle.
That is it for the news. Now for a movie review! Catching Fire, the 2nd movie in the Hunger Games series, was fantastic! They did a much better job with the second one than the first, especially outside of the arena. It rang much truer than the first movie, both to the spirit of the books and to the characters themselves. I was tense for most of the film, concerned about the fate of each person in that world. Peta didn't bother me nearly so much in this one, and Snow was pure evil. Excellent! The elder victors were VERY well cast and the whole thing was entrancing. Brian and I both gave this two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Dinner was sweet potatoes, a small slice of ham, green beans and some bread. YUM!
Be happy and healthy!
With that out of the way, I have some great news. First, today was my 5th session of deep water aerobics. I'm absolutely loving the class and I can currently feel almost every muscle in my body, especially the abs and arms. While I'm not losing any more weight, I can see and feel my body getting more toned. It is terrific! This is something that I will absolutely continue. I will try shallow water aerobics at some point, but for now, I'm loving deep water aerobics.
Second, I have my first guitar lesson next Tuesday at noon. I am very excited about this. My sister gave me the awesome present of an acoustic guitar for my 40th birthday. That was six years ago and I still have no idea how to play it. I tried to teach myself, but I was a poor teacher and a poor student. So, now I'm excited to have a real teacher to help me learn this thing. I'll be going to 5 Star Guitars. The fellow who helped me get set up was really helpful I told him that I was a true novice, to the point of not even knowing how to hold the darned thing. He said that was no problem, I just need to tell the teacher what I'm looking to get out of lessons. I told him I hadn't thought much further than simply learning how to hold, tune and play the guitar. He told me to think about what me playing the guitar successfully looked like. What kind of music was I playing? Was I reading music or just using basic chords? Was I performing in a band or just with myself? Things like that. Really helpful!
Third, I found something else new to try. Next Thursday is a Turkey Trot over at Washington Park, near the zoo. It is a 4-mile walk/run early on Thanksgiving morning. I can park at a transit station and take Max over. I've always wanted to do one, but never got around to it. So, this year is the year. I'm also thinking about doing the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis on December 8th. We used to do that one in Seattle.
That is it for the news. Now for a movie review! Catching Fire, the 2nd movie in the Hunger Games series, was fantastic! They did a much better job with the second one than the first, especially outside of the arena. It rang much truer than the first movie, both to the spirit of the books and to the characters themselves. I was tense for most of the film, concerned about the fate of each person in that world. Peta didn't bother me nearly so much in this one, and Snow was pure evil. Excellent! The elder victors were VERY well cast and the whole thing was entrancing. Brian and I both gave this two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Dinner was sweet potatoes, a small slice of ham, green beans and some bread. YUM!
Be happy and healthy!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Days 10 & 11: A Miss and A Hit
Sorry for missing yesterday. I just wasn't feeling the writing love. In fact, I was feeling a tad under the weather so we ended up watching a couple of movies last night, rather than doing anything productive. The movies were: Jesus Henry Christ and Today's Special. I liked both of them for different reasons.
We loved out new vet, who was referred to us by my awesome sister-in-law, Sharon. He was super knowledgeable,chatty, and obviously loves his job. All good by me! The dogs got a clean bill of health, as well as two thumbs up on their weight, shiny coats and excellent fitness level. Hooray! Katy needs to have her teeth cleaned, but she eats rocks and other unsuitable objects, so that was totally expected. Also, at 9 years old, she is still healthy enough to easily go under anesthesia, which might not be the case as she gets older. Little Buckley (Sir Buckington) eats everything under the sun, but has great teeth, so no cleaning needed for him.
We tried to go for a walk/hike at a new park yesterday, called Jenkins Estate, but when we got there, I wasn't feeling well and we were both really cold, so we bailed and went home. On the plus side, we found a cute coffee shop near the park which sells hot chocolate made with almond milk and is run by two super cute, friendly young women. Score!
Today was a much better day. I got up for water aerobics and had a good workout, even though today's instructor was not as good as the gal from yesterday. I found out that my new friend Lynne has a last name that is incredibly similar to mine, off by just a couple of letters. When I was writing my name for her, she thought I was accidentally misspelling hers! Love it!
