8 pounds of OUCH!

I have 8 pounds of OUCH resting upon my shoulders still. Stupid headache! I upset my Mommy Honey yesterday by posting on FaceBook that I hoped my headache wasn't actually a brain eating tumor that would kill me. She's of the opinion that if you say it......then it's OUT there...floating around in the universe just begging to come true. So this is my formal apology. Sorry Mommy Honey! It's NOT a brain eating tumor, just a bad headache resulting from me holding too much tension in my neck. I have an appointment with my chiropractor today followed by an appointment with my masseuse. Hooray! I'm convinced that will fix me right up and I can go back to being me. In the meantime, I am pushing through. I had a training session with Megan this morning. We took it easy. My first time taking it easy since starting up at LA Fitness, I didn't even break a sweat for Pete's Sake, but we still did some good work. I got in some cardio but not as much as I would have liked. After the headache is gone I'm sure I'll go back to rockin' it!

Yesterday, when I arrived home, I found this on my doorstep.

UD and Aunt Max are at it again! They are so good to me and UD is always really supportive of me finding a happy medium when balancing the quest to be healthy with the desire to fully enjoy all life has to offer. I think that must be why he seems to always send me food! It's his way of saying I love all the hard work you are doing, now please for the love of God, eat something and enjoy yourself! They both set a good example of balancing health with happiness and I am so lucky to have them in my life.

The GADO starts tomorrow and so far, I have a few takers! I'm pleased to announce the following folks are joining me in the pledge to abstain from alcohol for 6 weeks. I welcome Kim, Keith & Anneke to the mix. My little sis Kels will be partaking with a pardon for when TOM is in town and my gal Jess is giving it some serious consideration. Hooray! The best part will be my ability to really focus before my beach birthday in Cabo!! When I don't drink, I don't smoke, I make better food choices and I'm never too hungover to go to the gym! I say bring it on!!!!

I have no idea what tonight holds. I for sure won't be attending any big fancy parties or going to any jam packed clubs. If I don't sleep through the entire deal, I'll most likely be riding the couch with h, The Pirate and possibly AC. Hope you all stay safe whatever it is you choose to do!

Pushing it hard!

I noticed a small headache yesterday on my way from work to the gym but just ignored it. I did 15 minutes of running on the treadmill until my trainer Joel was ready for me. After about 5 minutes of work, my tiny headache was full blown and I thought my head was going to explode. The more I worked and sweated, the worse I felt. Soon I was shaky and nauseous to boot. I know that it was just the toxins leaving my body and so I just kept pushing. I figured it was all my fault for over indulging and I deserved this so I should just work through it, damn the splitting head. I have no idea where all this determination has come from, but I'm awfully grateful to have it! Joel carefully watched the line between working hard and getting injured and just kept on pushing me. I kept on going and we were able to finish the half hour session. While I felt bad that I didn't perform as well as I could have, Joel told me that actually, he worked me really, really, really hard and that most of his clients wouldn't have done so well and probably would have quit so he was proud of me. That made me feel pretty good, more like a warrior and less like a wuss. I did skip my last 15 minutes of cardio though and limped out to my car and managed to make it home.

As soon as I pulled into my garage, the phone rang and it was Sol. I hadn't spoken to him in over a month and hadn't had any emails in almost 2 weeks. It was good to hear from him and we chatted for a while about books and his co-workers and his current assignment. He's on foot patrols right now out in the Hindu Kush somewhere which means he's not getting his mail currently. I believe that he is where the action is which means more danger for him and his team but I also believe in my heart that he will be fine. On the plus side, he says he's lost some of the weight on the foot patrols that he put on since being over there. Eating is one of the few vices available to soldiers and he's been talking full advantage of that. :) But, I sure hope someone back at his base tears into that box of baked goods and treats I mailed out yesterday otherwise it's all just going to rot.

Talking to him was a nice distraction from my headache but as soon as we hung up, it came roaring back again. I ate just enough to quiet my belly then hit the rack at about 8:30pm. I slept straight through until my alarm rang at 6am but even though I'd been sleeping for 9.5 hours, I STILL wasn't ready to get out of bed. It was everything I could do to drag my ass up but I did it and so here I sit. It may be another early night tonight for Little Miss Lucas. Ridding my body of toxins is a tiring process but a necessary one.

There's one more possible blip before the GADO begins. I have no plans for New Years Eve yet but no matter what happens, it's only one night, not 5 full days of reckless abandon. And I'm thrilled to have some folks volunteering to join me, but more about that later.

Getting back up

I guess technically, since I don’t have an eating disorder, you couldn’t call what I did an episode or an incident or a relapse. I did what most Americans do this time of year, I ate my ass off! I ate cookies, I ate pizza, I ate cheesecake. I ate when it wasn’t mealtime, I ate when I was already full, I ate just to eat. I drank a ridiculous amount of wine, diet soda and coffee and almost no water. When you throw good sense out the door like that, you should at least enjoy it, don’t you think? It’s a party season, go ahead and feel festive, get your party on right? But I felt bad while I was doing it and I felt even worse afterwards.

