As adult humans, most of us feel a drive to improve ourselves in some way. Many people want to improve their bank accounts, or waist line, or knowledge. This year... maybe two or three months ago... I realized what I want to improve. Well, ok, there are many things I am working on improving, but one thing in particular is a recent change. I am working to improve my palette. I want to be a cultured culinary connoisseur.

Christopher is on this kick with me as well. Previously he didn't like the following: tomatoes, bell peppers, asparagus, amongst other things I can't remember right now. With the exception of tomatoes, all those things are now on the I-like-it list. His willingness to be more open to foods he previously didn't like encouraged me to recognize what I didn't like and try to change it.

One food item that I never liked growing up was mushrooms. I liked mushroom flavored things, just not the fungus itself. With consistent effort to try different types of mushrooms, I can finally say that I like 'em. The first type to make it onto the list was Enokitake; that was followed by Portobello. More recently, I've added White Buttons and Oyster mushrooms. The final mushroom to make it onto the list was Shiitake. I admit, I'm still not in love with Shiitake, mostly because the flavor is so powerful that it's a bit overwhelming. However, I'll never refuse a dish just because mushrooms are in it. And I don't order things sans mushrooms. I even voluntarily put them in my stir fry at home.

So why is this important to me? Well, mostly, I find that picky eating is a quality that I don't care for, and I'd like to rid myself of it as much as I can. The happier I become, the less I talk about things that I don't like and focus on the things that I do like. Therefore, why not like more things in turn?

There is one food that I have never liked and is a serious damper on this phase of culinary growth. Those of you who know me even the slightest bit know what I'm talking about. It's chocolate. Yes, the food that the majority of the rest of the world adores has always made me scrunch my nose in disgust. I used to like Butterfingers, but even those, I found, have lost 100% of their luster, and I can't really see myself eating one ever again. So, what to do about this? Well, I don't want to leave any stone unturned; therefore, chocolate is included in my quest.

Believe it or not, I have actually found two food stuffs that I enjoy that contain chocolate... oooh.. make that three, I just remembered. The first item I tried and liked was Strawberry Soyjoy Bars. Delicious. The second, Hazelnut Quadratini Wafer Cookies. Delicious. And finally, Quaker Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips Granola Bars. ... not "wow! delicious", but edible if I'm hungry.

I consider these three items to be three baby steps for the grocery store and three giant leaps for me. I don't think I'll like Triple German Chocolate Cake anytime soon, but who knows maybe I'll like it at some future unknown date.

As a random side note, the guy at the table next to me at the coffee shop seems to be sermon writing. FYI.

It might take some time before I conquer the mountain that is the availability of chocolate and chocolate products. In the meantime, I'll still be trying more and more mushrooms and liking the heck out of my meals.

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I wouldn't be doing this past week justice if I didn't talk about the food. Such wonderful specialties and old time favorites were eaten in the name of the holidays. You ask, but aren't you on a diet? I reply, no we aren't. We are eating healthy and exercising. In doing so, we've both lost weight and gotten in better shape. However, we are simply leading a healthy lifestyle which includes occasional splurging on tasty treats guilt free. Since we aren't on a diet plan, there is no cheating. All the better for us, because Thanksgiving included some can't-miss delights. The first noteworthy meal was not a traditional American Thanksgiving meal, but a lunch out for Japanese food. Christopher ordered maguro nigiri and tekkamaki, and I ordered a lunch bento that included teriyaki salmon, edamame, steamed veggies, rice, and miso soup.

As you can see, delicious! The fish was very fresh, well cut, and constructed beautifully. I didn't take a photo, but my bento was equally stunning in a pretty bento box-style dish. Bringing the cuisine back stateside, the next meal stayed in the realm of seafood. We were beckoned by the host of a restaurant to try crab as it was the first week of harvest. Oh man, so good. Normally, I would not go for crab at a restaurant because of the price and the work involved. I generally don't like my meals messy. However, the price was right due to the harvest specials and the mess was more than worth it. The meal was started with a savory yet creamy cup of clam chowder. This was accompanied by the best sourdough I've ever tasted. And of course, the crab was the star of the show. What's Thanksgiving without a casserole or two? The last food-foto I took was of my mom's stellar breakfast casserole. This year she really knocked it out of the park. It's always good, but something about this one was a chart-topper. The casserole includes eggs, cheese, bread, and sausage with a few other ingredients rounding it out. I took the photo while the casserole was still bubbling immediately out of the oven. It rested a little bit before we enjoyed its offerings with our morning coffee. And of course, what I'm remembering now are numerous other candid food moments that I neglected to catch on "film" to record in our Thanksgiving memories. There was the breakfast burrito, the Happy Chopped Salad, the baked sweet potatoes, the pumpkin spice lattés, the crèpes, and oh the cake! We were lucky to have a week to cover all that ground and not only one day.

