Birthday, A New Cat, & Spanish

This last Sunday evening, I took the Popette out for her 79^th birthday.  I took her to a local restaurant to celebrate.  We went to the Oasis Café which was a wonderful treat for both of us.  Of course, in typical Popette style the waitress got more than she bargained for.  It all started shortly after the entrée was placed before the Popette and she asked for a take out box for the “micro- salad” as she pointed at a mix of alfalfa sprouts and fresh greenery crowning her entrée.  The waitress stopped and had that “deer in the head lights” look.  I laughed and told her to keep on her toes with this one while pointing my finger at the Popette.  After that it was a sparring contest of comebacks between the two; the Popette and the waitress.

Photo- The Popette and her painting!

The Popette LOVED her portrait!!  Thank you Colleen for painting it!  Immediately we had it sit up on a chair so the Popette could “admire” herself while she immersed herself in the wonderful entrée minus the “micro salad”.  The food was glorious; such a mix and blends of different flavors that complemented each other that it got to the point where we were savoring every bite.  After the meal, we stretch our legs for a bit by wondering around the Golden Braid Book Store that’s right next door to the restaurant.  What a wonderful evening!

Photo- Mom's new cat; Porsche!

 Here’s Mom’s new cat, Porsche.  I got the photo in the mail with a cute Easter card.  She looks like a cute cat!  But I have to laugh, because every time Mom spells her name it’s spelled a little bit differently.  I told her I never knew there were so many different ways to spell Porsche.  She thinks she should have named her Pumpkin or something else that would have been easier.  Pumpkin, huh?

Last night was my second class of Beginning Spanish.  I feel like I’m learning a lot of words that I can read or write but I REALLY suck at the verbal!  Need to go to the library and maybe see if they have Spanish on discs, or DVD’s or something.  Oh, or possibly a good looking male Spanish tutor!  That could give me the extra incentive. J Anyone have any suggestions or leads, please contact me. I will admit that the other students probably didn’t like me much.  I was the only one that had done all the homework the teacher had given out and I had a list of questions to ask.  Meanwhile, the rest of the students looked lost as I asked the questions.  Yeah, that’s me not winning any brownie points with the other students but on my way to becoming the teacher’s pet.  It reminds me of Junior High only without the acne!

Like A Groundhog Finally Coming Out!

I will admit that I haven’t been blogging as much of late.   There have been a few reasons and I almost feel like I’m the ground hog coming up out my hole now.  To be truthful one of the foremost reason was that I had gained a bit of weight and I was rather embarrassed about the whole thing.  I was only up by about 4-5 lbs. at the most but I had just such high hopes for this year to finally reach my goal weight.  Well, I think I got the horse in front of the cart a bit and I’ve since looked at things to rectify the situation.  Mainly, I’ve started watching what I eat and trying to select lower calorie healthy choices.  Also, what I know has helped to take off few extra lbs., is that the warmer weather has hit here and I’m out biking more.

One of my favorite cartoon characters but I've felt like I've been in a bit of rut like them!

Other reasons that I have not been blogging as much, is that I was out with the flu for a few days and you know, sometimes I don’t have any real material to share.  Life sometimes is in a bit of a rut or a bit of a holding pattern.  Or, I could just say—“Life has been on auto-pilot for a bit and my brain took a bit of a retreat.”  I think that happens to all of us at sometimes.  So, here I am coming out of my hibernation; like a ground hog and WOW!  It’s Spring time!  It sounds silly I know.

It’s like I woke up and I discovered I CAN grow fingernails.  I’ve had the longest polished fingernails that I have ever had in my life!  Go figure it takes me almost 45 years to do this!  It’s like I finally learned not to bite my nails like my mom’s been telling me all those years.  Kind of funny when you think about it; I guess in some regards I AM a very slow learner.

I’ve lost those 4-5 lbs. and am now down to the point where I’m back to needing to lose those same darn 13 lbs. to get to my goal weight.  I think it’s possible for me to get there IF I focus on doing it.  The problem sometimes arises that life gets in the way but I’m going to try and to do that I want to start by getting on board here and doing a weekly check in’s.  I’ll do a weekly weigh in and report as to how I’m doing.  I find that it helps to keep me on track and focused too.  So, until I get down to my weight goal, I’ll be checking in weekly and it’s going to start tomorrow.  Every Friday, I’ll be checking in with a report to keep me accountable for what I’m doing.

So, I’ll stop my ramblings here and I’ll check in with you tomorrow! Ciao!

Calling in SORE & Drinking Coffee thru a Straw…

I can just imagine the conversation…


“Hey boss! Yeah, I’m not calling in sick but calling in SORE today.”
“Sore?” He’ll ask.
“Yes, you see I have this friend Diane that LOVES to find punishing workouts and I’m an easy gullible sidekick to these torturous episodes. This morning I went to this workout group class and I tell you my arms hurt, my ribs hurt, my glutes hurt, my thighs hurt, and my calves hurt. In fact, it’s only from the neck up that I’m NOT hurting. So thus, I’m calling in sore. But if the calling in sore doesn’t work, I could always claim a mental health day. After all, I must be insane to put myself through this!”

Yes, as if that’s ever going to happen! NOT! So here I am trying to sit as still as possible at my desk and still do my work. OMG! It’s almost to the point where it hurts to breathe! I’m drinking coffee through a straw because it HURTS to pick up a coffee cup. Yes, I did survive the barrEVO + class but just barely!



