The Weekend: January 30-31

I haven't been very ACTIVE for about 10 days now. I did help Matthew with our back patio cover and it's coming along nicely. I will miss not being able to see the moon and stars at night from the kitchen window but I think it will be much more useful to have a full cover over the patio. We can install a ceiling fan and heaters and even sit out there with rain falling all around us. That will be my favorite thing because I love the rain.

I also did some CONSTRUCTIVE things this weekend besides the patio cover. I organized my closet a bit. Believe it or not, I still have boxes in there from our move which was about 3 years ago. That's pretty sad. I unpacked one of them and it was full of bath gels and lotions. I get a lot of that stuff from people at work so I've been trying to use it all up. I had just caught up when I got a bunch more for Christmas...and now I found this dang box full of more. Erg!

Anytime I'm not working, I consider it ENJOYABLE. My boss had to ruin part of my Saturday, though, by calling my cellphone to get mad at me for forgetting to do something. There was nothing I could do about it until Monday so I don't know why she couldn't just leave me a voicemail at work or send me an email. It was just mean to call my house and then call my cellphone twice so she could be sure to be a bitch. I'm getting so sick of my job. I used to love working there and then one of the owners died. The other one took over and she has been trying to do the work of 2 people ever since. She won't hire an assistant and she has gotten to be a crazy micro-manager. I don't know how much more I can take. Unfortunately, with the economy like it is, I pretty much have to stay put. I am fortunate because I can work from home, make decent money and get good travel perks. I do feel a sense of loyalty to the company but my boss is really causing those feelings to erode. Pretty soon, I won't care anymore.

Oops

Dang! I didn't even get through one week without flaking on my blog. It shouldn't be that difficult to catch up since I've done practically NOTHING since my last post. I had to come up to L.A. for the week to placate my crazy boss.

I haven't been very ACTIVE at all. I did bring my workout clothes with me. Does that count? My room is at the very end of the hallway so I have to walk further than anyone else when I get off the elevator. Does that count? How about taking the stairs down 2 stories in the parking garage? I know. My weigh-in next Monday will suck.

I've done a little bit of CONSTRUCTIVE stuff this week but probably not every day. I brought my Cooking Light magazines with me. My plan is to go through all of my old issues and tear out only the pages with recipes I want to try. I have been keeping the magazines as if I would EVER go back and consult them. Really, they are just taking up space that I don't have. So, after cutting out the recipes I want to try, I'm going to add them to my over-stuffed recipe binder. I think what I need to do, eventually, is pull out all of my tried-and-true recipes from that binder and make another, slimmed-down, beautifully organized book with my favorite recipes.

I also haven't done much that I would call ENJOYABLE this week. I really wanted to get together with friends but my stupid stomach thought otherwise. So, I have basically spent every evening in my room, watching television. I didn't mind so much last night because I got to see the President's State of the Union address. I am still a fan of President Obama, although I do wish he was a bit more liberal on certain issues like gay marriage. Oh my gosh, I also watched that show "Modern Family" last night. I think I saw a few minutes of it before and thought it was funny but I watched the whole thing last night and now I know it's funny. There were a couple of times I just busted out laughing. I will have to add it to my DVR...as if I don't have enough in there already. I'm such a TV junkie. I should get a job for EW (Entertainment Weekly) in the TV department.

Well, I guess it's about time to read Cooking Light and watch TV!

January 22-24

Whew, I got a little behind. First of all, let me just say up front that I did nothing active....nothing. Friday, I had my new front tooth inserted so I wasn't able to work out that day. My tooth was really bothering me so I didn't want to do much of anything for the rest of the day. Then, I just didn't make the time over the weekend. To make matters worse, I ate like a pig all weekend. It's not that I ate a lot; it's that I ate poorly...meatball sub, donuts, chocolate, etc. I'm so angry at myself but I can't control my eating when I'm pre-menstrual. It's something I really need to address.

I did, however, do quite a bit that was constructive. First of all, I had said tooth put in on Friday. Saturday, I got my hair cut, paid bills, and cleaned the kitchen. Today, I did a lot of packing for my trip to L.A. I have to go up there twice a year for work and stay a week. I hate it but I have to do it to make my boss happy. Personally, I think it's a waste of time and money but what can I do?