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I had my follow up appointment with the specialist after having had the NCS on my wrist. My appointment was at 3:30pm. I arrived at about 3:20pm. They didn't call me until 4:05pm, so I spent a good amount of time with a book in the waiting room ignoring the chatter of small children (2) who were there with their parents. Luckily, I remembered to bring the book; otherwise, I might have been bored for my 45 minute wait.

The nurse took me back and took my blood pressure. He asked if I had low blood pressure. I told him it was usually the low side of normal. I said that's I'd just spent a relaxing 45 minutes reading a book and that could explain the low blood pressure. He seemed to think that was funny.

Talking with the doctor, it seems I have nueropraxia. There was latency in the amount of time it took the electric signal to reach the nodes in my finger tips, and this is what confirms the diagnosis. Basically, the nerve has been smushed. It can be done through athletics, which I did a lot of growing up. Also, the icing on the cake would be when I fell directly onto the outer part of my wrist. I did this while running and on concrete. Definitely enough to smush my nerve.

I had gotten a wrist brace to wear to as not to agitate the situation, thinking it might be carpal tunnel (see previous post). However, per the doctor's orders, I'm not to wear it at all, and I should do my activities as normal. Instead, I am supposed to massage the site with vitamin E (I bought d-alpha vitamin E softgels), and use a stress ball to strengthen the muscles around the nerve. Doing so will help the nerve regrow/heal as much as it can.

So, there you have it. The case of the tingling hand solved.

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First, my dog just ate something off the side of my ottoman. What is was or why it was there, I have no idea. I'm actually hoping it was a crumb of some kind that had managed to stick in that particular spot, because at least then it would be food. However, this is not the point of this post. A while back I posted that I thought I may be seeing some early signs of Carpal Tunnel. I went to the specialist for an appointment and was referred out to a testing center where they could perform a Nerve Conduction Study (NCS).

When the doctor told me he was sending me out for this, I replied, "Is that with electrodes?" He said it was. Me, "Oh, that sounds cool." Him, "Actually it's painful." So, I went expecting pain. The first thing the technician said was not to worry about pain, because it wasn't anything other than a little zap. He thought it was strange my doc told me it was painful. There is a more painful test that involves sticking needles in your arm (an EMG), but I didn't have to have that done.

The technician started by drawing little dots on my arm with Sharpie and putting some goo on the end of the zapper. I'm absolutely positive there are technical names for these things, but why use them when there are awesome words like "goo" and "zapper" that work just as well?

He then proceeded to zap my arm multiple times. In some cases it was just one zap, and in others it was 10 zaps in a row. In every case, my hand spasmed uncontrollably. As this was happening, a graph appeared on the computer screen that was the product of the zaps. Apparently, the doctors will look for variation in the amount of time it takes the electrical current to reach the receiving pads that are stuck on the fingers/palm from the point of entry (marked in Sharpie on my arm). Also as this was happening, my reaction of choice was to laugh. I really couldn't help it, since my hand was moving without my commanding it to do so; it seemed funny. I think the technician preferred this reaction to patients who are completely anxious and make the testing difficult. It definitely didn't tickle, it was in fact painful - just not enough to worry about. It was maybe a 1 or a 2 in some cases on a pain scale of 10. And, the zaps were so short, they were over by the time the pain registered anyway.

I have no idea if I passed or failed this test. I'll find out when I go back to the doctor and hear his interpretation of the results.

In other news, Renn's dental appointment went well. The poor thing came home and literally grumbled for the rest of the day. I'm talking the full day from the time he got home until the time we went to bed. He had pain killer and antibiotics for the scaling that had been done. The pain killer really seemed to sedate him and pretty much knock him out. He's finally completed all that medication, and he only has two more doses of antibiotic left. He has a little shaved patch of hair on his arm from where they put the IV. He wasn't his usual attractive and charming self at Barktober Fest the next day. But I ran that event by the vet before taking him. She didn't have a problem with it.