I barely survived the class and I couldn’t do almost 60% of the stuff in the class. I guess I should have checked more closely when signing up for the class. I just thought that it was a regular Barr Evolution class. Nope it was a barrEVO + and I guess that the plus stands for an extra dose of the TRX. TRX is a suspension training that was designed by the US Navy SEALS. Oh boy! Was I ever over my head on this one!


We started out warming up by doing some of the TRX. It was a version of hanging on a swing and leaning backwards. Then we did row boat motions with our arms where the resistance came from our own weight. I was all ready having balance issues and we were barely out of the gate here. Yep, I was in over my head!


Next we turned around and while doing lunges our arms were doing different out and upward motions. Thank goodness no one handed me a stick of gum! This was pushing my levels of coordination. We dropped the TRX ropes and picked up our little hand weights for the next bit. Standing tall, we held the hand weights at arm height and did different motions of out and up but never letting our hands with weights drop below the shoulder level. It was 6 minutes total of doing this. My arms were all ready burning about 2 minutes into this. My face is grimacing and Laura is laughing. “Diane look at her face!” Diane answers that she won’t look because then she’ll break out laughing and lose her concentration. Popeye eat your heart out!


Shortly after the teacher (Laura) told us we had another 1.5 minutes left, I looked over at Diane and said,” I’m going to be hating you tomorrow.” That got quite a few chuckles going in the class, and Laura laughingly asked,” You’re blaming her?” “She’s the one that talked me into doing this!” I answered.

We did a series of exercises with the ball between our legs squeezing while doing heel raises and squat sitting. Our right hand was used for balance on the ballet bar on the wall. My calf got a cramp about ¾ of the way through this. OUCH! Then we turned towards the bar and put the 9” ball behind one knee bent up and back to hold the ball in place. We then proceeded to do various exercises that were a new version (to me) of “Saddle Bags Be Gone”. Legs up and back and then to the side while the other leg you are standing on and the opposite “saddle bag” is feeling it all!

Photo- Similar to part of the "Super Push Up"

From there we went into more of the TRX training. We lied on our backs with feet in the ropes doing bridges and raising various parts of our body. Then we rolled over and went into plank. OMG! This is where I was a COMPLETE failure! As most of you have probably heard before I have enough of a time trying to do the plank on solid ground let alone trying to do it when my feet are in straps a foot above the floor. OMG! While I’m just struggling to do the plank on my elbows, the others are doing the teacher’s more advanced moves. They are pushing legs out and pulling them together and then pulling bended legs up towards the abs. Then they are doing push ups and what Laura called Super Push ups. OMG! Laura made it look SO easy meanwhile I’m struggling to stay on my elbows in a plank.

AND that’s how I ended up sipping coffee through a straw…

What Gives?!?!!!!

I can’t quite figure this out. Last night I ran 3.25 miles on the treadmill and did another 22 minutes on the elliptical. The night before I ran 4 miles on the treadmill and did 20 minutes on the elliptical. So this morning when I get on the scale, I’m expecting to be down 1 or 2 lbs. NOPE! I’m back up the 2 lbs. that I thought I had lost towards the end of last week. What gives?!? This doesn’t make any sense what so ever!

It’s like the Twilight Zone and I can’t seem to work off, beg, borrow, or give these 2lbs up! They just come back to haunt me. It’s a bit frustrating to say the least. I’ve been relatively good at watching what I eat for the last few days. I will admit I had a Christmas party that I went to last Friday night where I consumed enough “spirits” that I was a bit thirsty the next morning. I also woke up to a cramp in my right calf. I must have done something when I was dancing my little heart out during the end of the night.


In fact, my calf was still hurting on Sunday morning when I woke up. So I didn’t do any working out this last Saturday or Sunday. In fact, Saturday I was SO into working on my porch paintings that I forgot to eat until that night when I went to watch some friends play guitars at a local tea house. Being the BIG veggie fan that I am (I’m sure you are picking up on my note of sarcasm here.); I ordered a veggie/humus platter which I struggled to get ¾ of it down. That was my meal of the day.


Come Monday my right calf felt better and off I went to the gym. I figured I needed to make up for the no exercise weekend. I pushed myself to run 4 miles and then topped it off with sometime on the elliptical. Tuesday night I went into the gym just planning on doing a quick mile of running with an additional 15 minutes on the elliptical. Well, 1 mile became 1 and a half. Then, I was at 2 miles and it felt so good that BOOM! Before I know it I’m at 3.10 miles. I finished out with a bit of walking for 3.25 miles. Then I went on to the elliptical machine. Before I knew it the planned 15 minutes had turned into 22 minutes. I got so wrapped up in some new tunes I had downloaded on my MP3 player that I was just ZOOMING right along with the beat and lost track of time; funny how music can do that.


But here comes Wednesday morning standing on the scale and after all of that I find I’m up 2 lbs! Ugh! What gives?!? Hmmmm… back to the drawing board I guess. Tomorrow morning I’m adventuring into new territory. Yes, I let Diane talk me into to trying the barrEVO class at the same place where we take the Pilates Reformer class. This barrEVO class is described as a cross between ballet, yoga, and pilates. This should be interesting and I’ll let you know how it goes. That’s reliant on if I’m not stuck in a yoga’d pretzel position on some ballet bar.

Jump Board Alphabets & a Weigh In...

