May 17th, 2012 by heather
I did my second OnRamp workout today and realized what my calling is. I should be a powerlifter. Not a body builder with nice muscles posing naked a la Schwartzenegger in T2. A powerlifter who packs on the bodyfat to help hoist up the big weights.
The skill building portion had us learning some of the classic powerlifting moves. The trainer is a stickler for form so he’s critiquing everyone else. But as long as I keep my shoulders back, he had nothing else to criticize. I’m glad that my greatparents left Poland in a timely manner or the Soviets would have taken one look at my build, hopped me up on steroids, and aimed my towards the Olympics.
Tags: crossfit
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May 16th, 2012 by heather
I got a phone call from my insurance agent today wanting me to confirm my new address.
The SO’s insurance is through them too. They know that we are together. The phone call was very tentative until I confirmed the address. Then there was relief. “Oh, good! We knew he had moved and the post office said you did too but…”
“But you didn’t want to change it until you were sure that I hadn’t kicked him out and sent him to live in a different part of the state?”
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May 16th, 2012 by heather
This quilt looks nothing like what I had in mind when I started out.
But, I wasn’t loving what I had in mind. The blocks reminded me of rail fence blocks so I started playing with layouts based on that. Now I like it. There are going to be white sashing strips between each group of four blocks. I think that will make the white look like a maze winding through the blocks of color.
Tags: quilt
Posted in Quilting | 3 Comments »
May 15th, 2012 by heather
5 in the #@$$^& AM. I was at the gym at 5 in the #@$$^& AM.
It turns out that I jump rope a whole lot better when I’m unconscious than when I try to do it at home. That may also be related to the quality of the equipment there vs my dollar store jump rope.
The timed workout at the end was 25 jumps with the rope or 5 doubles where you spin the rope twice on a single jump. Um, yeah, 5 AM. Singles for me. Rest of the class too. Follow that immediately with 10 sumo squats into an upright row with a 25lb kettlebell. Repeat as often as possible for 5 minutes. I did it 5 times. I did like one person’s suggestion that we could spend the whole 5 minutes trying to do 1 double jump and therefore never have to lift the weights.
Then I got homework. I have some podcasts to listen to and I have to write a food journal. The worst part is that I have to turn it into my trainers at least once a week. Usually I think about writing food journals and consider it a good idea. Now I have to do it. They are going to get me in shape whether I want to or not. Meanies.
I can now feel my quads again. I think I liked it better when I couldn’t.
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May 14th, 2012 by heather
You know how I do love to read the anti-feminist sites. They amuse me to no end because I am a horrible feminist type person and I like to see what all I’m doing wrong. But I found one post that absolutely delighted me. You have to go read the whole thing. It is all about how bad it is for women to make money. I read it out loud to the SO last night in bed.
An excerpt:
“Worst of all, when a wife works from home and uses the money for her family, it chips away at a man’s very sensitive masculine pride, he feels like less of a man when he or his wife has to count on her income to make ends meet or to have things the family needs and even desires; like he’s just not man enough to provide for his family himself and needs his wife to come to his rescue, to protect him from working harder, rather than him being chivalrous and protecting and providing for her. The loss of masculine pride leads to so many other marital losses and is the most important thing to avoid in marriage.”
I had to stop reading and apologize to the man in my life for having a job. I promised to quit my job immediately. He told me that the only reason I was allowed in his life was because I was an independent woman. He’d had women who considered marrying him to be their retirement plan and he did not let that happen.
I particularly like the part later on when it says that wives and children will hate a man who lets his wife work. That’s when the SO started to bang his head against his pillow. I guess he didn’t want me to know the secret.
His final plea was “Please do not listen to anything you read on that website.”
I guess my life mistakes are:
1) Getting all eddy-cated in the first place so I can get a job
2) Hooking up with a guy whose self worth isn’t entirely based on his life partner’s actions
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May 14th, 2012 by heather
I’ve seen Cross Fit videos online before. I realized there is a Cross Fit gym near my house. I decided to sign up for their free introductory evaluation.
Why?