I was too afraid to step on the scale today. My belly feels enormous, my pants are tight and I just feel fat. I realize that I am not actually fat, that the damage is most likely minor but still I feel horrid. I did workout a few times and I managed a salad here and a piece of fruit there, but after all this time, you’d think that I would have the skills to avoid this kind of situation. Last year during the holidays I did great. I planned for a few small splurges and managed to stay on track. This year I went hog wild; pun intended.

As my mother has taught me, all you can do is keep getting up just one more time than you fall down. That is success. And so today, I have gotten back up. I have forgiven myself for the 5 days of total reckless abandon and I am moving on. I had flaxseed toast for breakfast, a banana for a snack and a large salad is anxiously waiting to be my lunch. While I did have half a cup of coffee this morning, I am pushing the water hard today in an effort to rehydrate and move some of the junk out of my system. The holiday treats floating around the office are not making their way into my mouth. Yesterday I packed up a GIANT box of leftover cookies, breads and candy to ship off to Sol. I volunteered to do that for several of my neighbors and was really shocked at how many baked goods people wanted to get rid of.

The GADO starts on Thursday and I am ready, ready, ready! It marks the start of 6 weeks of sobriety and good, solid work. Training sessions 3 times a week, cardio sessions 5 times a week and before you know it, I’ll have warm sand under my feet as I stroll the beaches of Mexico in my bikini.

Time to buckle down folks. Time to focus. Time to rock this bitch!

Bye Bye Babe

I had a whole tribute post written but in the end, it just didn't feel right. My friend S. slipped away on Christmas Eve. Below are a couple of pics of us riding together from 2005. She is in the white jacket with the red helmet. I am in the black helmet and on the motorcycle with the sidecar.

Hope the most perfect ribbon of highway is stretched out before you now!

The GADO approacheth!

I have to say, that sitting here, a bit rough around the edges after staggering home at 3 am from Randy's birthday party, with a second trimester food baby sitting squarely on my mid-section, that I'm actually looking forward to my GADO!! AKA the Great American Dry Out-the 6 week period of time between New Years and my birthday where I abstain from alcohol. I'm looking forward to just focusing on eating well, working out and being healthy. No more booze, no more ciggies, no more cookies, cookies, cookies!!!!! As I type this, there is an enormous bag of candy, cookies and treats that I will be mailing off to Afghanistan tomorrow. Gotta get this stuff out of the house and replace it with fresh fruits & veggies and lots of lean protein. No more cheesy potatoes, breakfast pizza and tempting bags of chips. I haven't been on the scale in a few days but I'm sure it doesn't have anything nice to say to me. That's ok. My team of trainers, whom I am pitting against each other solely for my benefit, are charged with taking care of that. I am making appointments for 3 days a week with them, not to mention what I will be doing on my own. My approach will be simple; burn more calories than I take in.

That being said, I just want to throw it out there that I am looking for some company on this thing. You don't have to commit now, but give it some thought. Drying out can bring some nice control, restraint and clarity. I usually learn something useful and can polish my skills of socializing and dealing with life's stress without using alcohol. I am capable of doing this alone and have many times before, but the invite is there if you are interested.

Now lets not speak of this again until after New Years! :)

Holiday Happiness

Being that The Captain was working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we are really just now starting our holiday. I have a belly full of breakfast pizza, a tradition on Christmas morning in The Captains family and we've opened our stockings. Santa brought me saddlebags for my motorcycle and I love them. Just one more reason to look forward to riding season.

On Christmas Eve, while The Captain was working, I entertained my niece and nephew while they had a 5 hour layover on their way to Alaska. It was fabulous having them here as they have never been to Minnesota before. I took them to lunch...

and the cathedral...

and tried to get them used to the cold! :)

I also showed them the house and drove them around a bit to see some of the sights. They are both 18 and they were chatty and sweet and it was just so wonderful having them here, even if only for a short while. And lest you think the boy never smiles...


I managed to get one out of him. After I dropped them back at the airport, I headed over to Randy's family's house for a little Christmas Eve game playing and imbibing. Nothing says Happy Birthday Jesus like drinking and gambling with friends and their family. It was fun and very sweet of Cam and Randy to invite me along. They've adopted me since The Captain is gone so often and it's nice to have them looking out for me.

Christmas morning was really un-eventful for me. I just hung out by myself, knitting and watching TV until about 4 when h came over for a visit. We enjoyed ourselves quite a few cocktails and watched movies until The Captain came home around 8. By 10, we called it a night, h headed home and we toddled off to bed.

It seems odd that it's only Friday and I still have 3 more days until I have to go back to work. What a lovely long break this is for me and I am wishing you all a very happy holiday season!

Cookie pics

My spritz cookies made with my antique cookie press. Tastes like a giant stick of butter, YUM!
AC's rosettes. Fried in oil and dipped in sugar. Low Fat!

h's caramels, again, butteriffic! So smooth.