This morning was another Jump Board Reformer Pilates class. After the warm up, Laura our teacher has us do what I like to call Jump Board Alphabet.  We jump forms of letters onto the upright board by raising, lowering, or planting our feet together on the upright jumping plateform.  Mostly it's simple straight letters like A, V, W, M, T.  I teasingly told the teacher I refer to it as Jump Board Alphabet.  She teased me back that she may have us spelling words but I told her that might be a bit too complicated for 6AM.  But I always imagine
our teacher in a cheer leader outfit waving pompoms and yelling," Give me a "V"!"; as I'm jumping a "V".  It brings a smile to my face to imagine this.  I guess its better than grimacing while trying to do quite a bit of the rest of the Jump Board Class.  From the Jumpboard Alphabets we move on to other more complex moves in the class.

I will admit that I'm improving with each class but there are always new challegnes that are thrown into the mix.  This morning's BIG challenge was keeping a ball between my shoulder blades with hands behind head -elbows bent and trying to do a horizontal jumping cycling motioned sideways situps.  Yes, it was as hard as it is to say!  Coordination is a challenge to me and this reminded me of trying to chew gum and walk at the same time without biting my tongue.  I chose to jump very slowly and carefully because it was just challenging for me to keep the ball between my shoulders. 

AND of course, there was the "Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone" portion of the class.  I was about over after doing the single leg lifts on the one side.  Then, the teacher told us to turn to the other side.  I felt like the one leg was over done and I was struggling slowly to turn over.   Laura took one look at my face, laughed, and said," Sorry you're not getting out of this one by turning over slowly.  You still need to do the other side."  OMG!  Pain!!  And those DARN saddle bags are still there even if I can't see them anymore.  I KNOW because I CAN feel them!

After freezing my butt off on the way home in my car (No I haven't fixed the car heater yet), I weighed myself.  I'm down two of those 3 lbs that I had gained over the last couple of weeks.  Good News!!  I've tried to be extra careful the last couple of days and it worked.

A Snowshoe SWITCH-A-ROO, A REAL Snowshoe, & A Pilates Bit…

I was enthused and all set Saturday morning to go on my first snowshoe of the season. Saturday morning dawned white from snow falling most of the night, and it was still lightly snowing as I headed over to Diane’s house to meet. She had her van warming up as I transferred my snowshoe gear to her vehicle. I went in to play with Ollie for a bit and chat about where we were going to snowshoe.


Diane said there was this place up Emigration where her boss goes and she thought it might be fun to check it out. It sounded good to me. I asked if it was near the top of the canyon, and she said it was somewhere in the middle section behind a grouping of houses. She wrote down the directions her boss told her. Well, and Kym flaked and wouldn’t be able to join us.


It was as we were going up Emigration that Diane handed me the directions and said,” Here’s the directions read them out loud for me.” So I start reading…

“Emigration Canyon,

Up 3 miles or so look for Fire Station,

Take a left,

Drive up – house on right with red awning,

Take right...”

There are more directions but I stop there, and I say, “Gee, that sounds like its up by my friend Henry’s house.” I’m trying to place the area it in my mind. The “Human GPS” at work. I put the sheet of directions down and I’m waiting to get closer to the Fire Station. My brain thinks of the area we are driving to.


Diane tells me to the read the rest of the directions as she pulls off to the side into Ruth’s Diner parking lot. I think this is strange for her. “Please read the rest of the directions,” she says again. So I humor her…

“Drive past BIG dog house on left,

Turn left,

Old beater truck – take right,

Keep driving until road dead ends,

Walk up trail about ¼ mile,

Then take left up to crest.

AND this is all just a big joke to take you to breakfast to celebrate your birthday….”

“Oh MAN!” I laugh as Diane reaches in the back seat for a leopard printed feathered gift bag.
“Happy Birthday Girl!” Diane hands me the gift bag, “I’ve been planning this for a week. You are hard to pull a surprise on and I thought you were never going to finish reading those directions."  Shortly afterwards Kym showed up to join us and we had a nice breakfast and I got to open some presents. It was fun and a first that anyone’s pulled a successful birthday surprise on me.


On the way back to Diane’s we made arrangements for a REAL snowshoe the next morning. I arrive the next morning and as I get out of my car I yell jokingly,” Are we going for a REAL snowshoe this time?” Diane laughs and yep we really went on a snowshoe this time. Here are some photos from it…

I was surprised there was about 2ft of snow in the nearby mountains.

Snow was still coming down as we were snowshoeing around.

Myself in my glorified snowshoe gear.

Diane just being Diane!LOL!

This morning was my 10th pilates reformer class. It was the same teacher (Cathy) that I had two weeks ago where my abs hurt almost the entire week afterwards, and half way through the class she had asked me if it was my first pilates class. At that time, I had told her,” No but I have no core muscles.” I liked how she taught the class. She would go around the class and with her hands helped and talked me into how to do the proper position. She also is really good for helping me to push myself just a bit out of my comfort zone.

This morning, I was the first to arrive on a cold November morning. I told her that after her last class I took two weeks ago my abs hurt the rest of the week. We talked some more about how I was going to Jump Board and other early morning classes. She said that she hoped I would notice an improvement when I was in class today.

Lo & Behold! I surprised myself. I managed that head stand like position which I guess is called a “short spine”. It’s the same position I tried last Friday morning and had the machine come apart in my hand. I discovered I was doing it all wrong. I was bending my legs too early and I can be more stable if I keep my arms down straight against my side. There were still quite a few times in the class that I couldn’t really manage to do some of the positions in the class but I did notice that I’m managing more in each class; little by little.