I could say because I’ve been lazy and I need someone to tell me what to do. I could say it is because I’m wearing pants of an unacceptable size. But actually it is because I’m a moron. I see things that are described as incredibly hard workouts and my brain says, “Hey, I should do that!!” Stupid.
Anyway, I had my evaluation today. The timed test for today was 500 m on the rowing machine, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 pushups, and 20 pull ups. First, they had me do a few of each move to see if I could do them. Then they modified the test to my beginner level. They realized immediately that my legs are strong (damn their competence) so I had to do the full row distance and 20 squats. Not wimpy squats either. Squat-until-your-butt-hits-the-medicine-ball squats. They also correctly inferred that my arms are made of spaghetti so I got to do way less of the upper body moves. The whole thing is timed so you are moving quickly and the trainer is recording your time for each move on your permanent record.
When I finished he complimented by lower body strength and said to go get a drink. I managed to walk but my quads were completely numb. It took a while to get feeling back. That wasn’t even a work out.
The worst part? You have to take 6 beginner group classes to start. The only time I can take the classes? Five in the );’&=%$> AM. I’m not a morning person. I think that they are perky morning people. At least I can go back to bed for a while after my workout.
Tags: crossfit
Posted in Fitness | 1 Comment »
May 13th, 2012 by heather
Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book Three) by Rick Riordan
Apophis, the God of Chaos, is rising and promising to destroy the world. All that is left to save the world are the teenage magicians of Brooklyn House and a few Egyptian gods with nothing better to do than help.
I was disappointed in this series and especially this book. This author’s Percy Jackson series and other Greek/Roman series are amazing but this one just doesn’t live up it. The story is told in the alternating viewpoints of Carter and Sadie Kane. Sadie is every horrible stereotype of a teenage girl rolled into one. She has the power to save the world but really she has more important things to think about like what boy she likes. Whenever she was narrating it ruined the story for me.
Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross
Mira is almost 16 and has never been allowed to do anything. She lives with her guardians and she knows nothing about her parents except that they died when she was baby in her hometown of Beau Rivage. So she decides to run away to her hometown to see what she can find.
This is a story about fairy tales. Most of the people in Beau Rivage are characters out of fairy tales. Since it is YA there is a lot of teen angst and “I know every one says he is a mass murderer but he isn’t like that with ME!!!!!!!!!” that got a bit annoying but over all I liked it.
1972: A Novel of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution by Morgan Llewelyn
Barry Halloran is one of the best explosives men in the IRA in the 1960s. He becomes disillusioned with the violence that isn’t helping to reunited Ireland. He becomes a photojournalist to try to get his country’s story out to the world. He gets caught up in the events leading up to Bloody Sunday in 1972.
This is part of the historical fiction/family saga series that includes 1916, 1921, and 1949. This was probably my least favorite so far. There is one more, 1999. Hopefully that one is a bit more interesting.
Video Slut: How I Shoved Madonna Off an Olympic High Dive, Got Prince into a Pair of Tiny Purple Woolen Underpants, Ran Away from Michael Jackson’s … So I Could Bring Rock Videos to the Masses by Sharon Oreck
In the 1970s Sharon Oreck was a teenage single mother who had been disowned by her family. By the 1980s she was a rock video producer. This is her story about the beginning of the MTV era.
The writing in this book is annoying but the story is compelling. It helps to know a bit about 80s videos or at least be able to look them up on YouTube.
Tags: Reading
Posted in Reading | 5 Comments »
May 11th, 2012 by heather
I love peonies for the brief season that they are blooming. I have a row of them at the new house that I’m eagerly waiting to bloom. The other day I realized that I have another one. It is behind the shrubs in the front of the house. It is invisible unless you are in the bed spreading mulch. Of course it is blooming like crazy.
I’m bringing some of those blooms inside to enjoy them. So far I haven’t found any ants.
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May 10th, 2012 by heather
Last night I heard the most pathetic little mewing from outside the house. I rushed out to find out what was wrong with my poor Riley-schnoogums. He came running when I opened the door. This is also unusual since he usually requires an engraved invitation to come inside. As he rushed back I noticed that he had a bit of fluff on his chin. I turned to see what (or who) it was when he stopped in the middle of the rug, opened his mouth, and spit out a mouse. He then laid down beside it to watch it. It was twitching.
