Why I Lift

Five months from my last post and I am still doing the CrossFit thang! It almost seems unreal that I have kept up with ANY fitness endeavor for so long. I thought I would update you on my progress.

In 5 months... 

• I am 28 pounds lighter
• My baseline workout (21 - 15 - 9 reps of squats, pushups, sit-ups) finished 15 minutes faster
• I am 4 pant sizes smaller
• a bra cup smaller :(
• My deadlift improved 75 pounds
• My back squat improved 70 pounds
• My push press improved 40 pounds
• I haven't measured it, but I can run further before walking
• I use my asthma inhaler way less
• My joints hurt less
• I went from working out 2-3 days per week to 4-6 days per week

...but those reasons are not enough to stand the test of time to keep me showing up week after week when I've hit a weight loss plateau (for the past month), or I feel like I'm not improving like I should, or when the 20-somthing year olds are still leaving me in the dust.

Why keep going? Two main reasons:

1)          I found something I love. If there's a barbell, kettle bell or slam ball involved, then it's game ON! I feel powerful. I can take on the world. I especially love Olympic weight lifting. When the workout includes a barbell, I'm loving it. Even when I'm laying in the "recovery position' and often dead last afterwards, I feel accomplished and athletic. FIND SOMETHING YOU LOVE TO DO! I'm not bashing other avenues of fitness, this is just what clicked for me. Try out different things, get a friend involved!

2)         I figured out what I was fighting for.  We've all seen the trite "fitspiration" memes on the interwebs that say "to look good naked" or "nothing tastes as good as thin feels". I'm sorry, but those reasons make me want to vomit. I don't know about you, but that's not enough reason to make such a lifestyle change when you're sweating your toenails and pushing yourself harder than you ever thought you could. I had a hard time nailing down my reasons until I read a post Find Your Fight by Nate Miyaki and it was like a lightbulb moment for me! I'm not the same person!

I'm fighting...

• for my health - I have psoriatic arthritis and my increasing weight and couch potato experience points weren't doing me any favors
• to not feel weak and incapable
• to be a good example for my patients and to earn more trust as a healthcare provider. You might not trust a skinny cook, but you certainly have trouble trusting a fat healthcare provider giving health advice.
• against empty nest syndrome 
• loneliness and boredom 
• to feel comfortable in my own skin. 

Drinking the Cr-ool Aid

Okay, so that was a terrible attempt at a pun for a title, but I'm sure you're not reading this for my literary prose. (By the way, why ARE you reading this? I've been gone for months!) Anyhoo, I have restarted posting on my blog to tell you about my newest love, CrossFit.


WAIT! Don't click away yet! Don't look at me like the Amway salesman or those college kids selling magazines! Now, if you're looking at me up and down like "um, YOU do CrossFit?" with those disbelieving eyes at my spare tire and badonkadonk, then you'd be more on target. Do any google image search on CrossFit and you will have pages upon pages of muscled guys doing pull-ups and lifting weights. Go on and look, I'll wait. It's verra nice eye candy.

I remember looking up CrossFit about a year ago after falling down some internet rabbit hole on exercising. I quickly decided to mind-save that for later when I had lost weight and restarted running again.  I thought it was way over my head and only for serious athletes and the nearest "box" was 30-35 minutes away, so running is what I did...over...and over...and over... until I read this article: Why Women Should Not Run. The article had me thinking about my current "training" and why I never really felt "fit" by ONLY running. I continued to stay overweight. I dove back into the rabbit hole and came up with CrossFit again. I saw that a "box" had opened in my town a year before and mustered up the courage to walk in for the first time.

Apprehension was an understatement. I showed up to the "Ladies Only" class, got a tour, explanations on what is CrossFit and noticed that the women were of all body types. Instead of technical weight machines with little computers, I saw barbells, jump ropes, weighted balls, kettle bells and and pull-up bars. A little less anxious now and ready to work on my "baseline". "Baseline" is also code for "you're-really-gonna-suck-hard-so-you'll-have-room-to-improve". Baseline consisted of the following performed for time: 21-15-9 reps of push ups (I did girl pushups), sit-ups (CrossFit situps were easier on my back) and squats with a 200 meter run between. Sometime after my arms and legs decided to quit cooperating, I finally finished the baseline DEAD LAST. CrossFit: the only sport where the last to finish gets the most applause and encouragement.