Barktober Fest was lots of fun :) Renn got to see Paisley and hang out. We walked around the booths and participated in the walk around the lake. It wasn't all that cold, but it was rainy off and on. We arrived just before noon. At 1:18pm, the emcee came over the loud speaker and let everyone know there was a tornado warning. That pretty much ended the show. All people and doggies headed for their cars. As I was sitting in line to get out of the parking lot, the downpour came. An hour and 15 minutes was not a bad amount of time to spend there, so I'm glad I went. It was just somewhat of an abrupt ending. Also, while we were there, we saw a little doggie for adoption. (There were lots of little doggies for adoption, but this one called out to me). He'd been in an accident but was saved by the Frisco Humane Society. He had pretty bad road rash, but was in the latter stages of recovery. Such a cutie, medium sized mix with grey/white hair, face of a terrier. We're ok being a one dog family for now, but he'll make some family very happy.

As for Halloween, I have no plans for the day of. However, I will be dressing up for work tomorrow. I'm going as the bride from Kill Bill. I'm really only half-dressing up though, because the pants of the costume that I have are tight and would make me feel uncomfortable at work. So, on bottom I'll be wearing jeans, but on top I'll be wearing a bright yellow jacket with black stripes down each arm. I'll also carry a staff, because swords are HR inappropriate. Happy Halloween!

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Since the daily high is out of the 90s, seemingly for good, it appears that fall is here. Or at least what Texans can call fall. I'm very cold when I walk Renn in the mornings; so, I started wearing my track pants and hoodie. By the afternoon, I'm in a t-shirt again. I don't really mind changing a lot during the day, but it does mean I have more laundry to do at the end of the week. Anyway, the point is that seasons are changing and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the year has to offer.

Renn will be the center of attention over the next week. On Friday, he's got an appointment at the vet for his physical, heartworm screening, vaccination update, and dental work. Poor little guy. He'll have to stay at the vet all day since they give little doggies anesthesia for dental work. Makes sense, otherwise they wouldn't sit still long enough. It's only through sheer will power that I sit still long enough when I'm in the dentist's chair. Then Saturday, BARKTOBER FEST!!!! I'm so excited. Renn will get to hang out with his friend Paisley for most of the day (or at least a couple of hours), and I'll get to walk around the booths and see what's going on in this little shindig. Emma may or may not also make an appearance. It should be tons of fun.

At work, we'll have a new training class at the end of the month as well, which is good for me because I like being busy, and it's definitely one of the more fun aspects of my job. Also in October, a friend's birthday, which should be good times.

In November, we're headed to California for Thanksgiving. We've rented a car and will make a short road trip out of the first two or three days before spending the rest of the time with family. I love road trips with my husband! And family time is good too since we haven't spent a long holiday with them in a couple of years. I think...it certainly feels like a long time. I'm sure we'll also spend some time with family here in Texas at some point. Not to mention, we've been pretty good about heading out to new restaurants with friends every two or three weeks. I've been enjoying going out. Which reminds me, last week we went to Mr. Sushi in Addison for drinks (plum wine, mmmmmmm) before dinner at the Thai Orchid a few doors down with a friend. It was such a fun night. I can't wait for a repeat performance.

And, of course there's December. I have days off from work sprinkled in the month. I like having 4-day work weeks. Who doesn't?

So all in all, the rest of the year is shaping up to be fantastic! Now.. what to do this weekend.... ;)

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This is just a repost from my favorite blogging personal trainer. A little motivation for your weekend. Original found here.

"The average American is overweight, has no college degree, makes about 32,000 per year, will go through at least one divorce, and will not live past the age of 78. Death will probably come by way of heart disease. Now why would you want to be simply average? Don’t be a “C student” when it comes to your life and your health. You can continue to make excuses, but that doesn’t change the consequence. Embrace the popular slogan and “just do it.” You won’t necessarily “feel like it” until you’ve been at it for a while. But don’t worry, the feelings with follow soon. Believe it or not, you will eventually enjoy not only the benefits of being healthy but also the process! Just remember it will take a little time."

