Getting in Shape

I didn't do very well with my goals of getting in shape over June and July. This month I have unlimited free yoga at one of the yoga studios in town, so I'm going to take full advantage of it. I have the whole month of work outs planned out. I'm planning on 2-3 work outs a day on the weekdays. I'm taking Saturdays off and planning one yoga session on Sundays. I started on Wednesday and I've been doing pretty well.  I completed 3 work outs on Wednesday and two yesterday. In addition to yoga I'm doing Firm DVDs. My legs and bum are sore! I have yoga in a bit...time to get in shape.

Collections: OPI

I have a bit of an obsession with nail polishes. I now have a large collection of OPI nail lacquer. I just got a set of five bottles using an online deal. They sell OPI at HEB and every time I go grocery shopping I'm tempted to buy a bottle. So far I have resisted.

Shoe Dichotomy

I have a shoe obsession, yet I love being barefoot. I love sexy wedges, but don't wear mine much. I have nice tennies, but would much rather work out barefoot. I'm all for the barefoot shoe movement, and now I have a pair of my own thanks to some Amazon money (Thanks Ainsmar!).

I got a pair of Merrell Vapor Glove running shoes even though I never run. I wore them for the first time last week on an outing to Ikea and the outlet mall. I could feel rocks and stuff through the shoe, but I survived. After a few hours my feet were sore and my right ankle hurt. I was expecting some soreness as I got used to them. I've been wearing them since and I haven't had any problems. These shoes are so lightweight and comfortable that I forget I'm wearing them--and I don't automatically kick them off as soon as I enter the house--like I do with all my other shoes.

I know Ross would prefer it if I wore heels all the time, but these are so comfy!

Magazine Addiction

I have always had a paper obsession, and magazines fit right in there. Colorful, glossy, fun to flip through, it seems I can't get enough magazines. I currently get InStyle, Bazaar, Men's Health, Fitness, Lucky, Elle, and Harper's. When the pile gets too overwhelming I take a chunk to the library. But it doesn't end there. You see, the library has an area where you can drop off/pick up magazines, and yes, I pick some up. I can't help myself. The Elle and Lucky magazines are easy to flip through and get rid of. The Men's Health and Harper's, well, they have actual reading, and so they just pile up. Most of these magazines I got free with airline miles. It was the only way I could use them, and thought, hey, why not. Some of the others I got for $5 a year with some internet special. As much as I like Men's Health and Harper's I can't wait for my subscriptions to expire. I need to get out from this stack of magazines.

Motta Pitcher

My parents bought me this Motta milk steaming pitcher.  I now have 3 steam pitchers.  Hopefully this is the one. I'm going to try it out this weekend and hopefully I'll get to post a photo of some nice latte art.  My last attempt produced something that looked like a blooming yucca.

The Tea

Looking at the tea I bought it doesn't seem that much, but I sure spent a lot of money.

I bought Happy Kombucha Oolong from David's tea.  The man helping me actually made me a cup to go, and I liked the pineapple flavor.

From Imperial Tea I bought Mihong Jasmine--Ross picked this one the first time we went there and it is his favorite.  He really picked a good one--I will always have this one in the tea cabinet as long as they keep selling it.  I also bought Orchid Oolong--one for me and one for Tejal.  I had ordered a sample from them last year and really liked the light flavor--it tastes of Japanese plum.  I also stocked up on  Keemun--getting the Imperial grade this time.  I call Keemun Company Tea, cause that's what I serve when we have company.  Oh, and I got Imperial Milk Oolong.  I couldn't resist the smell.

From Tillerman Tea I bought 3 oolongs: Muzha Tieguanin, Dong Ding Hong Bei Wulong, and Alishan Dong. My tea cabinet is overflowing.  I don't know where I'm going to put some of these.  I need to drink tea more often.  Maybe I'll make a cup right now!

Obsessed Much?

I went to Giant supermarket before we left Maryland.  Why?  To buy Dundee ginger preserves.  I'm a bit obsessed. Lucky me it was 2/$5--regular price is 6.99 each. Score.  I'm stocked up for the next year.  I also bought some Lyle's Golden Syrup and some of the caheta from Argentina (both at Wegman's).  Ross bought 4 boxes of Berger cookies.  He is supposed to share them.  The good news is that he hasn't opened a box yet--maybe that's because our apartment complex has free cookies in the office every day.