I know I am progressing because my abs are not hurting as I’m sitting here writing this. I also have noticed that I’m getting more definition in my abs. Granted, I’m still WAY off from a six pack.

Wait THAT’S My Plate & Jump Board Friday…

So a couple of days ago a friend texts me this picture…

WOW! Hey, who took my lisc. plate? THAT should be mine. I sent her a text back and told her to Repo THAT plate!! Of course, I would probably just hang it on my wall at home. I won’t want to actually put it on my car. That’s a bit TOO much All Good for my liking.


This morning I went to another pilates reformer jump board class. Yes, there was another session of the “Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone”. But before that lovely part of the class we ended up doing some more new and interesting things. We did a new move. We put two springs on, put our feet in the straps, clutched on to the shoulder holds and then we were SUPPOSED to PULL ourselves into a position that’s basically a head stand on the machine. Oh, how I was struggling. I couldn’t seem to pull my A$$ off of the pilates machine. I decided I needed to clutch the shoulder rest a bit harder and really try to pull with my non-existent abs.


The next thing I know…the shoulder rest is pulled out and in my left hand. I laughed and stated,” I think I’m not doing this right.” Sweet mild talking Laura ran over and helped put the shoulder rest back on the machine. I finally did manage to get into the head stand like position but I had to kick up my legs to get myself into the position. But it was a bit embarrassing because I’m breaking machinery. Well, maybe not but I was beginning to wonder just how bad of a calamity I was.


From the handstand we continue on with straps still on our feet but this time we are squeezing a blue 9” round plastic ball between our ankles. I teased Laura about really challenging my coordination now. Laura told us to “Squeeze that ball as your legs go from straight to table top, and back.” Then, she had us change our feet so that our toes were pointing out. It was challenging keeping the ball in place. OMG! Then, we were told to change our feet position to point our toes in toward each other, and continue with the table top legs to straight legs again. It was a relief when the ball of the gal next to me sprung out and across the room. I HAD to laugh and say I was waiting for that to happen to me.


One the last feats before the “Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone” exercise was doing the dog position on the reformer machine facing the wall and putting one leg straight out behind and using that back leg to jump horizontally. OMG! It’s a tangent of the “Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone”! Only on this one, I had to figure how to stay up in the dog position as I was jumping. Meanwhile I’m trying not to notice that I’m now starting to pour sweat down my forehead on the machine. Drip, drip, drip! I think this was the first time I’ve really broke out in a sweat in this class. Though, I will say that it seemed as though the building was warmer when we came in this morning; or I should say that I’d like to blame it on something else that was causing me to ”glow” & “glisten” So much.


It was almost a relief when we were directed to lay on our side on the machine and started in on the single side legs jumps which I refer to as “Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone”. I will say that my body is adjusting to this exercise because this afternoon as I’m typing this I don’t feel the pain in my saddle bags like I did last week. That’s a good thing. Though, I KNOW I still have those saddle bags because I’m still going up and down with the same weight this week too! Darn it!

11/11/11 & Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone!

Happy 11-11-11th! Not sure if it’s considered a happy type of thing or not. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. I never quite understood the superstition with numbers; especially #13. I always think its funny when I’m on the 14th floor of a building and I’m REALLY on the 13th. Course, there’s not that many tall buildings in Salt Lake, so I don’t get to humor myself in this way very often.



On the old phone system at my work, I was extension #13. I always found that interesting that the main receptionist’s phone extension was #13. Literally, all the phone calls went through extension #13. If that’s not asking for doom, I don’t know what would be.


I guess there are lines in Vegas at all the wedding chapels of people wanting to get married today. I also don’t understand this but I guess it would make it easier to remember the anniversary date. Something I always forgot to remember when I was married. Ooops! I guess that’s another reason I’m still not married. I’m also waiting for 13/13/13 to get married; when that happens I’m sure that all heaven and hell will be aligned and it’ll be a prime time to get married. Other words, NOT happening!


So, I’ve been going to these pilates reformer classes. This morning I attended my 7th class. Each class has been a new experience in finding new muscles that I haven’t used in a while. It’s been a rather humbling experience to say the least. I’ve also discovered how unaware I am of my own body; which is VERY humbling indeed!

Since early morning Monday’s pilates class I have still been feeling a mild pain. I should say that the pain has progressed from OMG! to a now mild. It mildly hurts when I cough, sneeze, or attempt to bend over. As my friend Diane texted me- “Sounds like a proctology exam!” Yes, it’s been an interesting week to say the least.


Thus, Friday morning arrives and it’s Pilates Jump board class! Okay, I survived it 2 weeks ago and legs are my strong point. I run and I bike. My legs are my strength. I was doing okay until we started doing the side jumps. Basically, you are lying on your side on the machine and folding one leg beneath as you use your leg closest to the ceiling to jump. Now here’s the tricky part—you are kicking your leg out between jumps. Either you are kicking it out front, or up and out, or out to the back. This is for 10 times each, and done in 3 rounds. I’ve NOW discovered what I call—“Saddle-Bags-Be-Gone!”


It’s the latest NEW & IMPROVED way to get rid of any remnant of a saddle bag that was trying to hug on to you glute muscle. Repeat this exercise twice a week, for three weeks and you won’t remember what a saddle bag was! This afternoon while I’m typing this in at my desk, I can literally feel my saddle bags shrinking and Lo-and-Behold I only have four more classes to go to lose those nasty saddle bags! OMG!