Was I sore? Hells to the yeah. Did I feel like an 80 year old who had been hit by a truck for a few days? You betcha. But I also discovered that I had worked out muscles that the Y had never found. I also knew this was to be expected for the first day, but somehow people move on and KEEP GOING. My coach was adamant that I not give up on myself and even messaged me on Facebook a couple of times to make sure I was okay. Determined not to be THAT girl who gives up after one class, I went back, and back, and back.

Am I the picture of fitness? No. Have I improved? YES! Do I have to scale down a workout or do a modification of a modification of an exercise to make it work? Yes, and that's okay. Leaving your ego at the door helps prevent injury. After only 3 weeks, I have more strength and better endurance than I ever could have going to the Y in the same amount of time. The numbers on the scale did go up initially, but over 3 weeks I have lost 9 pounds with the addition of a Paleo-ish diet. My last WOD (Workout of the Day) I wasn't even last! I feel SO GOOD after accomplishing a workout, I wish I could bottle it.

Is this for everyone? No. I too, heard the stories of someone doing CrossFit and injuring something. However, I have injured my back picking up a pencil out from under a coffee table before. I had to weigh the pros and cons for myself. I could sit at home, sitting safely on the couch, knitting in front of the TV while watching my weight increase and my strength decrease. I could wait for an everyday task to injure me, or eventually succumb to diabetes, hypertension and heart disease that seems to run in my family. I have back issues and I feel the strong core building component is helping rather than hurting me.

Call it drinking the Kool-aid, Cruel-aid, whatever! I challenged myself to 90 day Paleo with at least 3 days per week CrossFit. I will let you know how it goes. I have already taken some before pictures...and have promptly thrown up in my mouth a little bit.

Edited to add: I do NOT advocate the "Women Should Not Run" blog article, only that it made me re-examine what I consider fitness. I still run and love doing it. My CrossFit box includes running as a daily part of our warmup. I just realized that there were other things I wanted to do in the world of fitness that have benefitted me greatly.

Traveling With OCD

It's a little known fact (if you know me quite well) that I have a touch of "the OCD". Now, it's not pathologic or clinical (or I'm in denial) but just enough to make it either an endearing quality or annoying as hell.

Traveling has a way of amping up my OCD superpowers and I have been known to check to see if my boarding passes have been packed...say...twelve times without blinking an eye. I'm not the type who can throw a few things in a bag with a moment's notice. I need PLANNING, PEOPLE! 

Back to the boarding passes, and resort confirmations...etc... I like to have them in ONE place in my bag but don't like that they get all crumpled (I told you, I am the queen of OCD on the planet OCD in the universe of OCD). I went to the local office supply store to see if I could find a small little half sheet sized folder to carry these in. Nope. Not a one. They were all too small or too large, or too papery, or too flimsy... and my porridge was too cold. Not to despair! Folder hack to the rescue! (insert Billy Mays-esque videos of people unable to hold paper folders and clumsily dropping and tearing them beyond recognition. Cue in angelic spotlight to behold...

My modified envelope with the original size:

It was really a "duh" moment when I was staring at the large vinyl envelopes and deduced that you could easily cut one up and sew it up to the dimensions you want! (I know, did I just use the "S" word?) 

I used a rotary cutter and rotary ruler to cut it apart, but you could just as easily draw lines with a straight edge and cut it out with a pair of scissors. I used the snap as my middle gauge. Since a standard sheet of paper is 8.5" wide, I allowed for 1/4" on either side for the seam and added another 1/4" on each side for ease of being able to shove in the paper goods = 9.5" wide (I parked the snap at 4 3/4" on the ruler to make sure I got it in the middle) and hacked up the sides. I wanted the overall depth of the envelope to be 6" so I lopped of the bottom. Here's what it looks like in pieces

Snap the pieced envelope closed (to make sure you sew it in the right place) and using your sewing machine sew (the SEW! It burns us!) a 1/4" seam up the sides and bottom. I also rounded the corners with scissors because I'm fancy. Voila! No crumple, vinyl document container for your travel bag!

The first one I made was a bit smaller than I needed, so I'm using it to store all of my keepsake Christmas cards. See anyone you know?

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

I also used gardening velcro to contain my charging cords in my suitcase!