Ah. Mah. Gahd. I am so bored at work! I've essentially had little to nothing to do for the past two days! Luckily, I am off for the rest of the week so I don't have to endure this torture any longer after today. I've read up on the blogs I follow, written lots of letters, cleaned my cube within an inch of it's life and have now decided to bore all of you good people with my random, boring, chatter. You're welcome.

My gym totally rallied after a water main burst in the office area and front part of the gym. Once they pumped as much of the water out of the front doors as they could and they got the pipe repaired, they hired a company to come and vacuum up the rest of the water and are trying to treat the carpets so they don't stink. The doors to the gym weren't even closed 24 hours I don't think. Last night there were heaters and dryers all over the place in the front, but the back of the gym where all the free weights are and upstairs where all the cardio equipment is were clutter free and fully functioning.

And speaking of the gym, I think I finally have this trainer thing all figured out. The first trainer I worked with, J is great. He's fun, he's quick and he works me hard but he works mostly in the afternoon/evening. I like to workout in the morning so I started working out with M. She's perky, nice and made me really sore, in a good-I-know-I-worked-really-hard kind of way. Last night, I met with D and while he worked my arms until I couldn't lift another thing, he was about as exciting as a nap so I won't be seeing him again after Thursday. Come Jan. 1st I'll be seeing a combination of J and M. I figure if I pit them against each other, they will each try extra hard to get me in better shape than the other. :) Good plan, don't you think? They are already a bit competitive with each other so I figure it should be easy to get them really going.

The new heart rate monitor is great! It tells me where my heart rate is and when I'm done working out, gives me a summary of how long I worked out, how much time I spent "in the zone", how many calories I burned, etc. etc. While my initial plan was to try and slow down and stay in a fat burning zone, I get really motivated looking at that little watch and want to just work harder and harder to burn more and more calories. I may just stop trying to reign myself in and instead, just let myself go and see what happens. If calories in vs. calories out is simple science, shouldn't working out harder for longer result in weight loss? I just don't know but I do know that right now, I am LOVING my time at the gym so I am giving my permission to just kick my own ass sideways. Screw slowing down, I'm gonna ride this wave till it reaches the shore!

It continues to snow here in the Twin Cities area and I love it. Bring on the cold too. Might as well and nothing will wake you up and make you feel more alive than -14 temps! Invigorating! My light therapy lamp that I use each day at work must be working because I feel fucking fantastic. It's quite annoying to those around me, I'm sure, but it seems nothing can get me down these days.

Sunday evening, I had a very fun cookie bake with h and AC. I made my spritz cookies, h made her caramels and AC made her rosettes. ( I would love to post some pics but I left my camera cord at home.) It is just such a comfortable good time to hang with those girls, we've been friends for about 6 or 7 years now I think. And there was something of a Christmas miracle that occurred, as a usually non-demonstrative AC professed her love for us gals and even gave me a big, teary hug!! And it wasn't the booze talking either as she was only drinking soda. It was really lovely for me because I gush all over everyone all the time so it's been interesting having some girlfriends who are so different from me in that respect. I enjoyed the evening immensely and am so lucky to have these women in my life.

Tomorrow, my niece and nephew have a 4 hour layover here and I will be picking them up from the airport and showing them around a bit before taking them out to lunch and then dropping them back off at the airport. Then after that I'll be spending Christmas Eve with Cam's family. I'm so glad that Cam and Randy have adopted me. With The Captain gone so much, those boys have been keeping an eye on me and it's nice to be watched out for like that. Christmas day, h and I have another date with my couch, our pjs, some movies and of course a few libations. Then we are hoping that The Captain will arrive home Christmas night. Keep your fingers crossed.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all are enjoying your Tuesday! Stay warm. Stay dry. Stay safe.

Why?

Why? When you know that I am married to a pilot, why do you walk up to me and say, "Did you hear about the plane crash in Denver? It slid off the runway and burst into flames!"

Why do you think that would be a topic I would like to discuss? How is that helpful? When I mentioned that I purposefully don't watch the news, why do you continue to talk about it until I am finally forced to cut you off? I don't understand you. And right now, I don't even like you.

Free Bacon? Yes please!

Saturday morning we woke to more snow. It's pretty much been snowing on and off for about a week now. Just in time for a wonderfully white Christmas. I love it! I mean, it's winter and cold anyway, might as well bring on the white stuff, right? I loves me some four seasons!

Here in Minnesota, pretty much no amount of snow keeps people inside so me, The Captain, The Pirate, AC and h all piled into my Jeep and headed over to Minneapolis for a little brunch action at the Triple Rock Social Club.

It was mine and The Captains first time there and we liked it immensely. Not only was the food good, but the people watching was sublime! It's the kind of place where people love to let their freak flags fly! Lots of black clothing, studded jewelry, guyliner and our waitress even had her face tattooed! Nothing like listening to thrash metal at 10am over biscuits and gravy.