Fascination: Loss of Knowledge

I'm fascinated by the idea of a massive world-wide loss of knowledge.  I been rereading some of my favorite childhood books--The Tripod series John Christopher. In the books watches and clocks are rare, train cars are pulled by horses, and large cities are completely abandoned. In The Gunslinger the characters also come across abandoned cities, are baffled by the cars they find, and have somehow lost all technology.

I wonder if this could really happen to us. In some ways, it already has. We have lost musical instruments. We have lost the knowledge of medicine men. Heck, we speculate how the pyramids were built. Will people one day come across our old cell phones and mp3 players and wonder what they were?

Texas Law Review

I loved my job at the Texas Law Review. It was the best job I ever had. I truly treasure the swag I got while I was there. I still have two T Shirts that I can't bear to part with--no matter how ratty they are, and I had 3 mugs and a couple of hats. Well, one of the mugs had a cracked handle, so last week I decided it was time for it to go--the last thing I wanted was to pick it up one day and have the handle break clean off and spill hot tea on my crotch causing third degree burns that I couldn't sue anyone for.

Yesterday I was reaching for the spoon out of my cabinet at work and my knife slipped off the shelf and hit my TLR mug really hard. A big chip flew out of the mug, and I noticed a through and through hairline crack that wept when I put hot water in the mug. So, today I brought in a new mug for work and laid my favorite TLR mug to rest. I may eventually have to give up my pieces of the TLR, but a piece of me will always remain with the TLR, in the TLR, in hundreds of copies in law libraries across the country.

A Lifetime Ago

I was joining a livejournal community so that I could post a comment, and turns out I already had a livejournal account, and a journal! I guess it was my first blog. I had all but forgotten about it. If you want to see what I was doing 10+ years ago....check it out. I was always obsessing--more than I do now. The last entry mentions a "freak out" that I remember as the beginning of my tailspin into madness. I guess that's one of the reasons I stopped posting. I was too busy "freaking out."

69.1

Almost every day I see a red wing black bird on my way to work. Sometimes I even see it on the way home. I see it on one of two or three trees at mile marker 69.1. Taking a video or a photo of it when travelling at 75+ mph hasn't worked out, so that's a photo from the web. I form odd attachments to things, and I have definitely done that with this bird. I'm a little sad if I don't see it on my way to work.  On my way home today I actually saw two. That made me happy.

Sweepsland Haul

I spend a good deal of April in Sweepsland. I won 7 different prizes. The best thing I won was a free bag of cat food for Bailey. I also won some CDs and DVDs--which I will attempt to sell on eBay. I got pretty obsessive about trying to enter every contest. I'm tired of all the time and effort it takes. I didn't win any great prizes. I have other things I should be doing, so I'm going to step away from Sweepsland for a while. A bunch of the giveaways I entered don't end until later this month, so I might still win some prizes this month.

Sweepsland

I won a few things from Lucky Magazine and a couple of other places. I kept entering the Lucky giveaways, then moved on to other magazines, and now I've totally gotten sucked into sweepsland. I enter at least 50 giveaways a day. I've become totally obsessed.

I like to enter giveaways for kitchen things--hello, give me a new kitchen aid mixer! And I like to enter to win ipads and kindles. Hey, I want one, but I don't want to pay for it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. If I don't win anything by July 1st I'm going to cut down and just go back to entering Lucky Magazine giveaways.

Weight Loss Challenge--Final Weigh In

The final weigh in was yesterday. I officially lost 12.6 pounds over the 12 weeks and won the challenge (and another 75 dollars.) I didn't work out the last 4 weeks. Sad really. But I did keep the eating in check. I'm happy with how far I've come, but I want to lose another 4 or 5 pounds. It's nice to be able to fit into my skinny jeans again. I've lost 2.5 inches in my waist. I need to get back to working out and actually counting all my carbs and protein grams. I'm not planning a beach vacation this year, but I am planning on going to California in May. We will most likely visit the beach and I want to look good in a swimsuit. And I'd love for my skinny jeans to fit a little more loosely.

I think this weight loss challenge has changed how I eat and how I will continue to eat. I eat a lot less bread and a lot more protein than I used to. The diet has really been integrated into my life. Now I have to integrate the exercise....

