Ah. Friday at last. Can I get a woo hoo? :)


After an extra long day, I got to come home later but got to treat myself with a bit of seafood. J isn't a seafood fan so whenever he works late and misses supper I have a some...last night was some prawns with mushrooms, red pepper and onion with ginger and garlic and some rice.
So. Good.
Then I put a coat of black paint on the speaker stands and relaxed watching a few cheesy TLC shows with my kittehs and headed to bed. The shelves look really slick painted up. One more coat and they're good to go. I love painting...I get it everywhere, but I love it. For the record, black paint washes off really easily. That dang primer is still there tho. Seriously...4 scrubbing showers now...sheesh. :)

I may or may not have to work tomorrow (I find out today) but I have plans for some more organizing on the weekend. We have a whack of books, old VHS and clothes and stuff to give away that we've purged, so I need to drop those and the recyclables off on saturday and do some more purging and organizing. It's so...cleansing. For so long I've felt like my house was out of control and with school and life i never had the time to really work on it. Now, I can pick away at it here and there and really change things. Instead of looking around and being frustrated at all the little things I keep meaning to get to, I am actually getting to them. And, most importantly, I have my craft room back. It's not organized yet, but I had no idea how important it was for my sanity to have my space to make crazy stuff in. I love making stuff...it gets my brain all smiley and sparkley on the inside. :)

Best of all? December is tomorrow.
Oh yeah, it is! That means I can officially lift my self imposed decoration ban and start whipping out the holiday decorations. Hee hee! By next weekend, when my Dad gets home from visiting my sister I hope to have them all up. I plan to invent some peppermint candy cane cupcakes for family dinner on sunday. I found a box of candy canes in the pantry while organizing and I have to bring dessert, so we'll see what I can come up with :)

This morning I came in and fit into the spin and sculpt class. It was a great workout, and I found a container of my favourite pumpkin curry soup int he freezer so I get to look forward to a most delicious lunch. I'm doing manager training next week monday and tuesday so it'll be home workouts those days I think...I'm trying to think up some good workouts...

high quality primer

The result of watching too much Trading Spaces and Painted House is that whenever I do renos or paint I hear Debbie Travis's voice in my head as I buy paint ("Always start with a coat of high quality primer..."). I sanded and primed the shelves I built for J last night (with some high quality primer). The thing about high quality primer is that it sticks really well. To everything. Including me. I tend to paint things in my craft room in my skivvies (TMI??) because I can, so that when I'm done I can just have a shower and wash off any of the paint that I, as the clumsy person that I am, will inevitably get all over myself. It's a custom shelf with lots of angles and inny outy bits so I ended up with primer all over me from reaching in to paint all the odd bits...and that primer just will not all come off. I managed to scrub off my hands, hair and most of my arms but after both my post-paint, and post spin class shower this morning I still have dabs of grey primer on my legs and upper arms. I scrubbed so hard to try and get some of it off in obvious places that I actually made my skin red (ow), so I'm going to just leave it be and hope it doesn't take too many days to wash off. I'm wearing pants and long sleeves because of the weather thankfully...noone will know. He heh. Tonight I paint them the first coat of flat black...which I'm hoping washes off a bit easier or I'm going to be a work of abstract art before I'm done :)

This morning I awoke to loud meowing (the cats are really into pestering me as soon as my alarm goes off these days) and came in to work out. My favourite old spin and sculpt class teacher form last year was subbing in for spin class and so I squeezed in and had a great sweaty workout. Very upbeat and positive-great start to the day. :)

Now its a crunch day at work with some big old deadlines so I've gotta run and get to it.
Hope you all have a great day.

whoosh

Quick pop in to log. So busy today.
Came in for my workout and squeezed into the sculpt class. An awesome weights workout.
Gotta run. Have a great day!!

Please don't squeezah da bananas

Because when you do dat, oh don't you know you make 'em flat....

Woke up with this in my head. I have no idea what that means...