Brian and I went back to Jenkins Estate with the dogs and had a great walk today. We also went back to that cute coffee shop and had breakfast sandwiches. This afternoon, I made some seriously good banana/butternut squash bread and some cranberry sauce. The sauce was made from Oregon cranberries, and I have to admit, while they are still incredibly tart, they are much sweeter than any I've had before. For a pound of berries, I added about 1/2 of a cup of sugar, which is super low for cranberry sauce. For breakfast tomorrow, I think I'll have some of the cranberry sauce on the bread. Yum!
Two other bits of news: I slacked off on my NaNoWriMo book for the last two days, so I wrote almost 3000 words today to get caught up. And, I'm signing up for guitar lessons starting next week. So here we go! Obviously, the water aerobics is going well. Let's see how guitar lessons go. After that is yoga class. After that... who knows!
Be happy and healthy!
- JHC was funny, touching and really about how dysfunctional families find a way to function in spite of everything. That description does not do it justice, as it was funny, weird and very much an indie film. It moves a little slowly, but is well worth the wait. All of the actors do quirky well and are still charming and kind.
- Today's Special was an uneven film about a talented but uninspired sous chef in NYC whose parents were from India and now ran a run down Indian restaurant. He gets skipped over for a job in his fancy restaurant, so he quits and decides to go to Paris, but fortune says otherwise... blah, blah, blah. This movie was terribly predictable and somewhat uneven, but very charming and sweet. You like the characters and want them to be successful, even if they don't always make sense or make the choices their characters should make, based on things they said and did earlier in the film.
We loved out new vet, who was referred to us by my awesome sister-in-law, Sharon. He was super knowledgeable,chatty, and obviously loves his job. All good by me! The dogs got a clean bill of health, as well as two thumbs up on their weight, shiny coats and excellent fitness level. Hooray! Katy needs to have her teeth cleaned, but she eats rocks and other unsuitable objects, so that was totally expected. Also, at 9 years old, she is still healthy enough to easily go under anesthesia, which might not be the case as she gets older. Little Buckley (Sir Buckington) eats everything under the sun, but has great teeth, so no cleaning needed for him.
We tried to go for a walk/hike at a new park yesterday, called Jenkins Estate, but when we got there, I wasn't feeling well and we were both really cold, so we bailed and went home. On the plus side, we found a cute coffee shop near the park which sells hot chocolate made with almond milk and is run by two super cute, friendly young women. Score!
Today was a much better day. I got up for water aerobics and had a good workout, even though today's instructor was not as good as the gal from yesterday. I found out that my new friend Lynne has a last name that is incredibly similar to mine, off by just a couple of letters. When I was writing my name for her, she thought I was accidentally misspelling hers! Love it!
Brian and I went back to Jenkins Estate with the dogs and had a great walk today. We also went back to that cute coffee shop and had breakfast sandwiches. This afternoon, I made some seriously good banana/butternut squash bread and some cranberry sauce. The sauce was made from Oregon cranberries, and I have to admit, while they are still incredibly tart, they are much sweeter than any I've had before. For a pound of berries, I added about 1/2 of a cup of sugar, which is super low for cranberry sauce. For breakfast tomorrow, I think I'll have some of the cranberry sauce on the bread. Yum!
Two other bits of news: I slacked off on my NaNoWriMo book for the last two days, so I wrote almost 3000 words today to get caught up. And, I'm signing up for guitar lessons starting next week. So here we go! Obviously, the water aerobics is going well. Let's see how guitar lessons go. After that is yoga class. After that... who knows!
Be happy and healthy!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Day 9: Cholesterol Numbers Back to Normal!!!!
Guess who got her blood test results back today? ME! Guess who's cholesterol (both HDL and LDL are right where they are supposed to be? ME again! Yep, that 8-week challenge sure helped. Unfortunately, my triglycerides are still a bit high, so the doctor suggested to stay off the sugar (I think I figured that out two posts ago, thank you) and to start taking fish oil twice a day to help control it. Who knew? OK, probably anyone who has ever dealt with this before, but it was new to me.
In other news, Macy's is in the middle of their crazy pre-Thanksgiving sale, in which their cashmere sweaters are the price they ought to be, instead of the price they usually are. Crew and V-necked long sleeved cashmere sweaters are $59.99 (today and tomorrow only). I live in those sweaters in the winter, so they are well worth that price to me. Get on over to Macy's before 1 pm tomorrow to take advantage of the sale. (Today's blog is sponsored by the letter M.)