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About a month ago or so, we were invited by a friend to join her and her team from her company to walk a 5K in downtown Dallas. It was a charity event put on by the American Heart Association and in support of sufferers of stroke and heart disease.

We pretty quickly decided we'd join her. It was an especially easy decision, because furry four-legged family members were allowed! This was the most exciting part, for me. Renn has been on long walks with me before. Generally, we go for a 30 to 45 minutes walk once a day unless the weather doesn't allow. And on the weekends, we'd recently been going for walks of up to 1 hour and 15 minutes, so I knew he could handle the 5K.

We registered for the walk two days beforehand (my fault since the email clearly said to pre-register, but I'd completely overlooked that part until almost the day of the walk). And we set up a meeting time with our friend at her place, which is located very near where the walk was to begin. She also has a dog that she was bringing. Her dog and Renn had already met at the dog park and gotten along famously.

The walk itself was very slow moving at first. Hundreds of people filing down the road (next to the W hotel) on our way winding through downtown. After the first couple turns, though, the crown thinned out a bit and the walking wasn't so slow and smushed. It was neat to walk around the streets of downtown. I'd only ever been in a car and driven to my destination. I'd never walked around in that way, so I really appreciated the opportunity to see the city from a different perspective.

We finished the walk in just over an hour, I don't remember exactly how long it took. We were pretty hot and sweaty, but luckily it was overcast that day, so it definitely could have been worse. After the walk, we went back to our friend's place and believe it or not her little doggie was ready to play with minimal recovery time. She's so cute! Renn, a bit older than her, wanted to join the playtime as well, but he was moving at a noticeably slower pace than his puppy pal.

Overall, we had a great time participating in an event for a good cause, and we got some outdoor exercise while we were at it. Not bad for a Saturday morning.

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In my (apparently very domestic and I suppose boring to some) married life, I have become more and more enamored with cooking and cooking related topics and hobbies. One of my favorite things to do is to go grocery shopping. Mostly because we do this activity as a couple and have fun together as we trod through the aisles. Recently, our local Kroger has been remodeling. A process that seems almost complete as of yesterday when Christopher and I went for our weekly shopping trip.

Grocery shopping is a pretty organized affair, I make a list during the week of the things we run out of and stock up on fresh veg and fruit each weekend. The remodel has made an old store new, and it's very lovely as far as grocery stores go. The old corner section of organic food has turned into a beauty and health care section. The organic food has taken a more prominent place near the produce. And the bakery/deli areas seem to have expanded with a new cheese display and large olive and salad bar.

I use the deliciousness that I buy there to make even more deliciousness at home. Recently, I've taken up stir fry. A bit difficult since I don't have a wok and my largest pan is not that large. But I make it work, very carefully. My stir fry usually includes cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, carrots, and chicken. mmmmmmm.

Another new favorite is twice baked potatoes with a hot chili pepper sour cream sauce. The recipe includes butter, cheese, scallions, milk, salt/pepper, and something else I can't seem to remember. It's a bit long in cooking (baking potatoes takes about an hour or so), but totally worth the wait when it's done.

And, of course, Christopher fires up the grill regularly, usually multiple times a week. I'd pick his burger over a restaurant burger any day of the week. He's also gotten very good at glazed grilled chicken, fajita chicken, steak, and grilled salmon.

Not to brag, but I love dinner at my house!

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In a recent trip to the library - man, I love the library - I decided I wanted to find something from the non-fiction section to keep me entertained and interested on the weekends. As you can tell from the food posts, I'm very interested in healthy living. So, this is the area where I went to choose my books. I picked up The Hundred-Year Lie: How Food and Medicine are Destroying Your Health by Randall Fitzgerald.

Overall, I recommend this book. It is thorough, informative, and backed by dozens and dozens of reputable works cited. It is alarmist, no question; however, that is exactly the point the author is trying to make. And he succeeds.

Neither Christopher nor I have ever been just-take-a-pill kind of people. We both have to convince the other when it's time to go to the doctor. We both have to read up on the research available on the internet for the medication we are prescribed. We both have a general mistrust of medication. It was nice to read this book and have factual information back up our intuition. We will use prescriptions when necessary. However, what we will not do is go get antibiotics for every cold we may get when they will do absolutely nothing for our cold and create an environment for developing stronger bugs.