This stuff is pretty awesome. I bought it at Home Depot to stake some rather large, top-heavy Dahlias I tried to grow in my garden. Come to find out, this stuff has multiple uses. One side of the strip has the soft plushy side and the other, the bumpy grabby side (stop me if I'm being too technical here) and it sticks to itself.  I've used this stuff to wrangle TV/stereo wires and cords. This stuff is WAY cheaper than velcro cord ties you can buy in electronic stores. Excuse the crappy iphone pic.

I must add, that I am typing this post because I got distracted while packing. Maybe I have a touch of "the ADD" too?

Cinnamon Clay Ornaments! No bake!

I know what you're thinking "who is this long lost soul who has magically appeared in my feed reader?" (read feeder?) To answer your questions:

1) I am still alive. I didn't have the ever popular fake internet death. You still may send money and flowers.
2) Running? Meh. Not much. It's winter dontchaknow! I know, I know...I do live in Texas where we only get about 2 days of actual winter, but I hate that it's dark when I get home. My body literally wants to hibernate this time of year. I did participate in a crazy fun 5K recently. Pics to follow later
3) Knitting? Yes please! I've been making warm woolens for my sister and her family in Virginia. Oh yeah...my sister, bro-in-law and the children that she bore just for me picked up and moved for his job. I know! ROOOD!
4) Still single (wink wink) fighting off the throngs of men with sticks as my milkshake must be bringing them all to my yard. They're trampling the grass. GET OFF MY LAWN!

So, to get to the REAL reason I re-opened up my dusty ol' blog... Cinnamon Clay Ornaments! (and all the grammar and punctuation mistakes you can eat. Seriously, I just write the way I think. Don't choke on an ellipsis...)

They may look delicious, but they are completely inedible. They will make your house smell wonderfully cinnamony for days! My mother kept a few that I had made for 10 YEARS so they also last a long time

What you will need:

1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon + extra for dusting when you roll out the dough. I find cinnamon in 16 oz bulk containers which works perfectly!
You may also add cloves or nutmeg if you just want it for smell-icity
1 cup applesauce - I used sugar free to help discourage critters eating them
1/3 cup white school glue

Mix the measured cinnamon, applesauce and glue in bowl until it creates a dough.

Dust your work surface with cinnamon, plop down some dough, dust with more cinnamon and roll out to 1/4" thickness or so.

Go nuts with cookie cutters! Remember to make a hole in the top of the ornament to hang them by. A drinking straw works great for this.

Place cut out shapes on a cookie cooling rack and allow to air dry for a few days. The thicker you made your ornament, the longer it will take to dry. You can also set them outside on a dry sunny day to help speed the process.

TIP: Because I didn't want my cooling racks tied up with ornaments for days, I went to Home Depot and purchased a gridded light diffuser found in the section where they sell fluorescent lighting. The shapes dry quite well and you aren't tying up your cooling racks!

When dry, this is where you can have fun with decorating. I used dimensional fabric "Slick" paint to "ice" the ornaments.

I also used glitter sprinkled on the "iced" cookies, but my favorite was cheap, tiny seed beads. While paint is still wet, hold ornament with an old spatula (that you don't care if it gets messed up with paint) hold over a bowl and sprinkle on the beads. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Allow to dry and use ribbon to make hanger loops.

Make the ornaments ahead of time and have a decorating party during the holidays!
I made personalized ones to use as Christmas present labels!

You Think You Know Me...

This is just for funsies, to see how well you know me. These are things that I say, or have been known to say and pretty much outline the structure of my brain. Fill in the blank with what you think I would say. The person who gets the most right the firstest will win 50 awesome points. GO!

1) Texas Heritage ______________!

2) What an apartment locator would say ____________________

3) Cool  _________

4) Listen to the message, ____  _____, _______ ________

5) Disco _________ is real

6) Your _________

7) ___________ beer

8) I like to picture Jesus as _______________________ (this can have multiple answers)

9) da wool, da wool, da wool is on fi-yah _____________________________________

10) I'm ________________ of here

11)  If you use WebMD to research a health problem, it will say you either have _____________ or __________________

12) My most frequently used texting emoticon __________________

13) ___________________brings all the boys to my yard (easy. Can be anything)

14) When the world slips you a Jeffery, _____________________________________

15) Knitty__________ and Marsh________________

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

The sun in shining, the air is warming, the birds are singing. I step outside and breathe in the crisp air wanting to spin around like Julie Andrews on a hilltop when I turn, and see...

