One down

Okay for January, I'm on pace with my resolutions. Even though I technically started this book in 2014, I'm claiming reading credit for "In the Woods" by Tana French in 2015:

It was a good mystery read though I'd have a tough time recommending it. I'd be like, "the set up is great, the journey is gripping, but ugh, unsatisfying ending."  I'm embarrassed that I'm one of those readers who needs things resolved at the end and I get "in real life" one doesn't get all answers, but come on, when you've got a mystery, isn't that the point?

Okay baby steps with the crafting--pulled out the Spirograph and made a card, which I mailed to a friend:

On a side note, Spirographing is kind of harder than I remember (or takes practice), I had a number of times when I couldn't keep the cog on the track if my pen was in a hole farther from the center of the cog and I'd have these sudden jagged lines where my pen just veered across the design.  A tad frustrating.  Or maybe I need smaller hands.

And voila! I found out a local girl scout troop would take craft stuff so I got motivated to purge some of my stash, knowing it would be put to good use:

Okay, 1 out of 12 done--now on to the next 11...

Super Bowel Sunday

If you didn't know, only official NFL sponsors get to use the trademarked phrases "Super Bowl" and "Super Sunday" in their advertising.  So a lot of commercials who just want to use that day as a reason to have sales (like the way we have President's Day sales), resort to using words like "the Big Game" or "the Big Championship".  I didn't think I could have a favorite until I saw this:

Way to go, Vitamin Shoppe. I thank you for Super Bowel Sunday.

New Year's Resolution: Lean in 2015

Here we go, 2015.  It's a new year and we're cleaning up.  It's been almost a year and not much progress since I last blogged.  Still at about 170 and ready to kick off the new year right with some simple focused goals.

To start with I have this goal sheet from my gym of reaching 5 pull-ups in a row by the end of 2015.  A few years ago, I was able to do my first unassisted pull-up and got up to 2 in a row.  Now, at 15 pounds heavier than that time, I can't even do one.  Besides some exercises that build up to pull-ups (vertical rows, horizontal rows, etc.), I was advised that weight is a factor as well, so a supplemental goal is getting rid of excess weight.  So starting off by not eating after 9pm and increasing cardio with its own goal of doing a 5K under 40 minutes.  I've signed up for a 5K trail run on February 14--fingers crossed!

Additionally, it's time for other parts of my life to get lean, so decluttering is in order.  And I want to focus on creating and producing, instead of consuming (in my case, hopping around craft blogs, saying how much "I should make that!" and then on to another craft blog).  So less internet, more making stuff.  The exception is reading.  I feel like reading a book is working out my brain, unlike say, surfing the internet.  So here are the rest of the resolutions for 2015:

- Reading 12 books

- Getting rid of 12 boxes of stuff

- Make 12 things

Originally these were all going to be once a month goals, but I didn't want to restrict myself if I'm on a roll (especially the decluttering).  Deep breath.  Okay here we go!

Thank you Internet

Holy crap, when I turned on my laptop--where I do EVERYTHING, including log on for work--I got this weird message "The User Profile Service failed the logon.  User Profile cannot be loaded."  It wouldn't let me past the log on screen.  I had a mini-freak out and then googled the error message on my iPhone.  It pulled up all these forum posts with fairly daunting instructions with one even warning that "one should be fairly handy with computers" to correct this, which I'd say I'm fairly UN-handy computer-wise beyond "reboot".  Had another mini-freak out.

Thankfully, I scrolled the search results and found this YouTube video:



Watching this video made it seem very doable and I recognized the steps that were outlined in a number of forum responses.  I totally followed the steps with my iPhone, not really knowing what I was doing and hoping I was doing the correct thing, and it totally worked.

So grateful for the internet and to those who post cool and helpful information and videos. 

Thank you Kentucky and UConn

Though I was really rooting for the Spartans to go all the way, I will gratefully take winning my March Madness pool this way. I had needed Florida and Wisconsin to lose to keep my lead and I was very pleasantly impressed to see UConn and Kentucky pull out their wins, respectively.

Because none of us were astute enough to see the Huskies or the Wildcats heading into the Championship game it was great to know I won this pool after the Final Four played out.

My sincere congratulations to Kentucky and UConn!

Back from the Dead

My poor blog.  It's been MONTHS, I know, and it had been a threadbare year to boot.  It's really wild how long it's taken me to feel unfoggy and get back in stride again.  I kind of didn't believe it when a friend said that when she lost her mother, it took her a year to get back to normal.  It's been over 6 months since my mom passed.  And I still ponder it.  And if you've been "lucky" to hear my stories, you know it's been a long number of years with the most intense culminating in the last few, with 2013 being quite the hands-on doozy.  Oddly, it was different when my dad passed away over 14 years ago.  Granted my daughter was born less than a month later, so I was incredibly occupied, but it wasn't nearly as crippling.  But yes, I ponder his life too at times.

Anyway there is a part of me that feel like Rip Van Winkle and I'm finally snapping out of an anesthetized fog.  Like I had been watching things happening and I'm finally able to react.  A few observations:

- Football season 2013 was utter POOP for me this year.  Totally bottomed out in the office pool and in my fantasy league.  In fact I was awarded the "Psychotherapist Award" in my fantasy league this season because "everyone felt better about themselves after playing my team".  Next season, I plan on being much more on top of it.  Plus I'm commissioner of my fantasy league and already implementing new rules already, like money upfront.  See? I'm getting back in the saddle with a vengeance.

- Psyched that Michigan State won the Rose Bowl and was hoping for a NCAA basketball championship as well, but alas, that didn't happen.  Now I'm stuck rooting for UConn, who beat Michigan State, to beat Florida to win my March Madness pool.  Go Huskies! (Ouch.)

- WHAT THE HECK happened to that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?!

- I am my heaviest non-pregnant weight.  I think I hit 170 and now around 164.  For reference, last year I was 153.  For another reference, my goal for the last couple of years has been to break 150.  Now I'm trying to break 160.  Yikes.  Yes I give myself slack that it had been a "rough year" but I'm ready to get back on track.

- I made the realization I am an old lady.  I know I had been heading in that direction when I would look at food labels to see how much FIBER was in a food versus looking at the fat and calories of my more (perceived) lithesome youth.  But I recently caught my first full episode of "Freaks and Geeks" and knew I wasn't even a kid in spirit because I totally side with the PARENTS in this show.  Seriously--Lindsay giving up the Academic Summit to follow the Grateful Dead for 2 weeks?!  AAAAIGGHHH!  I totally looked at my girl and said, "Isn't that ridiculous?!  AMIRITE?!"

- Really glad "12 Years a Slave" won Best Picture.  Though I will also confess that one of other favorite movies of 2013 is "Battle of the Year"--the epic BOTY scene at the end is my fave.

Okay, I hope this is a good start for me to get back into my blog.

The Most Epic of Splits

I think I have watched this video of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Epic Split with Volvo trucks dozens of times at this point.



I don't know which I'm enamored most with: JCVD's awesome speech (which I will try to incorporate whenever I can while personalizing only the last line, "...the most epic...of pancakes), the fact that these guys are driving so evenly in REVERSE, or how much this darn Enya songs just works. I know everyone is wowed by the actual split but if you've seen any photos or movies of JCVD from the 90s (or the recent GoDaddy commercial) then you're already aware of his crazy gift with these splits.

Yes, I'm going to watch it again right now. Or buy a Volvo truck.