The main thesis of the book is that mankind is performing a chemical experiment on itself while blindly expecting objective government agencies to be its watchdog. Fitzgerald talks about the food industry quite a bit, but also takes his sword of choice to the pharmaceutical and medical industries as well as the bias, political agencies charged with regulating these. My one critique is that he uses a lot of animal testing to show how medications should have been pulled from shelves long before they were, but he then argues that animal testing is not a valid form of comparison to human reactions to chemicals. Granted that is a simplification of his statement. For more information on that, just read the book! ;)

What I like best about the book is (1) it's an interesting read with a relatively well organized structure (2) it uses recognizable evidence for its claims (3) it makes sense. I also can agree that, generally speaking, doctors and the community at large are too focused on finding one single chemical cure for a disease or one single cause for a symptom. Fitzgerald successfully discussing the hazard of such an approach and the benefit of looking at synergistic properties of drugs, foods, and environmental toxins. I also appreciate his nod to holistic medicine and traditional use of food as illness prevention.

I finished the book in one week, reading solidly only about two days. So it does not take a long time to get through its pages. If you're interested in this kind of thing, I'd say it's a great one to pick up.

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Hey everyone. Long time no see.

Been a while since I've posted on here. Lexie has been making pretty much all the posts for the last few years. I have recently been able to redouble my efforts in writing and so I will be making more posts on here when I hit writer's block in my projects. This is pretty much a follow-up post to her story about Coffee with a Cause.

I've been going to the cafe that she mentioned, Global Peace Factory, for almost a week now. Here's what I have to say about it.

Looks 8/10 - Only one complaint: I'm not big on orange, which happens to be their accent color. But by no means does it look ugly. The orange does, however, do its job and energize the place. The lightly colored walls bring in the sunlight nicely without making it a hot place. The bar is well organized with a multi-color chalk menu for paninis and various delicious coffee drinks. There is a display freezer with various ice-cream like contents.

Layout 8/10 - Again, only one complaint: Size. It's a little on the smaller side, but that is part of it's charm. There is a couch in an alcove with several tables dashed here and there on the ground floor. I love the loft that is above and behind the bar. I do my most productive work up there, there is a bohemian style rug and a chain link fence which would look out of place anywhere but here. Along two of the walls is a long one sided booth with ample plugs for laptops, along with a few framed prints of various internationally appealing people, places and things.

Atmosphere 10/10 - Great friendly staff and a host of other like-minded work-from-homers fill spots both up and downstairs. The music is a mix of Moroccan tunes, bohemian vocals and Latin flair. I find the staff to be more than accommodating in that they will take your order to your seat, and even take your second order from your seat, if you're there long enough.

Taste 10/10 - Being a long time Starbucks fan, I thought I was going to hate the place. But I found the opposite to be true. I like it so much, I don't want to go to Starbucks anymore. The coffee is excellent. The paninis are fun and tasty. I am yet to try the ice-cream, though I hear it's something other than ice-cream, which makes me want to try it that much more.

In closing, I have to say, after meeting the owner of the shop that this place has real promise. He is originally from Switzerland. This is his first attempt at a coffee shop, and I'd say he's hit a home run. He says the difficulties with this place are mostly bound its location. There is next to no neighboring retail stores, so very little foot traffic. The location at the NW corner of Legacy and 121 is not known for much other than a few corporate offices, but he plans to fix that lack of exposure he has by offering delivery services in the near future.

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Have you or someone you know tried Insanity with Shaun T? I've seen the infomercials, I've gone to the website (just like the infomercials without the music). I've thought about what else I could do with $120. The cost of Insanity is three payments of 39.95 (and shipping is $25, what's up with that?!?). So $120 dollars later, would I have appreciated my investment? I'm not certain, but I am interested. And, I'd like to hear opinions from the peanut gallery.

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I suppose it started for me in high school. There was a coffee shop (no longer in business) called La Crème just down the street from the high school, and my friends and I would stop in there often for a drink, snack, and hanging out time. It really did mimic the camaraderie of the television show "Friends," although, we rarely sat in the same place two times in a row. I sat and had deep conversations with the girl who would become my best friend there. I went on dates there. I ran into my parents' friends there. That place had a lot going for it.