Yesterday after bellydance class, errands and a late late supper I was just done. Class was great - lots of drills, abwork and hipwork. Challenging...by the end I was happy but exhausted. I had grand plans for painting and sanding after we ate, but J looked at me and grinned and just sent my exhausted little body to bed early. So, 915 bedtime for me.
But you know what?
I feel great today. I really needed it.
Today I got up at 520 and was in for my workout. My body was sore from the bellydancing after my morning workout and so I just wanted some cardio. Crazy spin class lady was teaching and there was room left in the class, so I joined. As usual, about half way thru I questioned just why I had made myself join the spin torture, but at the end, dripping with sweat, I felt awesome. I know I worked hard and can be in at work today awake and alert and ready to go. I have much to do, so I'm really going to have my breakfast, a mug of coffee and get to it.

Hope you have a great day!

well rawr then

Well rawr.
This weekend I actually came in to work for a bit (only 4 hours) and then spent the rest of the day organizing and tidying at home in the basement, closets and pantry. The dresser I painted is reassembled and back in it's proper place and everything is back in it. J has been working like a banshee to organize the whole basement and office too. He's utterly fascinated with swiffer dusters, which cracks me up. :) We rewarded ourselves with a nice cold Innis & Gunn and an old James Bond movie (Golden Eye). Sunday I was oh so manly and cut and built J two 40 inch tall speaker stands from wood with my own 2 hands (...and a chop saw and drill). They aren't gorgeous, but they're solid and strong and will do the job. Finished them just in time for family dinner at J's folks place (taco burgers and baked potatoes...yum).
Rawr.
Tonight after bellydance I have to sand and prime them so they can be painted up this week and put to good use.

Last night I was not good at family dinner and ate a loooooooot of rice pudding for dessert. Like a lot. Like could not eat any more. A pudding baby indeed. J's mom made it for me as a late birthday dessert, and I admit - it's one of my remaining food weaknesses and I totally overdid it. So, today I made sure I got up to reboot and work out. I did the Bodyrock 12 Minute Magic bodyrock TV workout with the Play it Hard abs bonus and then 30 minutes on the elliptical and called it a day. Today will be a long full day, so I'm looking forward to my head softly hitting the pillow some time late late tonight.
Must run.
Hope you all had a great weekend :)

finally it is friday

Came in for spin and sculpt.
It is done.
Now for a long day at work and then...a nap I hope. J wants to go out and see a band tonight but I really don't. I have to go in and work for a while tomorrow and I have a lot of plans for organizing the house after. I am hoping he might want to go in on his own...and I can relax at home.

Zzzzz.....

Evil spin class lady strikes again

Evil spin class lady came...and she made us sweat. It was hard. Really hard. I can't say that I enjoyed parts of the 45 minutes of hard spin class cardio...but now that it's over? I feel great. I honestly pushed myself this morning and it was crazy tough, but in the end I know it's good for me. It's why I keep going to her spin classes even tho every time I'm in them I think "why do I do this to myself again?" She is a great lady and she makes you work (and plot her doom in your head while you workout).

Last night my second external hard drive died for no reason. I spent most of my evening wasting my time to try to get a replacement, but I may have to contact the company for a new one, since we've had it for a while. I'd rather not get a new one from the same company (since 2 of the same thing have failed now for no reason), and have to go back and try and talk to the manager of London Drugs tonight...I'll try and see what happens. I'm hoping they just let me get another one, but with no receipt (it was a gift) we'll just have to see how it goes. I don't see the point of backing up all my stuff to something if it's not going to work and randomly die for no reason. Add to this trying to explain to my husband that it didn't fail because it was a PC drive that was reformatted for both PC and Mac? Frustrating evening. Grrr. Just Grrr. I did get a bit of painting done but other than that, it was not the evening I'd planned for.
Here's hoping tonight is a lot more...well...not frustrating :)

ZWOW 43

Last night after supper I put the final coat of paint on the dresser, went out to get more Rubbermaid bins for organizing the basement, helped J with his cleaning/organizing, made some muffins and then we went thru the car wash. Hee hee...turned up the music and had a techno car wash party.  :)
Lots of work, but fun times. I still have over half a can of paint left so if anyone wants something painted a dark warm browny purple shade give me a call - I can hook you up with my people.

