Warm Yoga and Entomology

Today I did a 90 minute yoga podcast. I did it in the bathroom with the heat lamp on. The temperature at the end of the hour and a half was 78 degrees. Not quite hot yoga, but I did sweat. I definitely push myself more in a classroom setting. I'm so competitive and love to show off in class.

So about two thirds of the way through the podcast I bent over into pyramid pose and saw a very strange insect on the door of the cabinet. I ran to get my camera, and the thing ran into the cabinet. I laid in the cabinet and desperately tried to get a close up photo. I got a couple that are okay. I have never seen anything like that before. It was like a cross between a roach (long antennae), lion fish (colors and stripes), a scorpion (the shape), a spider (long legs), and a centipede (so many legs!). After its photo shoot the critter crawled up under some hardware in the cabinet and I just left it alone.

Ethan's Baby Blanket

I think the last baby blanket I made was for Julia, so that was over a year ago. Ross's old college roommate Tim Aranki just became a dad. His name is Ethan David Aranki. Baby and mom, Leanna, look great.

I bought this material a long time ago because I loved the colors. The top is regular cotton and the backing is flannel.

I was having a lot of trouble today. I don't know if I was suffering from low blood sugar or what. I forgot that my sewing machine doesn't have a foot pedal! I'm slow like old lady (as Tiffany would say).

Pigeon Stretches

I've been in a funk this week, so I'm just now getting around to a post. I haven't practiced king pigeon every day. The first photo shows me practicing with a yoga strap. It makes it look like I can almost do it! The next few photos show a shoulder stretch that I learned at Charm City Yoga. I've been doing this stretch and a couple of others to try and loosen up my shoulders. Today I realized that my pecs (which are always tight) are really holding me back, so I did some pec stretches. Ouch!
Okay below is the starting position for the shoulder stretch. Lay face down arms out to side, move right arm up towards the head two or three inches.

Next step: Roll over onto your right side and bend your left leg, placing your left foot behind your right knee.
Final step: Bend the right leg and bring the knees and ankles together. Bring the left arm back to meet the right. Allow the head to rest on the floor.

Don't forget to repeat on the other side!

Another Great Day

We have had two days of great, hot weather. That meant two days of driving around with the top down.

Today we headed to Baltimore for lunch with the Lusters. We got to spend a little time with them before they went to see Thomas the Train. After lunch Ross and I went did a little shopping. I'm looking for some wedges to replace my flip flops. I had to throw out my black platform flip flops before we left Texas and my brown ones are getting a little ragged. Ross is the one who ended up buying a pair of shoes! We also made a trip to Whole Foods to stock up on some cereal and yoghurt.

After snap (snack and a nap) we ran a couple of errands. I'm thrilled that I found Dundee Ginger at TJ Maxx. I've been out of ginger preserves since we got here and hadn't been able to find it anywhere. I bought another brand, but I don't think it is as potent. At the end of the day we ended up at Broom Bloom Dairy. The line was super long, but I'm glad we stuck it out. They had cake batter on the board, so we bought a quart. I had some caramel cashew ice cream and Ross had vanilla with Reese's pieces. It was a great end to a great day.

Charm City Yoga

Today I drove to Charm City Yoga in Towson for a hot vinyasa yoga class. I enjoyed it. By the end of it I was soaked and trembling. That's the first yoga class I have attended since we moved. I'm going to try and check out another place this weekend or next week. It felt good to do such intense yoga. We did a couple of things I hadn't done before. One was a really good shoulder stretch. I think I'll keep doing that one to help with the king pigeon pose (which I haven't been practicing).

Volley Girl

Check out my niece Kitson in action! I hear she's a star on a really kick-ass volleyball team.

Really?

When going through the mail today I found a letter from the bank saying that two of my paychecks had bounced. Really? The gym doesn't have $83 bucks in their account to cover my checks? What kind of business are they running? I'm not surprised (this happened to Heather back in January). I am a bit annoyed. Let me be very clear. It was NOT 24 Hour Fitness. They have direct deposit--and I have NOTHING negative to say about them.
Now begins the adventure to try and get my 99 bucks (checks plus bank fees).