And, on Wednesday nights they have Free Bacon. That's right, Free Bacon. Swine and PBR?? I think it's safe to say we will be back....on a Wednesday!

When we got home, we went on a pre-emptive strike and got out the shovel and snowblower even though it was still really coming down.

After clearing the sidewalk and driveway, I hit the gym for a serious workout. I planned on staying within my target heart rate but just couldn't do it. Before I knew it I was running on that treadmill faster than I ever had before and it felt great. :)

Later that night, we had the gang over for tacos! We gorged ourselves on Mexican deliciousness and then AC got out a game she brought over. Because she and The Pirate live in what we all refer to as The Scooby Doo Mansion, she had to buy the Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion 3D Board Game! It took some time to put it together....

But once it was assembled, it proved to be a hilarious good time!

After much screaming and laughing and playing, Gay Fred solved the mystery and discovered the villain.

A little Mexican train was next and more merriment was had.

Heavens to Betsy, what a handsome fella!

All in all, it was a fabulous way to spend a Saturday. Sunday has been for cleaning up and lounging around. I tried to go workout today only to find the parking lot at my gym filled with fire trucks, flashing lights and massive amounts of water. Crap! I have no idea if there was a fire or if pipes burst or what but judging by the water that was being pumped through the front doors and into the parking lot, I'm guessing whatever happened, it wasn't a small problem. It was a very LARGE problem. Let me say it again, CRAP! I was just starting to really hit my stride too! I wonder how long it will take until they are able to open their doors again? Sigh.

Oh well. I have had a fabulous weekend. I've kissed The Captain farewell for another week and I have a date later to bake cookies with h and AC. Yum! Hope you are all staying warm, dry and safe.

Hero

Warning: There is much warrented swearing ahead. I hate cancer. I hate it's worthless, ugly motherfucking guts. It sucks ass and has no business on this planet. Why are some people lucky enough to beat it but others aren't? While my wonderful, sainted mother is gratefully cancer free and enjoying health and happiness, my young friend S. has just been given her death sentence. Fighting this God awful, shit ass disease for the past 2 years, she has just been given between 2 and 6 weeks to live. She's 37 years old for fuck's sake!!!! It makes me so angry.

It also makes me so unbelievably grateful. Grateful for my health, my functioning body, my ability to get out of bed and go to work each day, grateful for every little worry and problem in my life. Through her entire journey, my friend kept a diary through the Caring Bridge website. Over and over she has written about her fight with such amazing strength and mind blowing grace. She has taken this black ugly disgusting disease and turned it into opportunity, understanding, happiness, love and clarity. While she may be dying, I firmly believe that she has beaten cancer. She is my hero.

Really?

Essentially, I write this blog for me but if I didn’t want people to read it, it would be a private journal. As all bloggers know, readers are great but commenters are even better. Feedback is what drives us all to put our shit out there. So I gotta say, while my comments are usually fairly low, I was expecting to hear a bit more regarding my previous post. Where all my peeps at? Where’s the props? The praise? The “You go girl!”s? I was pretty proud of not only my progress but of my post as well. Now I feel like a little kid, standing in front of the class, staring at my shoes, wondering what went wrong. Is it the busy time of year or did my post just not resonate? Just curious.

To continue the bitching, what’s up with people and food around the holiday season? Below, an actual conversation that took place between a co-worker and I this very morning.

A plate of fudge is shoved into my face as I sit innocently at my desk.

Her: Fudge?

Me: No thank you.

Her: But Carole made it.

Me: I understand. Thank you, but I don’t care for fudge. (Which is the truth people, I really don’t.)

Her: Chocolate Fudge?

Me: No.

Her: Peanut Butter Fudge?

Me: No. I don’t care for fudge. (What part of NO is she not getting???)

Her: I’ve never met anyone before who didn’t like some kind of fudge.

Me. Oh. Well, now you have. Thank you very much anyway.

She retreats.

But Carole made it? That’s supposed to make me change my mind? I don’t like fudge but if Carole made it then yes, please, bring me 20 pounds immediately. On the bright side, at least the plate wasn’t left outside my cube which is the usual dumping ground for crap around here. Right now there are two half empty tubs of doughnut holes just on the other side of where I sit.

I’m also equally annoyed with everyone bitching about the weather. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, it’s snowing. Snow creates traffic and it takes twelve times longer to get anywhere. It is winter and I don’t know if you people noticed, but you live in freaking MINNESOTA!!!! This is what happens here. If you don’t like it, move south. Otherwise, put on your big girl panties and deal with it!

Well, that’s about enough bitching for a Wednesday wouldn’t you say? I would!

I had a lovely dinner last night with Kitten. It again took me close to an hour to drive to Minneapolis but at least this time my car heater was working. I used the commute time to call my mother and we had a delightful chat about therapy and men and life in general. She’s such a kick, I love talking with her.

The sun is out, the week is half over and I am loving life today my friends. Hope you all are doing just as well! And if you have a moment, perhaps you'd like to leave me a little comment?

I am THAT girl!