From there, my love of coffee shops kept going. I do enjoy Starbucks, nothing but love there. However, there is something a bit more charming about a privately owned, non-chain coffee house. In college, starting freshman year and going all the way through senior year, a group of us met weekly at Sweet Eugene's for catching up and chilling out. It didn't really matter that most of us saw each other every day anyway. I worked at this coffee house during my time as an undergrad (beginning sophomore or junior year, I can't quite remember) and grad student. Not an insignificant percent of my paycheck would often go to food and drinks on my off-time.

Along the way in there, I moved to Paris, France. Uh, hello. We all know the French love their coffee (and with almost as much passion as the Italians, and that's hard to do). In Paris it didn't really matter to me which coffee shop I was stopped in, they were all inviting (albeit smoky) - especially on cold, gray Parisian days. What they lacked in creature comforts (no big fluffy couches here), they made up for in ridiculously cheap espresso and indifferent shop keepers. The indifferent shop keepers part is very good if you're looking to stay in one place for hours on end and only purchase a single espresso. Japan also had its little cafés (and Starbucks) where we liked to frequent. In one, the baristas knew Christopher by name (not to mention his order).

Since we've been back, I don't quite feel like we've found a coffee shop haven. That is, not until today. Sure, we'd gone to Starbucks like we always did. But sitting in one just hasn't felt quite as relaxing as it used to. Luckily, I'm a bit ridiculous about cutting coupons and looking through the weekly mailers for deals. This is a fortunate happenstance because this past week's mailer had a 50% food purchases coupon for a coffee house I'd never heard of called Global Peace Factory. 50% is a very good reason to give a place a shot.

Christopher and I headed over there for lunch today. We both ordered paninis (the menu is small so the variety isn't all that vast - mostly paninis or pastries, and they also sell gelato). Christopher also ordered a caramel frappé. We headed up to the mezzanine to sit and eat our lunch. It was very cute, comfortable, and inviting. What is even better is that this coffee house is part for profit and part for charity. 2 cents on the dollar goes to non-political charities. Certain items sold in the shop have 100% of the proceeds going to charity. Also, their plastic cups (for cold drinks) are compostable. Rock on Global Peace Factory. I feel we may have found a little gem in this place, and I know that we'll be going back. It's a nice feeling. Oh, and yes, the paninis were delicious.

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Sitting at my desk playing Sid Meier's Civilization yesterday, I realized two things. First, Sitting Bull will continue to be warlike and ruin my fun at building my cities no matter how many trades I place with him. He may even cost me the game. Second, my right arm and hand tingle and feel dead way too often for it to be healthy when I am at my desk. I told Christopher about it, and he said my symptoms were like Carpal Tunnel. Yikes.

So, knowing me - as you do - you know that I must do more research on the topic to find out if I indeed have Carpal Tunnel (because I'm not likely to believe the snake will injure me unless it bites me square on the nose). I found this information from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. It states that Carpal Tunnel sufferers have pain often radiating from the palm and going down to the elbow in addition to tingling in the thumb, index, and middle fingers. They may feel like they cannot squeeze or grip objects and/or feel a need to "shake it out." This information, Christopher had shared with me already.

Since I work at a computer all day every day, Monday through Friday, I do feel like it is not unreasonable to expect I may develop this one day. But now? Also, my symptoms do not match exactly. For example, there is no pain associated with my tingling. It feels like my arm went to sleep, but I could still hold a cup of coffee if I needed to. Second, my arm and fingers are ridiculously cold when this happens. This leads me to think that it may have more to do with poor circulation or with keeping my arm up too high in comparison with my heart, or something to that effect. Finally, it seems to affect my pinkie, ring, and middle fingers far more than my thumb and index fingers. In fact, my thumb never feels numb when this happens. I am not ready to go to the doctor just yet. Last I checked, the most common remedy for this injury was surgery. Eek. I don't think I'm there yet. In the meantime, if you see someone looking like a hobo at their desk wearing gloves with the fingers cut off, that would be me.

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As you may have been able to tell based on the recent onslaught of food related posts that I have made, I am becoming more and more interested (read: obsessed) with healthy living, good cooking, and fun calorie burning exercise. This interest lead me to seek out various personal trainers in the area and do a little research on what they offer.