...the neighbor's graffiti-ed refrigerator sitting in their driveway and hear their 2.5 year old roof tarp flapping in the wind, while their yappy little yap-dogs yap away at nothing as usual. I sigh, realizing the peaceful sounds will be short lived when the teenage boys finally wake up and decide to lift weights in their garage to the sounds of thumpthump gangsta rap most of the day. I glance down to see their white, male tomcat cower under a dented Trans Am watching my every move. We have a hate-hate relationship. I stamp my foot in a show of force as he flinches and arches his back. Yes, I hate you too.

This cat has decided to conduct his nightly kitty war meetings on my back patio. Most nights at 0-dark-thirty, I awaken to the yowling and growling of cat war. Once, there were even bloody cat prints on my patio. I used to get up, and charge outside armed with only a broom and brave the unmistakable pungent tang of cat spray to chase off the invaders. This no longer works. There are three of them. A tripartite of cat-ass-trophe (sorry for the pun. Couldn't resist)

I was advised to use everything from vinegar to citrus rinds to cayenne pepper to deter these feline hooligans, but deduced that all I was doing was marinating my patio. I placed cheap wire fencing around the patio, but they jumped it anyway and the patio just looked like a fenced concrete prison yard. I placed faulty, blinking, staked solar yard lights to confuse them. I filled the open corners in the fence with bricks, limbs and other yard crap to make it harder for them to enter my yard. I TRIED to play nice, I TRIED to deter rather than punish.

I bought...a BB gun.

Now before you sic PETA on me and fill my comment page with hate comments, I bought the lowest powered plastic pistol that shoots plastic BB's. It will do no more than sting for a few moments but still get my point across. I made use of it the other night with a long haired cat and can say that 1) he has not been in my backyard again and 2) I have seen him in other yards since  and he is no worse for wear.

I just want to be able to sit on my patio and sip coffee without smelling cat spray.

Go ahead punk...make my day

Status...asthmaticus

Miss me? Sorry about dropping a New Years flaming bag of blog post on your doorstep and running away into the night for 3 weeks! Yet here I am again to toilet paper your brain with my mindless drivel. For those of you who actually READ my blog, thank you...both of you.

I actually have been sticking to my New Year's resolutions. I am eating better, I have resumed running and am "working on" treating myself better.

Running: This is where the title of this post comes in. I've been jumping on the hamster wheel of endless torture treadmill and/or hitting the track about 5 times per week with maybe a hiccup or two here and there. I have a life, you know! don't laugh So far, I've mainly been walking but have incorporated more running.  I have to say my fitness progress isn't as bad as the first time when I started from nothing, but it's still hard. Gotta start somewhere, eh? I restarted the Couch to 5K program. I am planning on running a half marathon in 2012, so I have plenty of time to train.

Food: As an AA sponsor is to an alcoholic, my Lose It! app is to me. In true OCD fashion, I enter what I eat and it calculates the calories for me. I can choose how many calories I need to eat to lose "X" number of pounds. It has charts and graphs and everything. The best part is my daughter uses it too and the program lets us see each others achievements! Of course, I can choose what I want to show up on her side. I may not want her to see the marshmallow and coconut microwaved concoction I came up with last night to use up the rest of my calories.   ahem  I was talking about eating better, wasn't I? Ah yes, I also go to the local farmer's market once per week for fresh veggies. I eat healthier things, it keeps me out of the grocery store a bit longer and I'm supporting local business. Win! I have lost some weight, which is making exercise MUCH easier. If you want to "friend" me on Lose It, look me up!

Wordless Wednesday

Refresh Button

Wouldn't it be nice to have an actual refresh button for life? Wait! Before you pull out that barely concealed box of Massengil from beneath the table, I meant RE-fresh, not unfresh! Douchebags... The attraction of the new year's resolution is the chance for a do-over, a second chance, an oops-I-crapped-my-life fix. So yes, I will be like most of the prattling, look-at-me blogs in the webverse and discuss all of the crap I plan on doing differently.

...and now for part two of the obligatory "look at the stupid stuff I did in 2010 and the different stupid stuff I'm going to do in 2011.

ahem.