Being that the end of 2008 is drawing near, I’ve been feeling a little reflective. This has been a rather tumultuous year for me. Lots of things going on and I think I’ve changed more this year than I have in a long time. The changes I’ve noticed have varied and I would like to document some of my progress here.

One of the biggest changes was The Captains job. He began working for Southwest Airlines which meant a total shake up in our routine together. No longer based in Minneapolis, he is traveling more, home almost rarely and at one point, spent 5 consecutive weeks away from me while completing his training in Texas. He is now based in Las Vegas and has a second “home” there, a crash pad he shares with about 20 other pilots. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, they are rarely all there at the same time and the house is big, new and clean.) We have both struggled with this new routine, trying to get the most of our time together, while still managing our household, the chores, the bills and all the rest of it. It hasn’t been easy for either of us but we realize this too shall pass. Someday (hopefully come spring of 2009) he will be based out of Chicago which will put him home more frequently and we will return to some semblance of a normal life together. We are hanging in there and paying our dues right now. Someday, we know this will all pay off.

Another big change was me finding a good therapist. I’ve been struggling a bit this year and working with this woman has really helped open my eyes to some things about myself that I need to work on. It’s wonderful to have some idea of WHY I feel the way that I do, HOW my childhood influenced me, WHO I am and who I’d like to be. I have always, always cherished my bucket of sand but I believe for the first time in my life, I am starting to pick my head up out of it and look around. Don’t look now people, but after 39 years on this planet, I may FINALLY be growing up. I have some tough work ahead of me but I know that I will come out the other side of this a better, more complete person who is much more certain of who she is.

And finally, I have completely changed my approach to my health. Call it weight loss, call it fitness, call it whatever. The fact of the matter is that I fell in love with exercise this year. And that is something I NEVER thought would happen. I can still remember, sitting on my couch at 215 pounds, TV on, my hand in a bag of chips, hating myself, wishing that I were the type of person that liked to work out. Wishing that I wanted to eat healthy, that I could be more active, that I could have a strong body and take on any challenge. I always wanted to be that girl who wasn’t afraid of a climbing wall, who could run more than a block without tiring, who reached for an apple instead of a cupcake; and it is with pride in my heart and tears in my eyes that I sit here now and proclaim:

I am THAT girl!

I started 2008 by running a 5K in -2 degree temps on January 1st and I haven’t looked back since. Sure, I’ve had some ups and downs but all in all, I am a different girl than I was last year. I am so much healthier, so much stronger and best of all, so much more proud of myself. Gone are all the hours I used to spend self loathing because I knew I could be more but wasn’t. All those times I told myself I was a bad person because I was weak or lazy are gone too, replaced by the knowledge that if I want any changes to happen in my life, there’s only one person who can make it happen.

And I am THAT girl!

Yaktastic!

Hooray for the total motivation I am rocking right now with my workouts. In part to my discovery that Britney Spears makes me want to kick ass! Also in part to my new trainers at LA Fitness and my spiffy new heart rate monitor.

Since my trainer tells me I am working too hard for fat burning, I’m going to try and slow it down and the only way to do that is to watch my heart rate with the monitor. Walking on the treadmill really blows, especially with Brit-Brit in my ear…I just wanna RUN! But I’m committed to trying this out to see if it helps me shed a few pounds. For at least the two days of cardio that I am doing after my training sessions, I will be sticking within my ZONE! But if I end up on the treadmill for a third day, you can bet I’ll be running.

The soreness in my muscles that I was expecting never materialized and I think I’m frustrating my trainer. He works me HARD and I’m just not sore the next day. I must just be a hard-core-strong-body or something! I love that I am working really hard but still able to move the next day. It’s got me all jazzed up and totally motivated. Like I said before, HOORAY!

The GADO (Great American Dry Out) starts in just over 2 and a half weeks and so for now, I am still enjoying the occasional cocktail. Thursday night The Captain and I went to a neighbors’ house for a new tradition they have started called Thirsty Thursdays. One Thursday a month they invite folks over for a different cocktail, some nibbles and some socializing. It’s a fun little diversion away from the TV and I rather enjoyed myself. This time they served spiced mulled apple cider and it was tasty! I was home and snoozing by 10pm, totally reasonable for a Thursday night.

Then last night, The Captain and I went to Everest on Grand for dinner. It's a Nepalese restaurant that serves up some seriously tasty and seriously unusual food. We split a combo meal and enjoyed some fried veggies,

rice, spinach and curried Yak. Yes, I said Yak as in

Thankfully, it looked much more appetizing sitting on our table than the fellow above looks.

And I have to say, it was TAS-TEE! And more than enough food for the two of us so The Captain was able to bring home a bit of a Yak snack for later. After dinner we went to a local church to listen to our neighbor Sara sing some Christmas music. She singes in a group called InVocation and they are a lovely choir. Mostly acapella, they sang Christmas music in all different languages including Spanish, French, English, Chinese and even a Nigerian language but I'm not sure which one. It was a lovely concert and I really enjoyed the variety of the languages and the non-traditional music.