I took a look at the type of personal trainer one would meet at a Gold's or Bally's gym. Then I looked at the kind who work in separate smaller gyms or studios. Finally, I searched personal trainers in the area who would come to you. In the latter group, I found Thomas Jensen, founder of Elect Wellness. Last week, Christopher and I met with Thomas to talk about his program and to go over basic lifestyle assessment type stuff. True to the ad on his website, this assessment was free with no obligation to sign up for anything. He did give his service list and pricing information at the end of our session; however, it was not a "hard sell" and we did not feel like he was pressuring us nor was he upset that we didn't sign up right away.

Overall, his program seems well thought out based on eating right (whole foods, lots of fruits and veggies, no soda, that kind of thing) and working out with resistance training being the key to fat burning. There's probably some cardio in there as well. He's also very personable and professional, and he let us know about his own journey to eat right and find the best way to work out and maintain a healthy body. He seems like the kind of guy you'd play some half-court with, not intimidating or condescending at all.

The price tag, for us, was too high to be able to sign up for a program. Thomas does offer smaller monitoring programs and body composition assessment sessions that might be worthwhile as we both continue to eat well and become more fit. Whether or not we decide to do that later, I'll continue to subscribe to his weekly fitness e-newsletter (which has only come with one additional sales email in the entire time I've been signed up for it) and enjoy what he has to say about dairy, testosterone, flax seed, or whatever other topic he picks on any given week.

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Perhaps it is the spirit of Memorial Day weekend that is putting all the store clerks in a good mood. Having no intention of actually shopping this weekend, but then needing to anyway, I found that spirit at each place we went.


First - the mechanic. After a quick stop at Kroger to get an anniversary card, Christopher noticed a coupon for NTB on the back of the receipt. We needed an oil change anyway, and since it was Friday and I was off of work, we decided to get it taken care of asap. The coupon was for your basic run-o-the-mill oil change. We wanted to make the switch to synthetic, something our coupon didn't cover. Not deterred by silly sheets of paper, the clerk offered us $10 off our oil change anyway. We took it.

Following the mechanic, we wanted to go to JinBeh for sushi for lunch. Their lunch specials can sometimes be really worthwhile. We went in and sat at the sushi bar and looked at the specials menu. Unfortunately, what we wanted wasn't on it. It was on the regular (and full price) menu that we could order if we wanted. Rather than waste an opportunity to watch our wallets, we decided to leave and come back another time when we could catch a different special. On the way out the door, we were stopped by the manager who wanted to know what was wrong. This is a restaurant we love, and the only reason we were leaving was because the rolls we wanted weren't on the Friday lunch special menu. The manager, Ali, took care of it. He said he'd be happy to put the rolls that we wanted on special and there was no reason to leave. So, we stayed, and lunch was delicious (and inexpensive!).

A trip to Half Price Books today (Saturday) was also a good stop. They were having a store wide 20% off sale. Not too shabby. And our final errand of the day was to go to Ulta for some shampoo and what not for myself. I took my 20% off one item coupon in with me. My most expensive item wasn't very expensive at all earning me about $1.30 in savings. The clerk saw my total (about 20 bucks), and said "hang on just a sec." She disappeared under the counter for about 20 seconds and came back and scanned a $5 dollar off store coupon dropping my total down to $15. Pretty sweet. I hadn't asked her about any additional sales or specials going on. I guess she just felt it in her heart to use a coupon for me (or maybe her manager told her to do that for everyone, no idea).

Here's hoping stores clerks continue their wave of kindness after the holiday weekend.

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The tree man from Scarborough Faire 2009 has been occupying the right side of our home page for a while now. He's pretty cool - so I guess he deserves it. We decided to hit the road again this year down to Scarborough Faire with my brother-in-law, Christopher's brother, along for the ride.

Getting to Scarborough Faire was a breeze, perhaps there was some traffic getting out of town in the first place. But if there was, it wasn't bad enough for me to remember it now that I'm writing about it some weeks later.

Last year, we mostly people-watched and walked around the vendors' booths. So this year, we wanted to take in a few more shows and exhibitions. We started at the potter's place.
His set up was very cool, all foot powered and rustic.