1) Better food. I have a love/hate relationship with food. I'll admit that food does temporarily comfort me and sometimes when I find something particularly good, I eat too much of it and sit in my semi (food) drunken stupor with a silly grin on my face drooling into a cup. Unfortunately, this leads to unwanted weight issues. Well meaning people will say "you should just eat less and move more" or "it's all in portion control" or suggest diet plans. That's like suggesting to an alcoholic "perhaps you weren't aware that there are other beverages to drink. Here...have some apple juice." I am a well educated health care professional and I probably know a lot more about nutrition than the average bear. I'm just going to say that I'm taking more steps to eat healthy.  I will make strides to have a better diet with less processed, artificial food and actually plan in advance that I will actually want to eat some food when I get home and have something in mind AHEAD of time. Why is it a big surprise when I get home from work and oh-my-goodness-I-need-to-eat-some-junk-food-NAO-because-I-didn't-know-I-was-going-to-have-to-eat-and-planned-nothing panic.

2) Improved fitness. This isn't saying much when compared with my current state. As I huffed around the track this morning, I wondered where the girl who ran the half marathon last year went. I liked her a lot better. She was a machine! Maybe an old Ford Pinto with a bubble hatch, but still a machine! I'm going to win her back like a bad romantic comedy. (cue Eye of the Tiger music)

3) Treat myself better and get off my own case. Have you ever looked at old pictures of yourself and wish you could have told that person that she's really cute and not at all as fat as she thinks? That she really has it better than she complains about? That she's sweating the small stuff? ::looks in the mirror and pastes on a fake, insecure smile:: Okay, I'm going to have to work on this one.


In short, for 2011 I'm going to be more awesome.

2011 Reboot

Ah...the new year. A time when we can Ctrl + Alt + Del and try and reboot ourselves for the future. As much as I scoff about resolutions, (they are just so resolute!) I like to look forward to what this year can bring. Everybody gets so entrenched and mentally flailing during the holidays that the new year is like a deep breath of fresh air.

First, we must dust off the 2010 goals and see where we landed. Last year, I had fewer new year goals, thank goodness!

1.  Be more social - Far from being a social butterfly, I did often resist my hermit-like nature. I feel like I grew closer to my friends. They really surprised me on Christmas Eve - a dark and stormy night. I hear a furious pounding on the door. Alarmed, I was thankful that my son-in-law the Marine was in my home at the time. I opened the door. At my feet were two boxes of Christmas goodies but no person/live body to go with them only the retreating stares of headlights in the rain. I called after the car "Who are you?". The car stopped, paused for a moment, then a hand ascended from the partially open door in full "bird" formation before hurrying off into the night. A big grin grew on my face. I never would have guessed that getting the bird and being called a "hoar" would be such terms of endearment...but...there you are. My friends are amazing.

2.  Finish half marathon and continue running. Well, I DID finish the half marathon and got back out in starts and spurts occaisionally. I could make lots of excuses, but my inner drill sergeant won't let me.

3. Get through my daughter's wedding - done. over. finito. hasta la vista baby!

4. Simplify and de-stuffify my house/life - Over the course of the year, I did move out my daughter and took 3 TRUCKLOADS full of stuff to the Goodwill. The garage sale just wasn't happening. Too much trouble for too little money and now others can benefit from my castoffs. I can now park in my own garage!!!!

Next post will be about my goals for the new year. I'm still thinking about them. Right now, I just want to be more awesome.

Inner Drill Sergeant

OKAY MAGGOT! YOU CAN GET OFF YER LAZY ASS, QUIT FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF AND GET OUT THERE AND MAKE YOURSELF HAPPEN!

I just feel so blah, so bloated and out of shape. I just want to stay inside and watch TV.

OH YES, BECAUSE THAT ALWAYS MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER RIGHT?

Well, no... but I am hungry. Food always makes me feel better. Food is comfort.

WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME EXACTLY HOW COMFORTABLE YOU FEEL IN YOUR OWN SKIN RIGHT NOW. DO THESE CLOTHES FEEL COMFORTABLE? DO YOU GET OUT OF BREATH WALKING AROUND THE BLOCK? REMIND ME AGAIN HOW GOOD FOOD MAKES YOU FEEL? HOW'S THAT NEW "EXPANSION PACK" THAT BEN AND JERRY INSTALLED FOR YOU?