Finally, a quick movie review for those of you who care. Thor 2 (I have no idea what the name of the movie is) was highly entertaining and well worth the $5.50 Tuesday special price I paid for it. Even when you add the $3 for popcorn, it was still WELL worth it. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) made the film, as always. The effects were loads of fun and the music, very exciting. The bad guy was boring, he had nothing to do, but he had some cool WMD's (weapons of mass destruction, for those of you sleeping during the Bush era) which he used well. All in all, a good bit of Tuesday afternoon entertainment. Stay ALL the way through as there are 2 little extra scenes. Hopes of an awesome new villain in the 1st scene and a bit of silliness in the final one. Oh - and I saw the preview for RoboCop. Brilliant casting! I can't wait.
Be happy and healthy!
In other news, Macy's is in the middle of their crazy pre-Thanksgiving sale, in which their cashmere sweaters are the price they ought to be, instead of the price they usually are. Crew and V-necked long sleeved cashmere sweaters are $59.99 (today and tomorrow only). I live in those sweaters in the winter, so they are well worth that price to me. Get on over to Macy's before 1 pm tomorrow to take advantage of the sale. (Today's blog is sponsored by the letter M.)
Finally, a quick movie review for those of you who care. Thor 2 (I have no idea what the name of the movie is) was highly entertaining and well worth the $5.50 Tuesday special price I paid for it. Even when you add the $3 for popcorn, it was still WELL worth it. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) made the film, as always. The effects were loads of fun and the music, very exciting. The bad guy was boring, he had nothing to do, but he had some cool WMD's (weapons of mass destruction, for those of you sleeping during the Bush era) which he used well. All in all, a good bit of Tuesday afternoon entertainment. Stay ALL the way through as there are 2 little extra scenes. Hopes of an awesome new villain in the 1st scene and a bit of silliness in the final one. Oh - and I saw the preview for RoboCop. Brilliant casting! I can't wait.
Be happy and healthy!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Day 8: That Was Some Workout!
We had a new teacher today in water aerobics. She looked like a 15 year old gymnastics champion, but she is really in her late 40s. Wow! She was fit and cute as a button. When I say new, I meant new to me. Everyone else there was excited to see her again, and they kept saying how sad they were that she'd be leaving them this week to go back to her old pool. Well poop! This is the best exercise teacher I've ever had and now she is leaving? Something is wrong with that picture. Ah well. In the meanwhile, I got a kick-abs workout and a great cardio exercise as well.
After the workout, we went through the much more frustrating exercise of trying to get health insurance for the next month and 10 days, until the insurance from affordable care act is available! So far, I'm loosing this battle. I'll try again tomorrow. When I got bored with getting no response, I decided to make lunch: butternut squash risotto with sage pork sausage, onion and pumpkin stout goat cheese. It took oven an hour to make, and it was fantastic! I used a home made vegetable broth for the risotto base, and it was pink because of the beet juice in it. Even though there is some meat and cheese in this dish, they are a small percentage of the ingredients. Most of the dish was rice, onions and squash, not to mention 5 cups of broth. I got the idea from the goat cheese seller at the market last Saturday. All I can say is, Yum!
It was a rainy day today, and there was a slight break around 3:45, so we took the dogs for a couple of miles at that time. We stayed in the neighborhood today because they get filthy at Forest Park on rainy days. In the neighborhood, they just get wet.
For dinner, Marty and I had the rest of the broccoli cheese soup from yesterday. It was even better on day 2. Brian left at five to attend a backgammon tournament. Wish him well. I think there is a huge prize for the first place winner... Is it $5 or $6... I can't remember.
After dinner, Marty went to a meeting and I was left at home alone. I can't think of the last time I was alone in a house. It has been a very long time. Of course, I wasn't entirely alone, since Katy and Buckley were with me. Also, my nameless novel character was with me. I wrote about 1800 words tonight. My sister calls him Little Opti, since he is such an optimistic teen. I have to come up with a name eventually, but for now, young Opti will have to do.
Now it is bed time and I am ready for sleep.
Be happy and healthy!
Day 7: Much Better
After a week of sugar indulgences, I knew something had to change. Namely, I had to take back my self control. So I did today. Of course, it was made much easier by the farmers market shopping the day before and by staying home, rather than stopping by every bakery in town.
So most of day 7 was scheduled as a writing day. I'm having such a good time with the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. After last night, I'm now over 30,000 words. Hooray! But, man cannot live by words alone... at least this gal can't, so here goes on the food breakdown.