Sunday Dinner

Tonight's dinner was beef bulgogi, brown basmati rice, and yam leaves. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to greens at the Asian grocery store, but I have actually had yam leaves before.
The rice was yummy, it is amazing what a little butter can do. The bulgogi was a little sweet, but tasty. I overcooked the yam leaves a bit. When I was cooking them I realized I'm out of bonito. It's so frustrating. I guess I threw out the bonito I had when we were moving. Oh well, I'll put it on the grocery list.

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

This pose has always been a goal of mine. I have been doing more yoga lately, and I have decided to work on this pose every day. At the end of the week, I'll post another photo to see if I have made any progress. I always practiced pigeon forward folding over the bent leg. Now I need to practice sitting up. I have noticed that my low back is very stiff. I am going to have to practice back bends to try and loosen that area up. My other major problem area in this pose is my shoulders. I can reach back and grab my foot, but I can't flip my arm over so that my elbow is pointing upward. Maybe I can stretch out my shoulders using a yoga strap.
So you can see my first, very sad attempt here. Not pictured is that I can actually get my rear leg to a 90 degree angle. My rear seems to be a little high--that is because my hips are tight. My left hand is down because I have to press myself back into a backbend and keep myself from falling over. Look how far my hand is from my foot! I definitely need to work on the backbending and shoulder flexibility.
Here is a pigeon pose variation. This is okay I guess. I could press my left hip toward the floor and work the front foot away from my groin. I don't like how my left hand looks, but I'm just being picky. I'll also work on this variation this week.

Random Stuff

1. Friday was my day out. I drove around Baltimore with the top down on the car. It was so nice and sunny and I got to see parts of Baltimore I hadn't ever seen before. I really didn't get out much when I lived there. I went nuts at H Mart. I hadn't been to an Asian grocery store in a couple of months. I loaded up on veggies and meat to make beef bulgogi. Cucumbers 4/$1! Mint! Ooh, I think I'll have a mojito and a Gordon's cup this week.

2. Ross is currently obsessed with fail blog.

3. No luck with the job search so far. Lisa Diane is in Singapore. She has a job she loves and she gets to travel. I'm jealous.

4. I fell below my previous low (weight wise) and have been below it for the last two weeks. I think I will meet my weight goal for this month. I worked out a lot this week (350 mins so far). I have been doing a lot of leg exercises. Man, I'm feeling them today.

5. Today we drove 75 miles (one way) to eat Logan's rolls. Damn they were good, but I don't think we'll be doing that very often.

6. We still have cable, but the cartoon network has disappeared. What Not To Wear has become my daily dose of crap tv. I'm beginning to feel the need for some structured jackets, but I don't think I'll give up my platform flip flops. That show makes me want to shop, but I resist because no one has given me a Visa card with $5,000 on it.

No, Really, I Know How to Drive

I have had the new car for about two weeks now. I am embarrassed to admit that I had to relearn how to drive (automatic). When we bought the car they dealership recharged the battery because it had been drained in the showroom by continually showing off the awesomeness of pushing a button to turn it into a convertible. Right before we drove off I asked the salesman if I was going to have trouble with the battery. He assured me everything was fine. We drove straight from the dealership to Panera. After dinner I couldn't get the car to start. I immediately thought it was the battery. Nope. The car wasn't in park. Stick shifts don't have park.

A couple days later I had more trouble. Again, park, and oh, yeah, the parking break! I think I've finally gotten into a routine now when starting the car. Sad. You'd think I'd never driven before. In my defense I've never owned an automatic car.

This morning I took Ross's Subaru to get it inspected. It was so strange--driving stick again. I didn't stall or anything, it was just odd. I do miss driving stick--I knew I would. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm. Perfect for driving with the top down. Woohoo! (That is if I can get it out of the driveway.)

Arginine, Lysine, Blah, Blah, No Chocolate?

I was super whiny yesterday. I woke up with the start of a rather large fever blister. I'm baffled. I can usually figure out what triggered the blister, but not this time. I've been slathering it with some zovirax that I had in the cabinet and some blistex. I think it is a tiny bit worse today. So anyway, I did some reading on the internet yesterday and found out that herpes needs arginine to replicate and lysine suppresses replication. I think I took 7 grams of lysine yesterday--and tried to avoid arginine rich foods. Which foods are high in arginine? Chocolate and nuts, which is exactly what I had eaten right before I read the article. So now I'm swallowing huge pills and avoiding chocolate and nuts in hopes that this sucker clears up by the end of the week. And I just made choco-matzoh!!!