Tonight we will be visiting the opposite side of the holiday spectrum by going to Lee's Liquor Lounge to see The Captain's favorite holiday band, Trailer Trash. They put on a show called A Trashy Little Christmas and it's lots of fun. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend and staying warm with your loved ones!

Count Down!

Last night I officially started my new training regime at LA Fitness. From now on I will see one of their trainers (not always the same one) two times a week. So far I have only worked with Joel and he is an ass kicker. He says he loves training me because I just shut up and work. This training is much harder and much faster paced than I’m used to. I can’t imagine trying to make conversation during it. It’s only a 30 minute session so we move from task to task quickly. Last night he had me doing lat pull downs and then dropping immediately to the floor for push ups and then right back into the pull downs for 3 sets. He then worked my shoulders until I screamed and finished me off by putting me in a bent arm plank and pushing down on my back while I tried to stay up until I just couldn’t anymore and collapsed. But it was good, punishing, but good. I fought through it all and I felt tough! In addition to our 30 minutes together, I did 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill. It felt so great to run! I hadn’t run in a while and I had actually dreamt about running on Monday night so I knew my body must have been craving it. Today I feel fine actually, not as sore as I thought I would feel but maybe it will kick in later.

Rounding out my two training sessions per week (which will always be 30 minutes of training and 30 minutes of cardio), I’ll be swimming once a week, taking an aerobics class once a week and yoga once a week if I can find a class that will work with my schedule. During my cardio, I’ll be trying to stay within my target heart rate which should aid in fat burning. Not an easy task for a girl who likes to run! When I run, my heart rate is up too high, which is great for developing my heart and lungs but not so great at burning fat. I am going to try to find a heart rate monitor so I can keep track. My trainer calls me Turbo and tells me I do too much. He says I work out too hard and too often so I will try and stick to taking 2 days a week off. Anyone have any opinions about this because frankly, it makes me a little nervous.

And now for a complete change in topic, (but not totally unrelated) we booked our rooms in Cabo yesterday! We will NOT be staying in the El Dorado Royale as previously stated. Instead, we will be going back to The Finisterra. I have been there twice before as my dad and stepmom own several timeshares there and have been generous in sharing their time.

It is gorgeous, glorious, lovely relaxing and best of all, we get a big, fat discount! Actually, the room is free. We have to pay a maintenance fee and several other fees and will end up paying less than $600 total for a 7 night, 8 day stay. Not too shabby considering rooms there are usually at least $200 per night! Initially I had wanted to try someplace new, but when you end up saving this much money, it’s totally worth it. Besides, there are tons of new experiences to be had there. There is a swim with the Dolphins experience right next door to the hotel that is new and I have always wanted to do that!

And so it seems the countdown has begun. Time for a new ticker!



And just to keep me honest....
p>

Meatloaf meets The Baby Jesus

OMG! I may never be the same again! (Neither will my retinas I suspect) Sunday night, I went to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. The Captain sadly had to work so I took my pal Cammy. This is us having a pre-drink cocktail at The Eagle Street Grill. Aren't we adorable?

I only had one extra ticket so Cam's partner Randy took one for the team and missed out. And what a show he missed. Cam had actually been to the Trans Siberian Orchestra before but he failed to mention to me the hilarity that awaited us. I do believe they are sincere in their art and what they do but I just couldn't stop laughing. It was just so fabulous! It is something of a mix of Christmas music, hair metal and laser light shows. If only I knew how to post video, you all would be able to share in the gloriousness.

It made me want to do a lot of this....

And a lot of this.....

I sent several texts to The Captain during the show. Several of them are below:

OMG! So awesome! Too much mocking! Hurts the brain! Wish u were here!

Think Meatloaf meets rock opera meets the baby Jesus.

I picked the wrong day to quit smoking pot. Add in Pink Floyd's laser light show.

Barry Manilow and Tom Jones had a baby and that child has a job with the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

There were fireballs, hair metal violinists and tuxedos...with tails. I can't remember when I enjoyed a show so very much.

In typical reserved Minnesota fashion, most of the audience sat like stones, most likely in shock, and applauded politely at the end of each song. Look closely at the photo below. Do you see anyone who looks like they are rocking out?

One of the few things I dislike about this area is how squelched I feel when at concerts. I went to Christina Aguilara a few years ago...same thing! How do you go see her and NOT dance?

But Cammy and I really got into it. Don't worry, we moved away from most everyone so we could enjoy the show without disturbing the corpses.

After the show, we met up with Randy and some other pals at Camp and humored them with tales of what we had just experienced.


It was quite the evening and I'm glad Cam was able to go with me. :) I'll be the hag to his fag anytime!

Monday night I had dinner with my dear friend Kitten. We met up at Herkimer's and chatted for hours over some delicious sweet potato fries. I love talking to her! We always seem to linger over dinner, not wanting the conversations to end. She not only listened to me whine, but she offered me sage advice, obliged my silly ideas for photos....