Breakfast:cinnamon toast and an apple.
Lunch: Broccoli Cheddar soup (lots of broccoli, carrots and potatoes, little cheddar and no cream) served with garlic Romano bread and a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie
Snacks: Peanut butter pretzels and a Lara Bar (dates, peanuts, chocolate chips and sea salt - seriously, that is the ingredient list)
Dinner: Sauteed spinach with garlic, nutmeg, bacon and goat cheese served with Garlic Romano bread.
See, much better. Especially if you add to that a lovely 3 mile walk at Forest Park with the last mile going uphill for most of the way. Plus, writing over 3000 words yesterday. Definitely, a better day.
Now it is time to grab a quick bowl of cereal and make my way to the pool fir another session of water aerobics.
Be happy and healthy!
So most of day 7 was scheduled as a writing day. I'm having such a good time with the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. After last night, I'm now over 30,000 words. Hooray! But, man cannot live by words alone... at least this gal can't, so here goes on the food breakdown.
Breakfast:cinnamon toast and an apple.
Lunch: Broccoli Cheddar soup (lots of broccoli, carrots and potatoes, little cheddar and no cream) served with garlic Romano bread and a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie
Snacks: Peanut butter pretzels and a Lara Bar (dates, peanuts, chocolate chips and sea salt - seriously, that is the ingredient list)
Dinner: Sauteed spinach with garlic, nutmeg, bacon and goat cheese served with Garlic Romano bread.
See, much better. Especially if you add to that a lovely 3 mile walk at Forest Park with the last mile going uphill for most of the way. Plus, writing over 3000 words yesterday. Definitely, a better day.
Now it is time to grab a quick bowl of cereal and make my way to the pool fir another session of water aerobics.
Be happy and healthy!
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Days 5 & 6: Falling Off and Getting Run Over By The Wagon
Yikes! I've had a little sugar this week. Um, by a little, I mean a lot. By a lot, I mean a whole heaping lot. Hello, my name is Linda and I have a sugar problem.
It all started with the end of the 8-week challenge. I bought some ice cream. Then I remembered that I hadn't made cookies in a while, so I made some. Then I remembered the Little Debbie Starcrunch that I had left over from our trip across the country. Then we were downtown near Cupcake Jones. Then someone told me about the Pearl Bakery and their amazing almond croissants. Then I passed The Dessert Tray, who had a chocolate fudge cake with raspberry topping, which was too good to pass. Then I went by the bakery at the farmers market that we saw with Sally and bought the chocolate croissant. The girl remembered me from the time Sally went with us and asked me how the sugar challenge went. I wasn't sure how to respond. Then, when we were at the grocery store looking from some Valrhona chocolate (unsweet), I saw a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix. Yeah. Did I mention that I have a problem?
On the plus side, I took the dogs out for a 5 mile walk in 1 hour and 15 minutes (I was pulling them for the last 15 minutes) and I've done water aerobics twice in the last three days. We did some amazing shopping at the farmers market today so we have plenty to cook at home (without sugar) for the rest of the week. So, I'm hopeful. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed, etc. I did really well on the challenge, moderating my sugar intake. I can do it again.
In other news, I went to have bagels with a couple of the retirees after water aerobics yesterday. It was fun, even if I had to leave earlier than planned because I had to take my car to the shop for a prescheduled oil change. While waiting to get the oil changed, a small poodle named Lucy kept me company by sitting in my lap and promptly falling asleep. Very cute. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with Lucy, and her pit bull friend, Bella, because the hose for my radiator was busted and they had a part delivered. Still, I'm not complaining because my car is doing better. It is 15 years old and I expect things to go wrong from time to time.
This was a two football game weekend for us. The UCLA vs. Washington game was OK, but obviously not memorable, since none of us can remember the score, and Brian had to tell me it was UW, not Arizona. On the other hand, the UGA vs. Auburn game today was highly memorable. Sadly, we lost, but it was an exciting 4th quarter. If only the Dawgs had played even a third as well in the other 3 quarters.