The house rules state that no prey comes inside. Prey is not takeout and live rodents are not pets for the cats – therefore they don’t come inside. He often wants to bring in live birds which he thinks is acceptable because birds live in the house.
I grabbed the mouse in a towel take it outside to die in peace. It was the principle. When I got it out I realized that it was just stunned from being caught, held in a cat’s mouth like Jonah and the Whale, spit out, recaught, and carried upside down (sorry) back outside. I wished him well and told him to hightail it out of the yard if he didn’t want to get caught again. Then I went back to continue shouting obscenities at Riley.
Tags: pets
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I was minding my own business in my own bed when there was suddenly a very loud BANG that sounded like the french doors in the living room being kicked open. Luckily, I sleep with a dog and a man trained for combat. The dog was on high alert. In her case this meant that she had decided that there was badness in the living room so she was staying in bed where it was safe. The man… was snoring.
A second quieter bang sounded and now the bird was upset. I elbowed the man. I elbowed him repeatedly until he woke up. By this time we could have been killed in our beds. He was testy about being woken up. I explained about big bad noises. Twice. Since I am not prone to imaginings of this nature and he is a crazily paranoid vetern I expected immediate action. Instead he stared at me. I pushed him out of bed.
The bird was still agitated in the living room. He went to investigate and found nothing. The dog and I went out to check once he wasn’t murdered. There was nothing around but Riley who provably was involved but isn’t talking to me since I captured his lightly stunned mouse that he brought in the house a few hours ago. I asked Jules what happened. I swear I’d know so much more if she would lower herself to speak human language. But she had relaxed so I know nothing.
Meanwhile the man had gone back to bed muttering about what was wrong with women these days waking men out of comas so they are properly in the mood to kill someone. Since there was no intruder I was lucky it wasn’t me was his point. I said fine. Next time I’ll investigate the ax murderer in the dining room myself and he can sleep through my dismemberment. Guess who will be the main suspect? Him! He said that a good ax murderer would finish me off and then come down the hall and kill him too so he wasn’t worried about it. Then he went unconscious again.
Posted in Family, Pets | No Comments »
Last week I decided to look for ballet tickets for Z and I on Saturday. When I got to the venue page I got really distracted. Weird Al Yankovic was coming to town. Screw the ballet.
The concert was last night. It was probably the best concert I’ve ever been too. The SO agreed. He also loved the nerdy people watching before the show started. He said he didn’t know that there were so many in that town. I told him we only come out of our basements on special occasions. He shouldn’t be running his mouth anyway. He knows all the words to lots of Weird Al songs too.
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Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels) by Janet Evanovich
Dead bodies are being found in shallow graves on the building site of the bail bonds office. They are addressed to Stephanie but it isn’t clear what their connection to her is.
Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie is back from vacation in Hawaii with a tan line on her ring finger and both of the men in her life have been beat up. Why won’t she tell anyone what happened?
I was disappointed with this last two (so far) books in the series. But what really impressed me is that the author has had different hair styles for all 18 books. I’m not nearly that creative.
The Gift by Cecelia Ahern (audio)
Lou is a type A business man who ignores his family. One day on a whim he helps a homeless man. Soon this man has insinuated himself into Lou’s life. Lou gets increasingly uneasy about him because he appears to be multiple places at once.
I liked this book. Lou is a horrible human being who actually reminded me a lot of my ex-husband. He doesn’t learn lessons easily and pretty much needs to be beaten over the head in an attempt to make him a better person.
1949: A Novel of the Irish Free State by Morgan Llywelyn
This is a sequel to 1916 and 1921 that I read previously. They follow a family through Irish history. You learn a lot but it can be a dry read at parts. I tried this one a while back too got bogged down. I like it but trying to read the whole series at once gets to be too much. This is the only book where I’ve ever referred to the character lists at the start of the book. I usually think they are too full of spoilers to use but I needed it here.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggagh
When an Indian doctor in London gets sick of his crude father-in-law he devises a plan to start a low price retirement home in India.
I liked this book too. I have a feeling that the movie will be very different though based on the casting.