This morning I came in to workout and the class was full so I decided to try a ZWOW. I settled on ZWOW 43 - all you need is a chair or riser and they had a 16 inch box so I decided to give it a whirl. I did the following 3 times thru:
-15 side step-ups onto the box with knee raise (L side/leg)
-15 side step-ups onto the box with knee raise (R side/leg)
-10 tricep dips with L leg extended
-10 tricep dips with R leg extended
-15 one legged elevated lunges L leg
-15 one legged elevated lunges R leg
-10 X 10 chair climbers (elevated plank with alternating knees into chest) + step-down side-push up (alternating sides)

Whew! Those chair climbers and push ups are a killer! I really like cross fit style workouts...the alternating exercises really keep things interesting for me and if I know I only have to do so many of something, then I can push myself. It was supposed to be as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes, but it took me 12 minutes to do 2 rounds, so I figured I'd just do one more, since there was time. :)
Then I did 40 side ab crunch/extensions (15Lb) on each side and 2 X 20 back extensions and hopped on the elliptical for 25 minutes to finish off the morning. Boooyah! I feel like I really did well today!

Must be off. I've had my breakfast of iGo key lime pie yogurt (so deliciously good) and granola and it's off with some coffee to get things done. Hope you all have a great day! I plan to. :)

grumpy mcgrumpface

Last night I was grumpy mcgrupface for some reason. By the time I got home from work, went to bellydance and finally made supper it was close to 8. Then we went out to get some more bins and things to help with Operation Organize Our Sh*t and I was cranky company after spending much time looking for things that I could not find all of. Unfortunately J had to put up with me...good guy to do so. Usually I'm the cheery one, so I don't like it when I'm like that. I'm sure he wasn't thrilled either.

J is in the midst of reorganizing his basement studio and the house is a gong show, but it's coming back together spectacularly. Still so much work to do, but eventually we may have our lives organized again...some day. So much done already...but so much left to do...
Just keep swimming...

Today I wanted to reboot and shake the cranky, so I came in and was happy to see that my favourite old boot camp instructor was subbing for the usual yelley spin instructor, so I squeezed into the spin class. It was great. Lots of energy, and hard sweaty exercise and a bit of core at the end for those of use who wanted to stay. She has a way of pushing you but making you happy about it...and I feel great.

I feel tired still, but I will do my best to be crank free today and get things done.
Have a great day everyone...

Foggy escape

Ah. Fantastic weekend. J and I got away up to the snowy cabin for a weekend alone together. Dad is away, so my favourite place in the world was all ours :) Much relaxing in front of the fire and snowy walks and wine and love. Uninterrupted time together, with nowhere to be or things to do. Absolutely marvelous. It was so foggy you couldn't see the other side of the lake...like we were trapped somewhere in time in a winter wonderland all by ourselves.
Meep. :)

This morning I was up and in refreshed form the weekend. I managed to fit into the spin and sculpt class and got my ass thoroughly kicked by the instructor. Alternating 2 songs on the spin bike with 5 minutes of varying weights, with an over all crazy sweaty workout. I feel great.

Winter wonderland

Stiff today from yesterday. Feels good to know I did something...especially since I slept in this morning. I was up late doing things and was just grumpy exhausted by the time I went to bed, so I slept in this AM to try and rid myself of some crank. It worked. 7 solid hours of sleep is nice.
Going up to the lake with just my J this weekend (my Dad is away visiting my sister). Can't wait to go for long walks in the snow and have the place to ourselves. Fire and marshies and hot chocolate all weekend :)
Squee!

busy day

Non stop labwork today. Finally got time to pop in for 30 seconds to log in.
This AM I came in and hammered out the She Must Workout bodyrock workout plus ab bonus and then 30 minutes on the elliptical. Done and done. Gotta run!

And for my next magical trick

Last night J and I got some more wood and paint so I can build him some speaker shelves for his studio over the next week or so. They may not be too pretty, once they're painted up they should work well for what he needs. I'm flattered that he figures I can build shelves for his studio monitor speakers. Rawr.