Uh, no...but you don't understand...I've had a very stressful year. My daughter got married and moved away, my dog died, I'm still adjusting to a new job...

WAH! SHIT HAPPENS! THAT'S NO CALL FOR RETREATING TO YOUR CELLULITE COFFIN. PEOPLE GO THROUGH WORSE EVERY DAY. GET OVER IT!

I guess you're right. Are you sure you want to take on the plight of the lost Fantasia hippo? heh heh? Isn't Seaworld missing a manatee? Man the harpoon...

CRITICIZE YOUR LAZINESS, CRITICIZE YOUR BAD MOOD, HECK EVEN CRITICIZE YOUR MOTIVATION. THOSE ARE IN THE HERE AND NOW AND CAN BE CHANGED. WE WILL NOT JOKE OR CRITICIZE ABOUT FAT, BECAUSE THOSE ARE PAST CHOICES YOU MADE. WE WILL LEARN FROM THEM - YES! BUT LOOKING BACK WILL NOT TAKE US FORWARD. UNDERSTOOD?

Yes. Where do I start?

NOW. PUT DOWN THE CHOCOLATE AND STEP OUT THE DOOR.

but it's cold   -   DRESS WARMLY
I've been coughing   -   USE AN INHALER. YOU'LL LIVE
I look ridiculous   -   YOU WERE INVISIBLE BEFORE
my jogging bra doesn't fit   -   I DOUBT YOU WILL JOG, JUST PUT ON THE OTHER ONE
I'll be the cliche January 1 fitness restart   -   BETTER THAN NOT RESTARTING AT ALL

Okay...here goes nothin

Sick

By dose is stobbed up ad I hab a fever. One of the drawbacks to being a healthcare provider - being exposed to all of the nasty germies. Sure, I wash my hands after each patient, I hold my breath when looking in a throat and ears, germicide spray the rooms and often clean my stethoscope after a sick patient but I still get sick. The good thing is that I usually know what it is and what to do about it, the bad thing is that I learned it from experience. And hey, I will NEVER get this particular virus again until the virus mutates enough to be recognized as a new virus! Why does that not make me feel better?

I'd like to think I could get a lot of knitting done when I'm sick, but frankly my hands and fingers (among every other joint in my body) is an aching, inflammed mess. Pointing and clicking is more my speed right now.  I'm tempted to go to my parents new house and soak, neck deep, in their gigantic whirlpool hot tub. Problems with that plan: I wouldn't want to get out and would be a swollen pruny mess. Sea World would be called in anonymously on the tip that a giant flabby blonde manatee was beached in a hot tub. If I ended up spilling my Russian energy drink into the controls, it would take me back to the 1980's. (Name that movie)

Wordless Wednesday

Well, maybe not completely wordless. Off this weekend for the fiber festival! Pic above is two of my besties at last years trek!

NaNoWriMo a No Go

Due to circumstances out of my control, I haven't been able to participate in NaNoWriMo. Throw a healthy dose of life circumstances, Christmas knitting and just plain ol' nerves to the mix and there you have my excuse. Now I can quit obsessing over how much I'm NOT writing. Whew!

Why am I up at this hour on a Saturday? My nefarious partners in crime have coerced me into "wogging" at a local park. We call it wogging because we walk mostly and occaisionally jog. This way we can get it out of the way and have it not eat up a Saturday. What I need to mention is that it is now 40 degrees outside!

I also have a bridal shower to co-hostess today. I'll have to admit that forced social events always have me a bit anxious. Although most find these events fun, I always dread them especially when I'm in charge of games. Oh, I always end up having fun when I'm there, but I still dread it.

Well, gotta go hit the twack for a wog...

Wordless Wednesday

Oh no...NaNoWriMo!

Okay, maybe I was a bit overzealous announcing I was going to participate in NaNoWriMo a mere 2 weeks before it starts. I can barely post to this blog once or twice per week with my uninteresting life much less write pages and pages of drivel. I have no plot, no characters, no outline...a big NADA! Instead of adhering to the rules, I may make my own word limits and just get myself to write SOMETHING.

I know that some people totally wing it and I'm sure their brains are rife with creative ideas and characters ready to spring to life. Some people already have pages and pages of outlines, character drafts, history research and plot twists. If the idea is to write about what we know, I'm in trouble.