Oh, and did I happen to mention I've been bouncing around up 1 lb then back down for the last two weeks!  DAMN that Saddle Bag!  If I could just lose THAT!

My Experience with Reformer Pilates...

I’ve now managed to get two classes of reformer pilates under my belt. I have discovered a few muscles that I wasn’t aware the I had prior to these classes. My obliques are not such a vague concept any more. There’s little outside edged muscles here and there on my body that I have used in both of these classes. I wasn’t aware that they were there before. But it wasn’t painful, it was like I said “Hello” to them gently, stretch them a little, and then let them rest until the next class. But overall, I find these reformer pilates classes are a nice gentle and relaxing workout.

This is how the 100s looks like.

Late Sunday morning, I went to an Essential Pilates class as listed. It was recommended as the next step up after the orientation. I went into class and felt at ease. I wasn’t among blonde petite Barbies; there were all shapes and sizes. The first question out of the teacher’s mouth at the beginning of class was there any injuries or limitations that he needed to be aware of. Then, he said to put on two springs and get set up on your machines. I only had to lie down on the machine. I’m lucky enough that the studio reset place is my setting. I can just walk in and I’m ready to go.

We started out with lying on our backs and pushing out with putting our feet in various positions on what’s called the foot bar. Heels in and toes out, heels out and toes pushed together, or curl those toes over the foot bar focus those heels down and then push out. With each push you are focusing on using different muscles. All the while you are also supposed to focus on making it a slower controlled movement and breathheeeee! Breathing is important. About half way through I was questioning whether it had been smart of me to go out on that easy bike ride of 13 miles earlier in the morning. My thighs and calves were starting to feel a bit of a burn.

We got out the straps that are on the wall and placed them around our wrists. Now it was time to do what is called 100’s. It’s basically 100 counts of holding a stomach crunch up as you pulse with your wrists against the tension of the straps. OOOOOOoooo! Feel your stomach muscles burn!


Then there were some long box movements. You put a top padded box on your machine and lay on top of it. We ended up doing a bit of airplanes; only these were with straps around our wrists.


Now take those straps and put them around your ankles. Then you place your legs at a 45 degree angle, then put your legs in a table top position, then place your legs in a 45 degree position, and again. Think about your breathing while you are doing this and also try to use your core muscles. Okay, let me try to do this. I’ll also try to pat my head and rub my stomach too!

The next thing I know we are sitting Indian-style sideways with the strap on our farthest out wrist. Then we are told to rub our stomach with the one hand and think of shoulder of that arm as a pivot point. The quiet manner tattooed teacher then teases that he won’t ask us to pat our heads too. Next we are told to keep our elbow into our rib cage and to try to pull our arm out at a 90 degree angle horizontal. Me, ever the whimp, had to put the setting to a half spring. Then, we turned and repeated to other side.

Next we got out the “ring” and attached the strap to one side of the ring. “Hug the ring and sit up straight,” says the teacher. He continues on,” Now try to face the wall moving only your upper body. Let’s work on that hour glass shape!” We finished up on one side and then turned to the other.


Then it was time to get off the pilates machines and do some stretching. Wow! That went fast and it was rather relaxing too.


My second class was pretty much a variation of the first one. There were a few more complicated moves, more springs (to make it harder) and a bit of a higher count before moving on but for the most part it was pretty much the same; just a different teacher. I am finding it as a bit of a relaxing all over firming up workout. Friday is Jump board in the reformer pilates class. Jumping sideways, hmmm? Not sure what to expect.

A Weekend Workshop...

I’m off to Pocatello , Idaho this weekend. Why the big "town" of Pocatello, you might ask? I’m going to be taking a “Pouring Luminous Watercolors” Workshop at the Pocatello Art Center . The workshop is taught by a wonderful watercolorist that I have been admiring on-line for awhile. Her name is Leslie Redhead. I LOVE her poured watercolors of cityscapes and buildings. Pictured here is a Chinatown Statue, a poured watercolor that I stole from her site. (I hope she’ll forgive me.) It is one of my favorites. She also has some amazing flowers; especially irises and poppies. Please click on her name and check out her artwork. It is definitely worth a visit. Leslie is based in Vancouver , BC , Canada ; and I jumped at the chance when I found out she was holding a workshop so close to Salt Lake City . It’s about a 3 hour drive and, of course, I’m taking my bike in tow. I figured I could bike some new territory while I'm there. I’ve really been excited for this weekend for the last month. It’s almost like Christmas! I’ll update you and hopefully share a beautiful piece of watercolor artwork when I get back. I'm also using it as an excuse not to do my weekly weighing in.  I KNOW I haven't been good this week, and don't want to face that scale.

Hair Adventures & End of Month Report...

This last Saturday I went into my hairstylist and said I needed a change. I bravely left it in the hands of my stylist and said whatever you think. Talk about the beginnings of an adventure.  I went in a mainly medium length brunette with red streaks and came out a short asymmetrical bobbed blonde with caramel highlights. My stylist made it look SO cute using a straightening iron and this is me on day 1. Barbara Streisand eat your heart out!

This is day 2- I don’t happen to have a straightening iron but used a regular curling iron to attempt to straighten it. Did I mention I have naturally curly hair?

This is day 3- This I took this afternoon at my desk. It’s been unusually humid here all day because it’s been pouring rain off and on. Some parts of Utah got up to 1’ of rain which is unusual for this time of year. But it’s been enough to make my natural curl sprout some of that wonderful frizz. Ugh!  Darn hair sometimes has a mind of its own!