Tonight we saw the traveling show of American Idiot, the rock opera, or musical, or whatever they called it. Meh. I felt old because I didn't like it, as if it were some sort of judgement on me for being over 30. Of course, that isn't really fair, since I greatly enjoy Green Day and we rocked out to the album on the way home after the show. On our way out of the theater, we heard others saying how blah it was, too. Still... it seems like one of those things where if I were cooler, then I would have enjoyed it more. Instead I walked out feeling over educated (Yes, I knew which shows every scene, bit of staging and plot point were stolen from.) and very unhip. Perhaps it was just me. On the plus side, I never was cool, so maybe it just doesn't matter.
For tomorrow, we're hoping to see the RoseBuds, Rose City Roller Girls' younger sisters in Roller Derby. Maybe I'll dye my hair and get a tattoo while I'm there. I can tell you that I will resist whatever form of sugar they are selling. (Blogger's note: I just found out that the roller girls were tonight. Bummer. Now that means that tomorrow will be a writing day to get ahead in the NaNoWriMo word count, since next weekend will be busy.)
Be happy and healthy!
It all started with the end of the 8-week challenge. I bought some ice cream. Then I remembered that I hadn't made cookies in a while, so I made some. Then I remembered the Little Debbie Starcrunch that I had left over from our trip across the country. Then we were downtown near Cupcake Jones. Then someone told me about the Pearl Bakery and their amazing almond croissants. Then I passed The Dessert Tray, who had a chocolate fudge cake with raspberry topping, which was too good to pass. Then I went by the bakery at the farmers market that we saw with Sally and bought the chocolate croissant. The girl remembered me from the time Sally went with us and asked me how the sugar challenge went. I wasn't sure how to respond. Then, when we were at the grocery store looking from some Valrhona chocolate (unsweet), I saw a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix. Yeah. Did I mention that I have a problem?
On the plus side, I took the dogs out for a 5 mile walk in 1 hour and 15 minutes (I was pulling them for the last 15 minutes) and I've done water aerobics twice in the last three days. We did some amazing shopping at the farmers market today so we have plenty to cook at home (without sugar) for the rest of the week. So, I'm hopeful. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed, etc. I did really well on the challenge, moderating my sugar intake. I can do it again.
In other news, I went to have bagels with a couple of the retirees after water aerobics yesterday. It was fun, even if I had to leave earlier than planned because I had to take my car to the shop for a prescheduled oil change. While waiting to get the oil changed, a small poodle named Lucy kept me company by sitting in my lap and promptly falling asleep. Very cute. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with Lucy, and her pit bull friend, Bella, because the hose for my radiator was busted and they had a part delivered. Still, I'm not complaining because my car is doing better. It is 15 years old and I expect things to go wrong from time to time.
This was a two football game weekend for us. The UCLA vs. Washington game was OK, but obviously not memorable, since none of us can remember the score, and Brian had to tell me it was UW, not Arizona. On the other hand, the UGA vs. Auburn game today was highly memorable. Sadly, we lost, but it was an exciting 4th quarter. If only the Dawgs had played even a third as well in the other 3 quarters.
Tonight we saw the traveling show of American Idiot, the rock opera, or musical, or whatever they called it. Meh. I felt old because I didn't like it, as if it were some sort of judgement on me for being over 30. Of course, that isn't really fair, since I greatly enjoy Green Day and we rocked out to the album on the way home after the show. On our way out of the theater, we heard others saying how blah it was, too. Still... it seems like one of those things where if I were cooler, then I would have enjoyed it more. Instead I walked out feeling over educated (Yes, I knew which shows every scene, bit of staging and plot point were stolen from.) and very unhip. Perhaps it was just me. On the plus side, I never was cool, so maybe it just doesn't matter.
For tomorrow, we're hoping to see the RoseBuds, Rose City Roller Girls' younger sisters in Roller Derby. Maybe I'll dye my hair and get a tattoo while I'm there. I can tell you that I will resist whatever form of sugar they are selling. (Blogger's note: I just found out that the roller girls were tonight. Bummer. Now that means that tomorrow will be a writing day to get ahead in the NaNoWriMo word count, since next weekend will be busy.)
Be happy and healthy!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Day 4: From Deep Water Aerobics to Deep Tissue Massage
Finally!!!! I was able to find a class and attend it. This morning, at 8:05, I took a 55 minute deep water aerobics class at the Sunset pool. That is the pool I thought was closed due to seismic maintenance updates. I chose that over the shallow water aerobic class because it was different from any I had done before. Hooray! It was great fun and I'm about 100% sure that I will hurt tomorrow.