Yesterday I was also whiny because my entire body was sore, but especially my neck and shoulders, and I have no idea why. My belly stung in the shower. I have a few scratches from the tree. I also have a big lump on my shin. Wah.

I have also already received 5 rejections from the 11 jobs that I applied to. Frustrating.

Tree Climbing

This afternoon we went back to Susquehanna State Park. We hiked the Deer Creek trail and found a tree that we couldn't resist climbing. I insisted on getting up by myself and almost fell off because I was laughing so hard. Getting down was just as amusing. I jumped down, landed on my bum, and my glasses flew off! No harm done though, and we had a good laugh. Now it is time to make chocolate matzo.

Flowers

I see lots of daffodils blooming on the roadsides here. It makes me miss the bluebonnets--and my garden.

Sweet Dreams

It's only been a couple of days, and last night I was dreaming about cookies and cake. The last couple of years we have gone to Logan's Roadhouse to celebrate the end of Passover. Ah--hot, soft, yeast rolls with lots of butter! I think we'll drive up to York, PA to do that again this year. And I'm going to have to find some cake somewhere too.

Random Things

It finally happened. Someone recognized me in the grocery store. She asked if I used to work at Maryland General. I knew she looked familiar, but I thought I was just imagining it. I didn't tell her my name so I wonder if she thinks I'm Brown, or Fort (a coworker that people always got me mixed up with).

I started applying for jobs yesterday. I already received one rejection. I'm over-educated and under-qualified. I spent all day online today and only applied to one job--and that one is far away. It is all very frustrating.

It smells funny outside. Like cows. And manure. Ew. I smelled it while driving on the freeway and in the parking lot of the grocery store. Strange.

Passover starts tonight. No bread or crackers for eight days. I'm also going to give up chips because I've been eating too many lately.

Another Great Day!

Today was another great day. We spent hours walking through and sitting under the blooming cherry trees with the Lusters. Toward the end of our visit it started snowing cherry blossoms. Just beautiful.

See Valerie's post for a more details and more photos.

Fun Fun Fun!

My day didn't start out fun because I sat in traffic for an hour (and still had to drive half an hour), but it sure turned out to be a great day. After lunch, Valerie and I shopped the Columbia Mall until we were totally worn out. I ended up spending money (oops) on a pair of linen blend capris. I got to drive the car with the top down today! Yeah, sun! To top off such a fun day Ross and I went to the dairy for ice cream. They didn't have cake batter, but they did have free samples of avocado--and I like it!

Up for tomorrow: cherry blossoms in DC.

Fuddy Duddy

I'm beginning to feel old. I'm not just uninterested in Facebook and Twitter, I refuse to join up. I am not interested in anyone's minute to minute activities, and I can't see why anyone would be interested in mine. Throwing virtual sheep is for 14 year olds. It all seems like a big waste of time. If there is anyone desperately looking for me on Facebook (yeah, right) they'll just have to find some other way to contact me.

Things Have Changed

Well, I guess things are always changing. Today I did a really old work out. It was the first work out video I ever bought. I bought it to get in shape for the wedding. After the first time I did the video I had trouble getting up the stairs to our apartment because my legs were so sore--and I didn't even get through the whole thing! Today I did every rep, and with much heavier weights than I used to. These are good changes. On Tuesday I hit a whole new low with my weight. This is the lowest I've been in my adult life. Woohoo!

My Girl

Yesterday Bailey was looking curiously at my tea cup and I said "It's green tea Bailey. You like jasmine, but you can try it if you want." That struck me as something funny to say to a cat, but she really does like jasmine tea. My girl is special.

She eats all sorts of fruits, but her favorite is banana. Her favorite treat is beef jerky. Like her Papi she likes anything sweet. I find it odd that she doesn't love cheese--and she can't tolerate fish.

Her two favorite toys are a curtain tie (which we have never actually seen her play with) and a tennis ball.

My girl is wacky, and I love her for it.