...and brought me presents! What a gal! She made me two charms and a Christmas compilation CD. I adore the charms! They are both geared towards my passion for photography. She searched the internet for the perfect photos, had them printed out and then turned them into these fabulous pieces of jewelry art! What a meaningful and thoughtful thing to do.



I have to say, I love them both and will wear them often, but of the two, the naked lady photographer.....I mean, c'mon! Does it get more fabulous than that? I think not! Thanks so much Kitten. You made my entire day! The shitty one hour drive through snow and crawling bumper to bumper rush hour traffic in a car with no heat was TOTALLY worth it and I mean that. And you and your earmuffs are just the cutest EVER!

And now I am so exhausted from all my fun that I must go straight to bed and sleep for a hundred years. Good Night everyone. Zzzzzzzzzz!!!

Snow and Sandwiches

I don't know what it's like where you live, but here in Minnesota it is KUH-OLD! Brrrr! It finally feels like winter here. We are currently sitting at about 7 degrees but I'm sure the windchill has taken it below zero. A perfect time for the heater in my car to quit working! Luckily, I have a short commute to work but I will be very glad to get that fixed this week. I just hope it doesn't cost too much. In addition to the cold, it is also snowing. Right now it looks like this out my window....
Needless to say we are all bundled up and only leaving the house when necessary. And what is more necessary than really big sandwiches? Nothing really, at least that's what The Captain says and so yesterday we headed out to Mayslacks.

Mayslacks is located in the neighborhood that locals refer to as Da Nordeas, which means The Northeast as in Northeast Minneapolis. Lots of Polish bars with Polka bands. Awesome! Mayslacks is the kind of place that holds weekly meat raffles, because who WOULDN'T buy a ticket to a meat raffle?

They also make huge sandwiches which The Captain has been dreaming about for years. He heard about this place years ago while we were on a pub crawl and ever since then he's been wanting to try them, we just never got around to it, until now. The place was really charming, the building was 120 year old and the bar has been in existence since about 1955. We ordered two glasses of the house wine to enjoy while we perused the menu.

We settled on two sandwiches made with what Mayslacks does best, roast beef! Guess which one is mine and which one is The Captains?
Yeah. Mine seemed like it was created for a reasonable person. I ate half of if and saved the other half for dinner some night next week.

The Captains' sandwich was a bit larger. Ok, it was ridiculously big. Like Fred Flintstone big.

But to my surprise, he did NOT finish it and he also saved half of his for later. But I caught this picture just as he was starting his sandwich and it is hilarious!

So, who's hungry????

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, can I get a Woot! Woot! for post #700? Will I NEVER run out of worthless crap to say???

Warning! Language Unfit for Children or Neices Who May be Reading My Blog!!!!

So this weekend, in addition to other adventures, I cleaned off the front of our refrigerator. (Let's not talk about the sides. The sides are still a complete mess, but at least the front is better! ) First let's take a look at the before shot.....



....and now the after!
Much better but I'm sure in time it will become utter chaos again. One of my favorite things on my fridge has been this poem I wrote with a magnetic poetry kit. The kit has long since been removed but the poem has remained for years.

I've always thought that poem so described my relationship with The Captain. But then again, so does THIS one.....

Obviously, I found a new magnetic poetry kit that included swear words. Brilliant! Of course I had to have it. What will they think of next?

Really Lucas.....How COULD you????

It seems in my turkey induced intoxication I neglected to blog about one of my MOST FAVORITE EVENTS EVER! It is, in fact, the very reason I refuse to travel out of town for Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm refering to the annual Scooby Doo Mansion Talent Show! Each Saturday after turkey day, scads of talented Lex-Hamers gather at the Scooby Doo Mansion (So named by yours truly for it's eerie resemblance to every haunted mansion ever depicted on Scooby Doo cartoons; the name stuck and spread like wild fire! I rock!) to compete against one another in a talent show. The prize is one of two trophy's and if you got a load of these bad boys, you'd be falling all over yourself trying to win one too! This year was the 6th annual talent show and over the years we have had musical acts, break-dancing exhibitions, stupid pet tricks, stupid human tricks, poetry, stortelling and one of my personal favorites; two guys retelling a movie in 5 minutes while eating 10 cheeseburgers. You really gotta see that one to believe it!

This years highlights included belly dancing, the cooking of Pow-Wow buns from Jackie Torture's 4-H background....trust me...you HAD to be there, I almost peed myself laughing so hard and some professionals this year.....fire breathers (yes, actual fire breathers!) I think I almost forgot to blog about it because I didn't bring my camera. How unlike me but on the plus side, I was able to focus more on the party and less on the photography. Luckily, Julie was there with her new toy and snapped a ton of pics so thanks to her for letting me mooch off her so you can enjoy.

Roxanne's Belly Dance! Yowza!

My on-the-spot-rhyming poetry about all the acts of the evening...the last act of the night which some might say made me the Grand Finale!!!!!

Jackie Torture's Pow-Wow buns!