Tags: Reading
Posted in Reading | 10 Comments »
We planted our new vegetable garden today. We’ve been warned that you can’t have a vegetable garden in our neighborhood because deer will come but I’ll put an electric fence around it if that happens.
Look! Hot pink tomato cages!
Our rhododendron is blooming.
The walls in the house were painted either green or beige when we bought it. That’s fine for showing but I was starting to get squirmy. I painted Z’s room pepto bismol pink (bella pink) first. It was hard. The beige ghosted through over and over. It took two weeks to get it done.
Once I recovered from that ordeal I started our room. I decided to do just one wall at the time since I didn’t want the whole room torn up for two weeks like Z’s was. It is the same paint in a similar value but it covered fully in one coat. I added a second coat just to make it pretty.
I was so excited last night that the room was Not Beige that I kept looking at it and giggling.
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
I got a parking ticket the other day. I was in the wrong since my meter ran out but they wrote down my plate number incorrectly.
Should I:
1. Not pay it because they will never be able to track me down?
2. Pay it because it is the morally correct thing to do?
3. Pay it in cash so they don’t know who I am and include a note that says that they should pay more attention to details or else they are going to get ripped off?
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Apr 30th, 2012 by heather
With my ongoing projects I don’t have much progress but my friend with the long arm machine finished my Orca Bay top so I just need to get that bound.
I got distracted by a quilting emergency though. I was invited to a baby shower for a coworker at my new job. I got the invitation last week. The shower is Wednesday.
Luckily I a baby quilt UFO with a sordid history that I could finish up. At my old job there is a groomer. She has assistants who help bathe. They don’t stick around long. Two years ago she had a pregnant person. I started this quilt for her but then decided that I didn’t want to go to the baby shower and never got it done. Then the drama started.
This woman had a girl child. Her fiance is an ex-boyfriend of the groomer. They were all sitting around soon after the birth of the child (and probably under the influence of mind altering substances) when the man said that because the child was a girl she had to get pregnant right away again so she can make him a boy. I guess no one ever explained that
1. It is all his “fault” that he had a girl since he gave a X chromosome
and
2. He is not Henry VIII so get over himself
and
3. Don’t talk crazy to a post-partum person
She said (remember the mind altering substances) that she wasn’t doing that so the groomer was just going to have to have the next kid. The fiance and the groomer took that as permission. Long story short the groomer is pregnant, supposedly by artificial means but no one is believing that. To the surprise of the groomer and the fiance, the mother of the first child is mad that her fiance is off impregnating others. There has been drama.
In my mind however that was a perfect excuse to finish this quilt and give it to the groomer. Keep it all in the family, as it were. I told people at work this and they laughed hard and then said that I just couldn’t even though the people involved would never know.
So when I needed a quilt in a few days I pulled this out. No one here knows the soap opera. I then proceeded to cut the remaining blocks too small. I don’t know what I was thinking when I made the center. The measurements are all weird. I added the borders and will quilt it in pink.
Tags: quilt
Posted in Quilting | 7 Comments »
Apr 29th, 2012 by heather
Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult
Delia’s world is upended when her father is arrested and charged with kidnapping her from her mother when Delia was a child. When he admits that it is true it sends her on a search for her own identity.
This book is interesting but it seems like the author wanted to pack a lot of disparate information into it. Search and rescue dogs, alcoholism, kidnapping, Hopi traditions, life in jail. Sometimes it feels like you are reading several different books at once.
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum’s sleazy cousin and boss Vinny has been kidnapped. Now it is up to Stephanie, Lula, and Connie to get him back even though they aren’t sure if they really want him returned.
I listened to this one on audio. It was rough going at first because after having read the previous 15 books the voices on the CD didn’t match the voices in my head. It was pretty good though. I liked this one because it had Hobbits. I think my favorite books in this series are the ones were the minor characters save the day.
and
Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I did a reread of these two books to see how my take on them was changed by seeing the movies. When I read them the first time I liked each book better than the one before. I think that was because they were resolving the story for me. Now I think that Mockingjay is the weakest one. Maybe I was just seeing it as a screenplay and realizing that it will be the hardest to get on screen since so much of it balances on people’s mental states. The ending with Buttercup the cat always gets to me though. I don’t mind the violent end of thousands of people but put in a sentimental animal part and I get weepy.