This AM I came in to workout and did lower body stuff. I only did about 15 minutes of half assed cardio after my lower body work, since I recieved a text from my mominlaw this morning while working out that she'd somehow miscalculated on the trip and I still owe her some more $$ for the trip for the hotel...grr. I had just spent most of what I thought was "leftover" savings on paint and wood so she will just have to wait a bit until I get paid for the rest of it. I cannot just pull $100 out of my ass. (altho it would be a handy trick wouldn't it?)  Anyways...by the time I'd replied I was just cranky so I tried to ramp up my brisk walking to a sweaty run to shake my cranky pants but after a few minutes I just was done. I had a long shower and came in to work a bit early. Still a bit cranky about it, but such is life.

This evening I'll be priming my dresser, planning these speaker shelves I'm building and practicing pulling money out of my ass. I'll let you know how it all goes down.

Later taters.



Shop till you drop

I came. I saw. I shopped.
Oh lordy - my mother in law is a shopping machine :)
We hit the weather just right on our trip this weekend. The 7 hour drive was just ahead of the monster storm and once we arrived in minot the freezing rain and foot of snow started to fall and blow. But, we were there so it was all good. We drove the in-laws new Ford Flex on the trip and wow... it is FANTASTIC, both to drive and as a winter car. It drove through ice and snow like nothing was even there. We could make it around town to where we wanted to go and then the blizzard conveniently blew itself out the night before we headed home so the roads had been plowed and we had a nice sunny day home with decent roads again. Got in a nice soak in the hotel hot tub too :)
I have all my christmas shopping done (woot!) and I and my sister in law managed to stay on the side of duty free (phew!). My mother in law not so much... they shopped hard core...we went and checked out all the places and stores in town, especially those we don't have up here where I live (helloooo Target, Kmart and Hot Topic!!). There was no christmas music yet in the mall (thank goodness) which was nice. I also got a few christmas foodie treats & junk you can't get here (gingerbread oreos, peanut butter cheerios, almond joy coffee creamer and Alpine white chocolate peppermints (drool...)). I have a few new outfits for work and some kick ass shoes, and I got to spend hours at what has to be the coolest store ever - Hobby Lobby. Seriously...crafty heaven. Got some stuff for me for making bellydance costumes, as well as gifts and other awesome stuff for future creative schemes...even some robots for my christmas tree. Meep.

Hee hee. Seriously - how cute are these guys? I am on a robot kick at the moment...or as J calls them (in a 1950s newcaster sort of voice)- rowbits. :)

I am glad to be home...safe and sound with J. Things are ramping up at work and it will be nice to not have to worry about the holiday madness. I am not really a shopper so I have had my fill for a long while now...It's back to regular life. So glad.

Altho saturday was hard core all day shopping (seriously - 9AM until 9 PM...these women are crazy) I managed to get a run in sunday morning on the treadmill (the malls didn't open until noon so I could convince my mum-in-law that we wouldn't miss anything!). This morning I came in to work out. Did upper body exercises and some abs and then hopped on the elliptical. I feel grrrrrreat!!

Slowly getting in the christmas spirit :)

Kindness

My boss is a kind man. He is letting me leave work early today to drive to the US because there is a heavy snowfall warning for the south of the province starting at about supper time...right when we would be driving there. Which will mean poor driving conditions...I hated asking, since it would mean I'd have to skip the training we have right after lunch on how the new cold rooms work, but really...it's a walk in fridge. How hard can it be? It wasn't serious training, but I didn't want it to reflect badly on me by leaving early. I asked, and he said it was OK due to the circumstances, so I'm going to take his word that it is. I was going to take the whole day off, except for this training anyways. This way we still get started at noon and it gives us a bit of leeway. I'll be the one driving in the dark in the snow...and this way if it takes a few hours longer we'll still get there. They expect 6-10 inches of snow with wind today. Not looking forward to it...
I slept in as long as I could today. My annoying cats tried to get me up earlier, but I managed an extra 40 minutes or so of sleep. Here's hoping the drive goes well...
Have a good weekend :)

Geo 1, house 0

Last night I attacked the house for 5 solid hours. The main areas are clean and tidy, and I got a bit of organizing done. I didn't get the dresser primed, but so many other cluttery things that have been driving me mad lately have been brought under control. There's still so much more to do, but I look around the main areas of my house now and I'm not embarrassed. I'm actually rather content. My Dad is coming down to fly out and visit my sister while I'm away and I like knowing that he'll actually get to see the house in it's normal state for once...