And her Horse's Ass second place trophy!

The fire breathers! Impressive! But is a professional act really fair? Some say not!

But they took home the coveted first prize trophy anyway!

They were really amazing. I was totally shocked the police didn't show because they really shot some huge balls of fire down Selby Avenue.

All in all it was, if I do say so myself, the best talent show ever. I laughed till I cried and applauded until my hands hurt. The Captain was by my side and all my favorite neighbors were there! It was fabulous and now the long wait begins until next year! DOH!

The Wheels of Change…

…just keep on rolling right along. Last night I hit Rollerdome for an hour and a half! It was awesome! The skates I rented were just like skating on a cloud and although it isn’t a real strenuous workout, it is a nice one; wind in my hair, music playing overhead, chatting with my girl Kitten. I was surprised at how quickly the time flew by and I remembered how much I really love Rollerdome!

This morning I had my final session with my old personal trainer. It was sad to leave her, my workout partner and that little gym for the last time but it also confirmed that I had made the right choice. I almost felt like I walked through that session today, while I worked, I didn’t work hard. I have a feeling from now on, it will be a struggle to get through my training sessions and that’s what it should be like, I think. I look forward to the challenges ahead.

Now that the Thanksgiving foodfest is over, I’m seeing the scale dip back down again. I quit WW because I just wasn’t using it and hated the meetings and wasn’t getting the support there that I thought they should provide. Maybe it’s just THAT location but I’m doing ok on my own, still making healthy choices and eating really well. I’ll be going over my food journal with my new trainer for some tweaking but all in all, I think I’m in the habit of just eating right.

Saturday is my last 5K of 2008 and I’m looking forward to completing that goal. Sure, I’m two 5K’s short of what I wanted to do in 08 but seeing as how I wasn’t much of a runner before, I’m really proud of myself. I came a long way this year no longer feel like I’m out of place when I run. I feel like I really belong out there on the streets, pounding the pavement in my Saucony’s, tunes jamming on the iPod and that’s a big deal for me.

Another big deal for me is the feeling of control I have back when it comes to adult beverages. While I enjoyed myself over TG weekend, I didn’t hideously overindulge. I am out of the habit of drinking wine on weeknights and that I think is helping not only my weight loss, but my workouts and my state of mind. I am just feeling better than I was this summer. I’m even getting used to this new routine with The Captain and am being productive while he’s away and relishing our time when he is home.

I think it’s safe to say that I’m feeling pretty good today folks. Pretty good indeed!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This past weekend, I took advantage of the one free personal training session that I received when I joined L.A. Fitness several months ago. And dammit if that club didn’t manage to dig their hooks in a little deeper to me! Now I will admit I know a “sell” when I see one and this kid was a hell of a salesman, but I can also smell bullshit behind a sell and I just didn’t smell it here. He was the GM of personal training for the club, really knew what he was talking about and didn’t seem to be feeding me giant spoonfuls of crap. He talked a lot about the reasons behind why we were doing this exercise or that one. He explained why the training schedule was set up the way it was, involved definitions of how the body processes exercise, etc. He was willing to help set up a cardio routine I could do on my own at that mystical target heart rate and was willing to go over my food journal to see what changes I could make there. He seemed to be a straight shooter and we all know Lucas loves her straight shooters! And so, after an intense workout that rocked my little world, and a bunch of back and forth questions & explanations, I decided to start training at L.A. Fitness and leave my little private gym and previous personal trainer behind. Honestly, I’m not where I was hoping to be after this year and a half of training with her and I would really like to give my all these next 10 weeks leading up to my birthday. (Which by the way I do not see as a finish line, just a MAJOR goal along the way). Not only that, but the club can save me close to $100.00 a month in training fees so that will be good too. I’m excited about this next step and hope that I am able to get in even better shape than where I am right now. I have my last training session with my current trainer on Thursday and then I have my complete physical evaluation with my new trainer on Friday. Starting next week, I’ll be on a different workout routine and hopefully, back to dropping those pounds. So that’s the news for Tuesday! Hope everyone out there is doing well!

TURKEY Day!

Behold, Turkeysaurus Rex. One of the last known abnormally large turkeys caught by brave men, wrestled into submission, and placed inside my oven. It's hard to get an understanding of the scale of this thing but it was in the neighborhood of 20 pounds of bird. It's safe to say that I will be eating turkey for a long, long time!

The table looked lovely and we had a small but lively crowd of friends and neighbors over to join us. Lord knows we needed help eating all that turkey!


The Pirate and AC provided a fabulous Bloody Mary bar and brought the fixings for Mimosas too!


The Bloody Marys almost served as a meal all by themselves! But we noshed on some other appetizers too while we waited and waited and waited for the turkey to cook. Finally, it was time to get our feed on!

Everything was really good and we lingered at the table not wanting to get up. After cleaning up and letting our aching bellies rest a bit, it was time for the Pumpkin Pecan cheesecake! I make it every year and boy howdy is it delicious.

And that was the straw that broke the camels back!

The end.