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
Ned is 15 and accompanying his photographer father to a shoot in Provence. While killing time in a cathedral he meets a man who tells him that he’s stumbled into a very old story so he better leave. When supernatural things start to happen around him he finds help from an aunt that he has never met and realizes that he is part of a very powerful family.
I like this author a lot because you never know what you are going to get when you read one of his books. They are all different. He also doesn’t explain everything that goes on in the books. In this one something bad happened to his aunt that caused a rift between her and Ned’s mother. It is hinted at but never fully spelled out. There are several other things like that in here too. Who or what is his uncle? It can be a bit frustrating but overall I like it.
Tags: Reading
Posted in Reading | 9 Comments »
Apr 29th, 2012 by heather
Freckles doesn’t like to make friends at the dog park but this Irish Wolfhound wanted to be her friend today.
He kept bounding up to her and standing on his hind legs to wave his front legs at her. I’m sure that was intimidating to her.
Tags: dog
Posted in Pets | 1 Comment »
Apr 26th, 2012 by heather
I don’t think the rodents around my house have had any predators for a while. The other day Riley showed up with the body of the biggest, furriest mouse I’ve ever seen. Mice don’t get that big if they have to run for their lives instead of shoveling food into their mouths nonstop. We’d been joking that it probably walked up to Riley and introduced himself because it didn’t know to be afraid.
Now we know that it might be true. Yesterday Freckles caught a mouse. She didn’t really mean too. She wanted to play with it. She carried it around by the tail. Then it didn’t want to play anymore.
The SO got her to let it go but it was damaged so he called over an expert killer. Freckles didn’t want to let Riley have her new friend but the SO lured her into the house with promises of cheese. That trumps everything except maybe Greenies in FrecklesWorld. Riley removed the evidence and we are telling Freckles that her mouse friend went to live on a farm where there is lots of grain to eat.
Tags: cat, dog
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Apr 24th, 2012 by heather
Today is my last day at my old job. Officially I was supposed to work from 2 to 6. I had a massage and sewing day in the morning.
At my massage I found out that Prize went to a horse show this weekend and took first place in Leadline. Yes, thousands of dollars spent at top trainers so she can rock the leadline circuit. Leadline is just what it sounds like. Kids 6 and under get led into the ring on their horse, walk a few laps, and line up. I’m not sure how it is judged other than falling off is bad. But, my massage therapist’s other horse and other grandkid took 5th so the girls are now arguing over who gets to show Prize next. Prize probably loves not having to work so hard at shows!
Then I went to sewing where we had ice cream sundaes. My one friend kept squirting whipped cream into my mouth. When we finished sewing she drew up straight flashed me a Vulcan salute and said, “Live long and prosper.” We are such geeks.
Then I had to go to my work party. I’ve been the party planner for the 12 years I’ve worked here so I’m not shocked they were rusty on the details of planning one. I found out about it yesterday when I noticed that 12-2 was blocked off for my party. I questioned if I was invited because as you may remember from the first paragraph I don’t work until 2. The party was also being held at a clinic that I don’t work at. Did they think I would just magically appear if they forgot to tell me? I was sewing at that time so I told them I could only be there by one. Point two of party planning – ask if the guest of honor can be there.
I got there and they were very pleased by the cake. It was an ice cream cake with Batman on it because the one with the shark was too small. Obviously. Because they are random like that here. There was pizza and I got my very own veggie one because no one else will eat healthy stuff.
The clinic owner’s brother died. (Not at the party. He died last week.) They had a card for everyone to sign. But one person obviously was confused and thought it was a going away card for me so he wrote, “Get Out!” and signed his name. My boss said that his brother had already gotten as far out as was possible.
To finish off the cluelessness my boss asked if I knew how long it took to drive from my new house to the clinic. “I mean, have you ever done that?” Twice a week since January. Four hours roundtrip. That’s why I’m doing a happy dance when this commuting is over tonight!
Tags: horse, Work
Posted in Horses, Work | 1 Comment »
Apr 24th, 2012 by heather
The front bed of my old house has matured enough to look good this spring.
Now I have to start over with new ones.
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