There was only one man in attendance, with perhaps a total of 30 or so ladies. The instructor was about 20 years younger than me, which was OK because I was at least 20-35 years younger than every other person in the class. But those seniors were kicking my butt at balance and ab workouts. I cracked myself up trying to keep up with them. A couple of well meaning older ladies reminded me to take it easy on my first time out. Hee hee! It was pretty darned funny.
I think I worried some of them when we brought the swim noodles into the pool. We were already wearing aqua belts, then we had to put the noodle into the water and stand on it. Did you know that it is entirely possible to fall when you are hanging out in the middle of the deep end of the pool? Trust me! I did several times. Again, I think I really worried a couple of the nice older ladies. A couple of them kept trying to give me helpful tips such as, "perhaps you should hold on to the wall this first time," or "try sitting on the noodle first, then standing on it... like you are climbing a wall," and other such handy suggestions. Those of you who know me well are well aware that I've been known to fall into a wall that was just standing there, doing no one any harm. Yep, they are not aware of Lack-Of-Balance-Girl!
Anyway, I had a great time. I made it through the whole class without having a heart attack or overheating or even having a cramp. All good! A couple of the ladies invited me to go out for bagels with them tomorrow. I have a car appointment at 11, but I can probably fit it in before I go.
I came home and took a shower and suddenly felt all of the muscles that I haven't used for years, until this morning, come to life. It is a good thing that I'm married to a massage therapist. While my muscles were still warm, he gave me an excellent massage and helped everything chill out a bit. Hopefully it will make a difference tomorrow in greatly reduced day after exercise pain.
This afternoon, we went downtown to Bridgeport Brewery for lunch in the Pearl District. It used to be this funky cool brewery/pizzeria with the best pizza I've ever eaten. Now, it is a hipster-dufus (my brother's term) place that is really expensive and soulless. We had an excellent bowl of chicken-corn chowder, but the rest of the meal didn't quite live up to the $34 price tag for lunch. The pizza crust was still excellent, but the toppings were uninspired. Still, that soup was amazing!
After lunch, we went shopping for some more winter weight pants for me. I'm freezing most of the time here in Portland (at 50 degrees) and need some pants that might keep the damp out: corduroys. I bought two more in size 12 (!!!!) and one in size 14 (different brand, different fit). So now I should be warm for the season. While in the Pearl District, we popped over to CUPCAKE JONES... the world's BEST cupcake joint. We had three full sized cupcakes between the two of us (sort of... I only ate half of each of my halves, meaning that I actually ate 3/4 of a cupcake). The cupcakes were: chocolate, peanut butter cup and gingerbread. MMMMMMM. They were (Laura) MIGHTY FINE!!!!! Sorry for all of the caps. I think I had more sugar today than in the last 9 weeks put together, so I'm a little excited. We sat right there in the store and ate them, although I had to ask for a box for the other half of mine. The folks next to us did essentially the same thing we did and then were on their way next door for some Ben and Jerry's. They looked at bit sheepish, which made me laugh. More power to them, I say.
To complete out shopping trip in the Pearl, we went to Penzy's Spice for clove and cinnamon, Sur La Table for a knife and some cocoa powder (we didn't buy the knife and they didn't have the chocolate), to the Pearl Bakery for a load of bread, then finally to Smith's Tea for some tea.
Steve Smith is the guy who started Tazo Tea and Stash Tea. He has since sold both of them and is focusing his amazing tea talents on this brand which bears his name. In other words, he has left those two in the dust and is now making some even more amazing blends. Take a look at their website if you are interested. We had a blend today that was herbal with peppermint, cinnamon, anise and stevia. I was not a fan. Too much licorice and too much stevia. I hate to say anything bad about their tea because every other blend I've tried is stellar. I'm currently drinking Red Dawn, a blend of roiboos and honeybush, which is rich and delicious. This morning I had a cup of Fez tea, which is green tea with spearmint and lemon grass. It is amazing. Today we bought the holiday blend, which is a black tea with pine needles and cinnamon. I've had it before and it is really lovely. I like tea.
Now, I'm totally stalling and I need to stop. I have not written a bit of my NaNoWriMo book today and if I don't start now, I'll be up until midnight. That would be bad, since I was up until 11 last night and out of bed at 4:43 this morning. I need a good 9-10 hours per night. This six hours of sleep garbage is not for me.
Be happy and healthy!