Do we see a trend here?  More hair adventures to come, I'm sure.


Being the first day of August, here’s a look back at the month of July.  The End of Month Report for July.
Savings- I stayed right on track for the month of July which I think is pretty good considering that I went on a bit of a vacation to Helena, MT.

Weight loss- I’ve been rather on a plateau at the 22 lbs. mark, but that happens. Why does it always seem that the last 10 lbs. are the hardest to take off?

100 Salt Lake City Porches- I’m a bit behind on this art project. I should be finished through to porch #66 as of yesterday if I keep to the schedule I set up. Instead, I just finished porch #64 and hope to finish porch #65, an oil, tonight. I have lightly sketched porch #66 and have it prepped for a watercolor. So I’m not terribly behind and I can catch up to where I should be.  To view the progress of 100 Salt Lake City Porches, click here.

"100 Salt Lake City Porches,No.64"; Watercolor on 10" x 14" Paper

Uncluttering my life? I’m still building a pile to go to the good will. It’s slowly getting larger and taking up more floor space in the corner of my bedroom. I’ve added items of summertime clothing from last year that doesn’t seem to go with anything else in my closet. What happened there? I’m unsure.

Stats for the Month...

18.50 miles Running

460.50 miles Cycling

2 hours on the Elliptical

Read 6 books ( Makes for 39 so far this year!)

Time for New Tunes...

For months—actually almost a year now, I have been listening to the same music on my little mp3 player for working out. I will admit that I have tons of variety within the music. My current play list consists of songs like: Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, hits by Creed, the theme of America’s Most Wanted—Bad Boys, Big Love by Lindsey Buckingham, Come On Feel The Noise by Quiet Riot, Bust A Move, and the variety continues on. But even with all of this variety I’ve gotten to know what song comes next in the list and I tell you I AM in need of some changes. And yes, I realize I could put my mp3 player on random but I’ve kind of got my play list building up and then tapering off in segments to help motivate me during my workout.




So it’s time for new tunes! With that in mind I found myself wading into new waters—iTunes. Yep, I was an Apple iTunes virgin until last week. OMG! I never realized how much music is out there. I felt overwhelmed as I looked through all of the music. On top of this, my brain seems to be naturally defunked when it comes to remembering song names and music bands. My brain was almost to overload! I waded through quite a bit and it was kind of hard finding music for me to use while I work out. I wanted music that I was somewhat familiar with but upbeat enough to motivate me for getting myself moving. HELP!?!



I ended up going to a local radio website where they had a list of songs that had recently played on the radio. I started searching and listening to those possibilities first. It was a place to start to narrow down ALL of the possibilities. So I would listen to songs from the same singers/bands and then narrow those down. Or find similar groups as I came along, and before I knew it I quite a bit of time had passed. I also found I spent about $12 when I figured spending about half of that. Ooops! But I think I added some more to my variety and I saw more potentials songs to add for my next batch when needed; which I’ll try not to wait a year for.

Here’s some of what I purchased…

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked- Cage the Elephant

Bad to the Bone- George Thorogood

Black Horse & the Cherry Tree- K.T. Tunstall

Suddenly I See- K.T. Tunstall

Higher Ground- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Panic Switch- Silversun Pickups

Ocean Avenue- Yellowcard

And just for kicks I got… Handlebars by the Flobots. I know it’s not really a workout song but I think its cool and it talks about a bicycle! How can you go wrong?


I still felt totally out of my element. I should have been wearing a tag on my forward that said “music mp3 challenged”. I thought I had it downloaded to my mp3 player. Nope! No new songs on the mp3 that first night. Then I looked up and discovered that I needed to download the mp3 player version because most of what’s on iTunes is set for an I pod. So I figured out how to do that and WOW I had new tunes!

And the Punch Line Is...

"And BOY are my arms tired!" 

I swam a mile this morning and OMG are my arms ever feeling it!  First off, I was amazed that I could still swim; and to manage that far out of the gate? Well, that was stupendous!  But in hind sight it might have just been plain stupid.  My arms started feeling it when I got home and started to make some breakfast.  You see, I met Diane at 6AM up at the pool and I was just barely awake enough to find where I laid out items from the night before.  No time for breakfast and besides I was taught never to eat before the pool.  Drowning just is not appealing.

So, I reach up to the cupboard door and pain strikes!  These muscles obviously haven't been used in while and they were DEFINITELY letting me know.  I managed through making a bowl of cream of wheat for breakfast but I had a full on grimace face when I put the bowl in the microwave which is above the refrig. in my apartment.  I was especially glad that I had canisters on the kitchen counter with sugar; a much more manageable level.  But later on, I found myself wishing I had mind control to turn off light switches.  Oh, to just think that the light switch is on or off in a thought; today it sounds pretty good to me.

During my swim, I discovered that it was time for a new swimsuit.  I had this suit for two years but age and chlorine had caught up with it.  It felt like I was swimming with a sack on.  The whole time I was concerned that it would stay on or some of those folks that wear goggles were going to get an eyeful.  Yes, I'm still not wearing goggles when I'm swimming. 

I tried one of Diane's new water toys out.  It's a set of paddles that you strap on to your hands.  Well, I should say I tried them but I didn't put them on correctly.  I found out later from Diane that they should be strapped so that the paddle is against your palm; not the back of your hand the way I had them.  That would explain why they didn't seem to work right for me; and also, explain the puzzled looks the life guards were giving me. (Though, it always seems like they keep a close eye on me-- I think it's the "Most Likely to Drown" sign I have on my forehead.)  I did, however, manage one lap in my warped kind of way with the paddles on.  Live and learn, I guess!  So anyway, for those of you that may have been like me, here's a photo of how to properly have the paddles on...