It's been raining which has turned to snow, so the roads are quite slippery today. I'm hoping the roads improve a bit and things stay cold for a while, so our drive down to the US tomorrow isn't too stressful. I don't mind winter driving, it's the *other* people I worry about. People get stupid this time of year, and try to drive like it's still summertime and that makes for dangerous driving for the rest of us poor sods stuck on the road with them. I'm content to plug along calmly and safely and get to our destination in one piece. It's all major highways and traffic routes on our trip, so with any luck the roads will be OK. Crossing my fingers and toes...

This morning I came in for spin class. It was the hard, yelly instructor, but she was really happy and spontaneous today. I worked really hard, but I enjoyed it. After lots of smiles and drips of sweat and I'm ready for the day.
Later taters :)


Slip sliding away.

Rawr.
This morning was sculpt class. Lots of great stuff for upper and lower body and abs. A lot of cool exercises using towel sliders. I enjoyed it.
I've been planning out my workouts for the weekend since I'm going away on a girls-only trip to the US this weekend. I'm the designated driver for the 8 hour late drive friday night to get us there since I'm OK driving at night, but I want to be as awake as I can since it's deer migration season and I need to be alert. Soooooo friday I'm sleeping in until 7 instead of getting up at 5:20 to workout and I'll just check out the hotel gym on the weekend while I'm there instead. There's a pool and hot tub, plus I found a few bodyweight only bodyrock workouts so even if they don't have a full on gym facility I can slip in a workout (if I'm not exhausted form walking around shopping at the giant Hobby World store...he heh.). I'm not a huge shopper...just looking forward to the trip away to relax, sip coffee and stock up on crafty things at the giant crafty store. That's *my* kinda shopping!
I'm curious to see the mood down there after the whole election dramarama. It's going to be odd needing my passport...but I'm sure they'll let me in.
Hope you're all making it through the week OK. :)

tuesday already?

Last night's belly dance class was fun -we did a lot of hip circles and figures eights which use your obliques a lot. Abs are a bit stiff from it all, but it's so cool to make your body do cool sexy wiggly things like that :)
After supper we assembled the bedside tables and put them in place...and wow they look nice. So good that I couldn't wait to paint the dresser so we took the dresser apart and took the handles off so I can prime it tonight. The stuff in the dresser is in a few rubbermaid bins and hopefully I can get the dresser painted up relatively quickly and have it back next week some time. I have to sand and prime it tonight and if I'm quick about it I can get the dresser painted up before the weekend to give it a few days to sit and harden up. The handles are OK, just a bit brassy, so I'm just going to spray them a flat black and put them back on. This is so exciting. This is stuff I haven't been able to do for years. It's satisfying to look around and see a real change in the house already...and I'm just getting started. He hee.

This morning I came in for my lower body focused workout, with 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical after. After a buy-in of 10 burpees, the workout was 3 sets of:
-15 box step ups with knee raise
-20 deadlifts with 35 Lb
-20 walking lunges with twists with 12 Lbs
-20 sumo squats with side leg extensions
-12 weighted leg extensions (40 Lb)
-15 weighted kick backs on the hip machine (100Lb)
-15 weighted inner thigh squeeze on the hip machine (100Lb)
-10 weighted outer thigh push on the hip machine (100Lb)

And now, after some granola and a banana I'm off to the lab. This afternoon the coolness ramps up to max factor 11. We just got cleared to move into the new building's offices so I'm gonna go get my gear into my (eep!) new office!! There are windows!!! Eeee!

Dusty...