My Ginkgo, Gingie

A ginkgo bonsai was high on my birthday wish list. Ross bought one for me and I named it Gingie. Right now it looks like a stick stuck in a fancy pot. It does have a few buds on it and I've been watering it, talking to it, and petting it in hopes that it will sprout some leaves and look like a little tree. It is an outdoor bonsai, so I'm keeping it on the balcony and praying this nice Spring weather will encourage it to grow.

See...just a stick.

I'm hoping it will look like this some day.

Birthday Shoes

I got three pairs of shoes for my birthday. And yes, I've already chosen 3 pairs of shoes from my collection to get rid of. I'll donate 2 pairs, and one pair will become my dirty/mud shoes for hiking and stuff.

The top and bottom ones are the ones that Ross bought me at Miz Mooz. I bought myself the Guess shoes in the middle. I'm wearing them at work today. I don't care that it is cold outside. I have my little space heater on next to me to keep my naked legs warm.

Brit's to the Rescue!

I decided to look for an alternative to corn syrup and found out that the Brits make a cane sugar syrup that can be used as a substitute. Yes, I could just make this on the stove, but after reading some horror stories and wanting something NOW, I decided to try to find the syrup at the store. I tried Wegman's last night and they had it! I'm definitely going to make more marshmallows with Lyle's Golden Syrup for Valentine's day.

Maybe when I run out of the syrup I'll try and make my own. Until then I've found one more way to cut corn out of my diet. I wonder if the Brit's eat as much corn and high fructose corn syrup as we do. Doesn't matter. I'm just glad they make this and I was able to find it so easily.

Obsessed, but Unfocused

I'm obsessed with knitting lately. I even dream about it. I'm knitting a pair of socks for Ross to wear while snowboarding, and they are coming along nicely. The thing is, I spend a lot of time looking at knitting things on the web instead of actually knitting. I start thinking about what I'm going to knit next. What I'm going to knit for whom, and looking for patterns. I'd be a lot further on these socks if I just focused. I think I'll knit a longha (muffin top) warmer next. That will be easy, mindless knitting, so it should go quickly--if I can stay focused. My list of things I want to knit keeps growing, but I have a strong policy of only working on one project at a time. Otherwise I'd have a pile of half-knitted things. So I'm going to try and focus a bit more on these socks, then I'll decide what's next.

Collection: Ginkgo Leaves

I started collecting leaves in 2005 and taping them to my plain vanilla lamp shade to kind of spruce it up. I collected all sorts of leaves, but I'm especially attracted to ginkgo leaves and I still collect those. I love the shapes. I like how some of them are split, and some aren't. They also aren't necessarily symmetrical. I really, really want a gingko tree. I want to get a small one and see if I can turn it into a ginkgo bonsai. Maybe I can grow one from seed.

My ginko collection is mostly on the sewing machine under a sheet of glass. I've thought of scanning them in to make a pattern that I could embroider on something. I'm not good at embroidery though. I even have a ginkgo leaf that I picked up in NYC in a frame with a picture of me and my mom at the Statue of Liberty. The sewing machine is getting full. I'm thinking maybe I should start putting the leaves in a book and label them with the place and date I picked them up. All OCD like.

Unlike my shoe collection and my hanky collection my ginkgo leaves are pretty much useless. Maybe I can get a couple of small leaves and shellac them and make earrings out of them.

Reunited and It Feels so Good

Okay, so it isn't exactly a reunion, but I now have a fork and spoon pair, so I feel good. Back in March I lost the fork that I carry around with me. In the last few months I guess silver prices have climbed right along with gold prices, so finding a replacement fork or new set at a decent price was difficult. I was obsessed with finding another fork or getting a new set. Last weekend I won this fork on ebay and now I have a set again.

I decided even before I got the fork that I was going to need some kind of case to keep my set in so that I'm less likely to lose it and it is less likely to get scratched up in my purse. I couldn't think of what to use, but I saw a small purse that my mom gave me hanging in the closet this morning and I decided it would be perfect to carry the spoon and fork in. After some folding and cutting and sewing I have a nice, lightweight case to carry my silverware in. The case is my favorite color (brown), and has a dragon on it (I'm a dragon), and has separate pockets for each piece of silverware. It is just right.