Running has been a bust lately. My knee has been acting up and I don't want to chance it so I busy myself around the house and go walking.

Knitting is always ongoing. I showed you pictures of the wedding, but not the lace projects that consumed 8 months of my knitting life.

Eternity Shawl
Knit in Baruffa Cashwool and used about 730 yards or half a skein
Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark





A Clump of Plinths (was knitting on this watching a Monty Python Documentary. This was one of the names they were batting around before "Monty Python" was chosen. I kinda liked it)
Knit in Kidsilk Haze in the Hurricane colorway with small beads in the outer border
Pattern: Melon Pattern for a Shawl by Jane Sowerby





and both




I am so done with lace for awhile and am glad to get some heavier yarn to use! I'll post other projects later. I have start-itis so bad right now I don't know what is going to make it and what will hit the frog pond.

Home?

After 35 years of living in the same house, my parents are moving. Thankfully, they are staying in the same town, just a different house with a bigger kitchen, bathrooms and storage. I can't quite blame them. Their home was built at a time when the number of bedrooms far outweighed being able to stretch out your arms in your own bathroom. Having a place for us three kids to sleep was a little more important I guess. My dad found the confines of suburbia constraining. I guess you could say he would be happy to be put out to pasture where there is green space and not a cul-de-sac. After all, they are retired and deserve to have a home that doesn't need to be populated with kids.

I can't help but feel a surprising emotion of grief, which really caught me. This was the house I lived in from the age of 5 to 18 and then again from age 20 to 23. It's a part of my history that I took for granted. My parents did offer to let me buy the house. There was almost no hesitation as a quick "NO" escaped my mouth. THAT would be weird.

I walked home from primary school to this house. I had lots of sleepovers, birthday parties, and holidays here. I hunted Easter eggs in the backyard, climbed the tree in the front yard to throw china berries at the neighborhood kids, hid in the laundry hamper, carved my initials in my windowsill, buried a few family pets in the back yard, jumped to thwack the attic pulldown cord in the hall, learned to roller skate in the garage, learned to ride a bicycle in the driveway, had hippity-hop derby races in the front yard, washed my first car in the driveway and had my first kiss on the front porch. My daughter took her first steps in the same living room where I watched the Wizard of Oz for the first (and twentieth) time.

My parents are excited about the move, but I can tell they are having similar separation issues. My dad said "selling this house is like letting go of one of my kids". I replied "which one and which time?" We both laughed.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

What's a girl to do?

Wow, my last post sounded a bit like I was a desperate, lonely, needy little thing. Yeah, I get a little mopey from time to time, but by and large I have a list of things that I want to do more of or get started on which is pretty exciting. Here's my action plan.

Blog - duh

Run - I really fell off the wagon HARD in this regard but have recently been venturing outside more often now that the weather is nice. No races planned, no pressure, just gettin' mah bootay out there.

Read - I bought a Nook which I love quite intensely right now and carry it with me everywhere.

Write more betterly-er - I may attempt to pull a Nanowrimo out of my butt this year, rather than just read about those who are doing it. It may be all crap and be about purple aliens who take over abandoned Walmarts and Kmarts as headquarters to rule the world, but I will do it. I also will not make you read it.

Draw - Yet another languishing hobby. I used to draw a lot more than I do now. Although I'm quite average and my attempts quite sophomoric, I enjoy it.

Home improvement - I want to rip out the carpet and have laminate wood flooring installed. I want to update most of my cheapo contractor light fixtures, I want new furniture now that I don't have to worry about pet hair, kid messes...etc. Did I forget to tell you that I had to put my dog down about 2 weeks after the wedding? She was 14 years old and was so arthritic and could not hold her bowel/bladder. It was so hard, but I now know I did the right thing for her. end tangent

I will also have to redo my daughter's room. I will need a gallon of spackle to start. The child tacked up EVERYTHING on the wall. Oh, and as a public service announcement: when you use Sticky-Tac on textured drywall and leave it there for 5 years, it will pull off half the wall with it when you remove it.

Knit - still knitting. It's my go-to leisure/stress relief and I LOVE my hand knit items and look forward to wearing them every year.

I'm sure there's other stuff: Gardening, eating better, winning that Nobel Peace Prize...but that's enough for now.