Well then. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to this weekend, but it was busy and productive.
Bottled my blueberry wine, which looks lovely. It fermented out quite dry and my attempts to sweeten it helped a bit, but I didn't make it as sweet as I probably should have. Still a newb at this wine stuff. It's a nice semi dry red - good for most people. Since it will likely be gifted out over the holidays I figure it will do. :) I finished painting up the bedside tables and J and I did solid crazy super clean of our bedroom to suck up all the cat fluff and dust in there, especially taking down the canopy we have had over the bed for years. Preparation for the new tables. Baha.
But wow...So. Much. Dust.  My sneeze record was 16 in a row. Sheesh. My allergies went absolutely insane, but it will be so nice to have the bedroom tidy and organized. I'm repainting our dresser to match our new bedside tables, which will be dry and ready to used in the bedroom today. Hooray! Mini bedroom makeover! In the spring we are replacing the windows in our bedroom and we're going to repaint then and get a new duvet cover. For now, this reboot to our sanctuary is so very nice :)
After a ridiculously convoluted installation of the snow tires, I made a treat that I haven't in a while - meat cheese buns. Fresh buns with spicy hamburger and a square of gouda baked into the centre. I haven't made them since before I started school, because they take all day. I made up 4 dozen and after a late late supper of them there are still lots left to freeze for quick suppers over the next while.
And this morning I was worried my allergies would still be crazy, but I felt fine and was in the gym for my morning workout. I did upper body and back today with 30 minutes on the elliptical after.  3 rounds through sets of reps of arm, shoulder and back weights with some push ups, back work and ab crunches in there. Very nice :)
Tonight is belly dancing and more bedroom attack. I'm rebooting the house one room at a time...Next one - Kitchen! :)

Winter is Coming

Wow. 12 inches of slow overnight after freezing rain. It took me 50 minutes to get to work on a 20 minute bus ride. So very glad I'm not driving today! It's the first real snowfall of winter and everyone is still getting used to it all. Buses were getting stuck.
There was no workout this AM - J and I were out late and it's another late night tonight so I slept in and I'm glad for the extra time getting ready today! Have a nice weekend everyone. Besides putting ont he snow tires (a bit late heh) I have lots of busy chores planned for the weekend and am looking forward to whipping my house into shape and finishing some painting.
Have a great day!

Winter plans

I was reading a post from a few years in october when I started up a good winter workout plan that I remember really enjoying. I was thinking about it over lunch and I think it will give it a shot starting monday and see how it goes:

Cardio:
M/W/F: 30 min HIT cardio on the bike or elliptical
T/Th: 25 minute swim
Weekends: what I can fit in. Maybe nothing...maybe walks, elliptical, exercise ball DVD...

Muscle work:
M/Th: Lower body and abs
T/F: Upper body weights
Wed - a bit longer cardio and a focus on core and back

Sounds reasonable to me. Wed or Sat I may swap in a ZWOW or bodyrock workout or try and hit the sculpt class Wednesdays when there's room. I just need a bit of regularity and newness. Plus I would like to get back to swimming this winter. It's so nice when it's stupid cold out to hop in a pool every once in a while and I really enjoyed it. Plus, now that I have a locker I can leave my swim stuff there and it will be way less of a hastle.

halloween fail

Yesterday was a fail nutrition wise. Why? Well I honestly don't have a sweet tooth (I like salty stuff) and I still ended up eating a rediculous amount of Halloween candy yesterday at work and at home. Not proud of it. Very relaxing fun time at work...got too festive with the candy. Mindful eating was definitely not on the radar. At least I got to wear my bear head all day! :)

After supper we had more kids come to our door than ever before and then when I ran out to get more candy since it looked like we'd been invaded and were out of it...no one else came. So now I have a bag of spiderman candy, which thankfully I am not tempted by. So much sugar yesterday I just feel blech.
So today I'll be good. Every day is a new one...and a good one :)

I came in and did my own workout. After yesterday which was pretty upper body intense I made up my own mostly lower body workout, followed by 30 min on the elliptical.
3 sets of the following with 12 Lb dumbbell:
-20 weighted box step ups, each side
-20 one legged dead lifts
-15 lawnmower pulls (with one dumbbell)

2 sets of:
-leg extensions (40 Lb)
-back extensions
-hanging ab crunches
-weighted side leg raises (100Lb)
-weighted thigh crunches (100Lb)
-weighted kick backs (100Lb)

Very solid workout.
Now...to the lab.