There was only one man in attendance, with perhaps a total of 30 or so ladies. The instructor was about 20 years younger than me, which was OK because I was at least 20-35 years younger than every other person in the class. But those seniors were kicking my butt at balance and ab workouts. I cracked myself up trying to keep up with them. A couple of well meaning older ladies reminded me to take it easy on my first time out. Hee hee! It was pretty darned funny.
I think I worried some of them when we brought the swim noodles into the pool. We were already wearing aqua belts, then we had to put the noodle into the water and stand on it. Did you know that it is entirely possible to fall when you are hanging out in the middle of the deep end of the pool? Trust me! I did several times. Again, I think I really worried a couple of the nice older ladies. A couple of them kept trying to give me helpful tips such as, "perhaps you should hold on to the wall this first time," or "try sitting on the noodle first, then standing on it... like you are climbing a wall," and other such handy suggestions. Those of you who know me well are well aware that I've been known to fall into a wall that was just standing there, doing no one any harm. Yep, they are not aware of Lack-Of-Balance-Girl!
Anyway, I had a great time. I made it through the whole class without having a heart attack or overheating or even having a cramp. All good! A couple of the ladies invited me to go out for bagels with them tomorrow. I have a car appointment at 11, but I can probably fit it in before I go.
I came home and took a shower and suddenly felt all of the muscles that I haven't used for years, until this morning, come to life. It is a good thing that I'm married to a massage therapist. While my muscles were still warm, he gave me an excellent massage and helped everything chill out a bit. Hopefully it will make a difference tomorrow in greatly reduced day after exercise pain.
This afternoon, we went downtown to Bridgeport Brewery for lunch in the Pearl District. It used to be this funky cool brewery/pizzeria with the best pizza I've ever eaten. Now, it is a hipster-dufus (my brother's term) place that is really expensive and soulless. We had an excellent bowl of chicken-corn chowder, but the rest of the meal didn't quite live up to the $34 price tag for lunch. The pizza crust was still excellent, but the toppings were uninspired. Still, that soup was amazing!
After lunch, we went shopping for some more winter weight pants for me. I'm freezing most of the time here in Portland (at 50 degrees) and need some pants that might keep the damp out: corduroys. I bought two more in size 12 (!!!!) and one in size 14 (different brand, different fit). So now I should be warm for the season. While in the Pearl District, we popped over to CUPCAKE JONES... the world's BEST cupcake joint. We had three full sized cupcakes between the two of us (sort of... I only ate half of each of my halves, meaning that I actually ate 3/4 of a cupcake). The cupcakes were: chocolate, peanut butter cup and gingerbread. MMMMMMM. They were (Laura) MIGHTY FINE!!!!! Sorry for all of the caps. I think I had more sugar today than in the last 9 weeks put together, so I'm a little excited. We sat right there in the store and ate them, although I had to ask for a box for the other half of mine. The folks next to us did essentially the same thing we did and then were on their way next door for some Ben and Jerry's. They looked at bit sheepish, which made me laugh. More power to them, I say.
To complete out shopping trip in the Pearl, we went to Penzy's Spice for clove and cinnamon, Sur La Table for a knife and some cocoa powder (we didn't buy the knife and they didn't have the chocolate), to the Pearl Bakery for a load of bread, then finally to Smith's Tea for some tea.
Steve Smith is the guy who started Tazo Tea and Stash Tea. He has since sold both of them and is focusing his amazing tea talents on this brand which bears his name. In other words, he has left those two in the dust and is now making some even more amazing blends. Take a look at their website if you are interested. We had a blend today that was herbal with peppermint, cinnamon, anise and stevia. I was not a fan. Too much licorice and too much stevia. I hate to say anything bad about their tea because every other blend I've tried is stellar. I'm currently drinking Red Dawn, a blend of roiboos and honeybush, which is rich and delicious. This morning I had a cup of Fez tea, which is green tea with spearmint and lemon grass. It is amazing. Today we bought the holiday blend, which is a black tea with pine needles and cinnamon. I've had it before and it is really lovely. I like tea.
Now, I'm totally stalling and I need to stop. I have not written a bit of my NaNoWriMo book today and if I don't start now, I'll be up until midnight. That would be bad, since I was up until 11 last night and out of bed at 4:43 this morning. I need a good 9-10 hours per night. This six hours of sleep garbage is not for me.
Be happy and healthy!
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