The proper way to wear the paddles.

Homework to do before next week's swim?  Get a new swimsuit.  Swimming in a sack is not easy.  And I need to do a bit more upper arm working out.

Ground Hog Day Lessons?

This morning I was talking with a fellow co-worker and he mentioned that it felt like Ground Hog Day. I had to rather agree with him today; especially when I woke up to snow being on the ground. Today had that strange feeling of dejas vous about it and sometimes I tend to wonder if I might be locked up in the same day. Days seem to blend in together and I seem to be lost in time.

(Photo: Snow on the tree this morning outside my window.)

I almost believe that maybe I’m destined to live over and over the same day until I learn what ever I am supposed to learn. I’m just hoping that my learning curve kicks in sooner than later. Lately, it seems that I’ve been running into some strange problems during these Ground Hog Days.

I’ve played “Furniture Jenga” twice in the last week. Yep, they didn’t come to clean the carpets the first time! So I got to move my furniture twice. It all started when I called my apartment manager the day before to warn that there were two wet oil paintings hanging on the wall in the bedroom. I just told her that they needed to be careful around them. She passed the message on to the assistant manager since she was on vacation the next day. Well, it’s sort of like passing the word down the line…you know where the word starts as one thing and as it’s passed down from one person to another the word slowly gets changed. Thus, I guess the carpet cleaners were afraid to show. But yesterday, I finally got the issue worked out and now I have cleaned carpets. Can I say lesson #1 learned? Watch what you say because you never know how it may be taken.


Problem #2 has been occurring at work. I arranged for a shipment to be picked up last Thursday from a supplier. The freight company showed up to pick it up on Thursday but the supplier didn’t have it ready to be shipped. Friday the supplier was closed for some strange reason. The weekend, of course, everyone was closed. Then, the freight company was TOO busy to pick up the shipment on Monday. Finally, after calling everyone and their mother on Tuesday the shipment was picked up and is on its way. The whole time my boss was over my shoulder and wringing his hands. The lesson learned this time? Hmmm… Try to follow up more often on things to ensure results?


The third problem happened last night, while I was unaware and enjoying a local haunted house with friends. My yahoo email account was hacked into with a virus. OUCH! I’m currently emailing with Yahoo Email to get it straightened out. I apologize to all of you who may have received an email virus. A warning out to all of you that if you should happen to receive an email from me with nothing in the subject line, DO NOT OPEN IT! Lesson learned on this one? I’m SO glad I keep most of my pass words underneath my keyboard! :)


That’s all for problems though if any of you are good in with the weather gods I ask for you to put in a request for good weather for this Saturday’s Tricky Treat Bike Ride. Otherwise, I have all these prizes that I’ve put together that I won’t know what to do with. Darn it! I just may have to claim them all for myself. :)

Furniture Jenga~!

Last night after coming home from my water color painting class, I rolled up my sleeves and started in on a game of Furniture Jenga. Why you might ask? Am I, perhaps, insane? Or maybe this is part of a new workout theory? Or is it just that I don’t get enough excitement that I need to be plying stacks of furniture into my kitchen just for fun of it? NO! All this game of Furniture Jenga was in preparation for having my carpets cleaned.


So here I am last night looking at my pint sized kitchen and trying to figure how to fit as much of my living room furniture, and possibly some of my bedroom into that space. Now let me preface that my living room is a living room as well it serves as a dining room too. It was a vertical jigsaw puzzle that needed to be solved and just may prove how much of a warped mind I might have.

I started first with the bulky loveseat on its side. Nope! Not going to work. After a few more gruntingly laborious attempts, the loveseat ended up on its back facing up. It left plenty of room for stacking chairs, tables, pillows (why does there always seem to be an excess of pillows?), and what not. Next, my dining room bistro set, then an end table, and then … well, you get the picture. I arranged a few times over and ended up putting some of the more “weather proof” items on my ¼ pint sized balcony.

I went to bed last night with a small sense of accomplishment that I had only my futon, an alarm clock, and my cell phone out in the carpeted areas. After getting ready for work in the morning, I dragged the wooden futon frame into the bathroom. It fit just barely, and left just enough room for the futon mattress. It had maybe taken me 10 minutes top to move the futon frame into the bathroom. The futon mattress, however, was a whole different beast all together. It was like trying to move a huge dead body. (Not that I would actually know how to handle a dead body.)  It took me a total of 30 minutes to wrestle that darn mattress into a slim place between the futon frame and the bathroom door.  Whew!  What a relief!

It was after this wrestling match with the futon mattress I looked down and discovered I shouldn’t have worn my black work clothes to do this job. Being that I already running a bit late I tried to just slap some of the dust off of my black clothes. As I’m heading towards the door, I remember my lunch that happens to be in the refrig in the kitchen. Oooopps! In the refrig that I can not open the door to because there’s a huge stack of furniture in front of. Darn!

So I’m writing a note to self—No black dress clothes to move furniture in and have a back up plan for lunch because you are an idiot and won’t be able to open the buried refrig door.  On a positive note, I know what’s for dinner tonight!  Of course, that’s after I un-bury it!  DOH!

Chocolate & Wine Pairing...