I also did a lot of stuff that I found enjoyable. Friday, Matt fell asleep kind of early so I did my favorite Friday night activity...watched TV in bed. I have to watch TV in the living room all week because Matt goes to sleep so early. The weekends are the only time I get to watch in bed and I love it. Saturday, we played Guitar Hero World Tour which is so fun. We switched off playing drums and guitar and our band, Monkeyhead, completed 4 gigs. Then we watched "(500) Days of Summer" which I absolutely loved. It was so real and so right about relationships and people. I love the style of it, too. So intimate and almost like a documentary in a way. Today, we saw "Avatar" at the IMAX in 3-D. I don't really care for James Cameron and I hated most of "Titanic" but I loved Avatar. The 3-D effects were amazing and the world they created was stunning.

January 21st

Active - my normal workout minus Dig's walk; poor thing...I can't walk him tomorrow either, then it's the weekend and then I'm in LA for a week

Constructive - successfully (I hope) evicted 200 ants from my bathroom...okay, I killed them but what choice did I have? I couldn't get them all to go in my bug box

Enjoyable - sat around, watching my TV shows, reading last week's EW (Entertainment Weekly), sipping hot tea and eating cookies

January 20th

Active - my normal workout - a little hard today, maybe because of the mulled wine last night

Constructive - I tracked down this tea I had at the Ivy and loved. It's called Paris by Harney & Sons and it is a black tea with fruit and caramel flavors. So delicious....and soon to be brewing on my stovetop.

Enjoyable - I watched "The New Adventures of Old Christine" which is one of only 2 sitcoms that I watch. It always makes me laugh. Good writing; great cast.

January 19th

Wow, it rained hard today. I did all I could to save the wood we have stacked in the backyard for the patio cover. I hope it worked because I got drenched in the process. Dig just watched from the back door window, all warm and dry. I'm sure he was thinking, "what the hell is she doing out there?"

Anyway, I did manage to walk Dignan this morning before the rain began. I got through my entire normal workout so that was something ACTIVE.

For something CONSTRUCTIVE, I renewed my membership in Amnesty International. I've been a member for over 20 years, probably about 25. Wow!

Most of my evening, however, was spent on something ENJOYABLE. First, a roaring fire. Then, a feast. I made one of my favorite cold weather drinks, Mulled Wine, to sip while we cooked. We started off with a winter salad of lettuce, pears, maple walnuts and blue cheese with a champagne vinaigrette. The main course was all Ellie Krieger recipes (which means healthy)...Spiced Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Nutmeg Cauliflower. I usually hate cauliflower but this was okay. I could eat it again. We finished the meal with some leftover chocolate cake.

Well, it's a good thing I did my full workout today!

New Year's Resolution

Okay, so it's January 18th. To be fair, I have been following part of my resolution since the 1st. I just hadn't decided how ambitious I wanted to be.

So, here we go...

Every day, I will do something active, something constructive and something enjoyable. Why? Well, Active is so I can get in shape. I do want to lose some weight but mostly I'd like to lose the tire that has formed around my waist. Constructive is so I can keep on top of all the projects I want to tackle. I just keep getting more and more (and higher and higher) piles in my office and it's getting out of control. I need to start tackling these projects. Enjoyable, admittedly, will be fairly easy but it's there to make sure I make time for myself every day and just have some fun.

I plan to record these activities daily (and this recording doesn't count as something constructive). In addition, these have to be 3 separate activities.

January 18th:

Active = my normal workout which includes Dignan's brisk 40 minute walk, followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill and 15-20 minutes of either abs or upper body...actually, we only got about 6 minutes of Dig's walk in before it started raining too hard

Constructive = paid bills and updated home finances

Enjoyable = watched "Julie and Julia" and I really liked it; sometimes I get tired of Meryl Streep because everyone always gushes about her acting and it seems like one of her movies comes out about every 3 weeks but she IS fantastic as Julie Child; I really loved her in this movie and Amy Adams is adorable as usual

Running Music

So, I discovered today that "Optimistic" by Radiohead is the perfect running song for me. My feet hit precisely on beat and I was sucked into the song, like I was part of it. I actually forgot I was running. Is this a runner's high? Or a music high?

Either way, I spent the rest of my workout trying to find other songs that fit and I stumbled upon these....

No Line on the Horizon - U2

Let Forever Be - The Chemical Brothers

Broken Boy Soldier - The Raconteurs

Holiday - Green Day

Rebirth of the Cool - The Aghan Whigs

Extreme Ways - Moby

Shadow of the Season - Screaming Trees

Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles

Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix

Them Bones - Alice in Chains

Goodbye Girl - Squeeze

What a Wonderful World - Joey Ramone

History Never Repeats - Split Enz

Passenger - Powderfinger

If you have any songs that you find perfect for working out, let me know!