Last night I went to a class at Tony Caputo's Market & Deli ( http://www.caputosdeli.com/) with my friend Diane. It was an eye opener as far as my knowledge of chocolate. The class ( Intro to Fine Chocolates and Wine Pairing) touted itself as---
"an experience in the very best examples of the world's most romantic food. Not only will you enjoy sexy pairings of chocolate and wine, but you will learn everything you need to become a chocolate connoisseur and why most people are pairing all the wrong wines with chocolate."

I was amazed at how little I knew about chocolate as the class progressed on. The teacher (Matt Caputo) proved to be a VERY well versed in his chocolate. He went over a breif history and quickly dispelled some common myths about chocolate. These myths? Some of them I will admit that I had believed before the class like: the darker the better the chocolate, the more bitter it is the better the chocolate is, and the truth about Hershey's Chocolate. I was never fond of milk chocolate or Hershey's Chocolate before the class but afterwards... well, let's just say that it's like comparing a fine restaurant to a McDonald's. I don't think I ever want to go back!

Matt further went on to talk about the three major bean types, where they were grown, and the harvesting. Then there's the whole process of cleaning, roasting, hulling, grinding, coching, and tempering. Some of which took place in the country of origin and some in the chocolate maker's business. Some of it, I will admit, went right on over my head. It was a great deal to cover in one sitting. But it made me appreciate chocolate all the more.

Next, there was a short talk about pairing wine with chocolate. The magic immutable rule is this; the wine must be sweeter than the chocolate, or the chocolate must be sweeter than the wine. WOW! All of those times when I had been told to pair a rich bold red wine with chocolate were all wrong.

Then the taste testing was the funniest. 8 different chocolates were tasted; each progressing with better quality. The wines were getting sweeter as the tasting progressed. I will admit that there was one chocolate that was listed under the Perfect Chocolate that I did not like at all. It was described to me as leathery. Leathery? That's something that I would want strapped on to my man NOT my chocolate! Then there was a single vintage Sherry that was paired with some of the finer chocolates that was just SO syruppy and alcoholic that my palate was repelled.

My favorite chocolate ended up being a mid-range fine chocolate called Djakarta and produced by Pralus. It had this nice woodsy smokey flavor to it, and I enjoyed the texture of it on my tongue. I purchased a bar of it as I left. Another impressive fact about Caputo's is that they have over 270 different chocolate bars, and even some chocolates that are available in bulk. All I can say is...VERY TEMPTING!! I'm now very curious to try my bar in the privacy of my own home without any wine pairing.

NOTE TO SELF...

It's always easier to take off layers than to be caught flying down a canyon at 30MPH on my bike and freezing. Yes, the high of the day was 58 degrees and there was a frost warning for the night. There I was racing down the canyon trying to beat the setting sun. I must admit there was some beautiful views all along the way. The leaves turning combined with the red lights from the sunset made for an amazing color combination. (Picture - I got from bing but please imagine it with more yellows, and then the sky turning pink and reds from the sunset. Then you've got the beauty of it.)

I arrived at the bottom as Lady Chattering, but my teeth were chattering so fast I could not have carried on much of a conversation if I wanted to. I had my "light" winter gloves (glove liners), no wind vest (mistake), and one pair of socks that proved not to be enough without my toe covers to cover the mesh part of my cycling shoes.

To say the least, neither my toes or my fingers fared very well at all. In fact, I almost felt like I had experienced hypothermia (but this could be exaggerated). But in this state of mind, I imagined a conversation going on between my fingers, toes, and my delirious brain. Such as follows...

( ***maybe I should be writing a disclaimer about the voices in my head? I actually prefer to blame it all on my artistic nature. There enough said!)

"Hey Mac! (nickname for brain) You need ta haV a talk with dis crazy wench.", says my right pinky with a Bronx accent. " Sheeshh! For crying out loud! Hanging with des boys goin' down da canyon lightly squeezing da brakes. It's CRAZY with a capital "C"! Just a thin layer between me and freezing da death. Whatz wrong with dis broad anyway?!"

"Yah! What was she thinking!?!", pipes in the middle right toe with a Mid-west accent(is there such a thing?). "You bet-cha, we were just freezing down here. One pair of socks is not enough with that mesh in these shoes. She should know better! I hope she considers taking a hot bath after this one."

There are murmurs of agreement all around from all of the body parts.

" Sorry to disagree Chaps!" States the little toe on the left foot in an English accent (don't ask me why?) " But this cold felt downright bloody good! I'm still black and blue from that run in with that chair leg a couple of days ago."

There's an audible silence from all for a bit.

"Ahhh! You oyz was da bit unhinged!" Yelps the right pinky to peels of laughter all around.

Well, that's the short version of the conversation of the voices that I heard in my head on the drive home. I tried to warm up as much as I could in my car, but the heater has never worked very well. When I got home, I started a pot of coffee, and some hot bath water. Ahhh! Now that felt good and hit the spot.

You know, I keep thinking that my learning curve will improve over time but sometimes I wonder if that is possible. Maybe my learning curve is like a credit card and I've just maxed the hell out it. Well, that's one theory.

Oh, and P.S.... I'm getting some flack from Mum about the eating the veggies thing. She doesn't want to be accused of being a bad mother and she was not a bad mother. So let me state this for the record. I at no time was sitting at the said dinner table the entire night. It was just until bedtime... but I will say that to a kid a few hours sitting still at a dinner table can feel like all night long. I was exaggerating with what it felt like as a kid. Sorry mom!