From there we went to the glass blower's exhibition. He started out with a long thin string, which he turned into a very pretty pitcher with handle, which had clear glass with orange polka dots. He was a good speaker, too. Therefore, I think his presentation was even better since he was able to tell the audience exactly what he was doing and why as he was doing it.

I think from there, we may have gone to lunch - I can't remember the exact order. But sometime between the glass blower and the end of the day, we managed to see belly dancers, a bird of prey show (or part of it anyway), fencing games, and the rope trick/whip trick show. We also watched the mid-day parade, checked out the elephants, and browsed many of the stores. A very good day of family fun.

The day was made extra special when, while at the belly dancing show, the girls called up two men from the audience and one of them was Christopher. From that point on, he had the best seat in the house - on stage being fanned by one of the troupe members. They even made Christopher and the other audience member attempt to dance. Christopher's skills were much better than the other guy. However, neither of them has a career in belly dancing just yet. Maybe next year.

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It's been another week of conscientious eating. I'd like to think that the choices are getting easier. Those calories get spent so quickly! Summer fruit and veggies certainly make it easier to eat healthy foods. I love the avocados that are out now, along with my usual bananas and apples (I also pick up clementines occasionally, but not usually in summer). Just so you know, I doubt I'll continue to blog the food that I eat, just because it's not all that exciting. However, know that I'm continuing to keep my food diary personally and will let you know what I eat if you ask.

Monday
Breakfast -> Oatmeal with 2% milk and a banana, tropical citrus juice
Lunch -> Cucumber,tomato,avocado salad with Ritz crackers
Dinner -> Mac and Cheese
Other -> Blueberry Greek Yogurt, Skinny Cappucino
Total Calorie count = 1334, Total Fat = 26.5g

Tuesday
Breakfast -> Oatmeal with 2% milk and a banana, tropical citrus juice
Lunch -> Cucumber,tomato,avocado salad with Ritz crackers
Dinner -> Grilled chicken with leafy salad
Other -> Plain Greek Yogurt
Total Calorie count = 1145, Total Fat = 28.3g

Wednesday
Breakfast -> 2 Cherry pop tarts, 2% milk
Lunch -> Chicken and avocado sandwich and a banana
Dinner -> Grilled chicken with herb pasta and peas, blueberry greek yogurt for dessert
Other -> Skinny cappucino
Total Calorie count = 1675, Total Fat = 46.2g

Thursday
Breakfast -> Oatmeal with 2% milk and a banana
Lunch -> Cucumber,tomato,avocado salad with Ritz crackers
Dinner -> Cheeseburger (Christopher grilled, yummy!) with portabello mushrooms, leafy green salad
Total Calorie count = 1119, Total Fat = 55.5g

Friday
Breakfast -> Oatmeal with 2% milk and a banana
Lunch -> leftover leafy green salad with cucumber,tomato, and avocado; Ritz crackers
Dinner -> Chicken n' Dumplins
Total Calorie count = 1252, Total Fat = 51.5

So there you have it. I got a little excited at the grocery store last weekend and bought a LOT of avocados, and you can see I've put them to good use. Although my calorie count was a bit too low (women should get 1200 or more I've read to provide appropriate nutrition) on Tuesday and Thursday, I wasn't any hungrier thanks to high fiber foods and Christopher's excellent grilling skills! The next blog won't be a food blog, but I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted!

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As you know from my previous post, I feel the food selection out there is treacherous at times. Although my food choices do leave a bit to be desired on occasion. I am holding myself accountable by publicizing what I eat. Perhaps this won't be interesting at all; if not, stop reading now. If you enjoy it, let me know and maybe I'll do it again in the future.


Monday
Breakfast -> cheerios with 2% milk
Lunch -> ham and cheese sandwich, peanut butter wheat crackers, strawberry apple sauce
Dinner -> spaghetti with Pilsbury reduced fat crescent rolls
Drinks -> two cups of black tea, one minute maid, about 56 oz H20
Total Calorie count = 1622 with 44.9 grams of fat

Tuesday
Breakfast -> cheerios with 2% milk
Lunch -> spaghetti leftovers, strawberry apple sauce
Dinner -> personal frozen pizza, blue bell ice cream (it's the best ice cream in the country)
Drinks -> two cups of black tea, minute maid, about 56 oz H20
Total Calorie count = 1921 with 47.8 grams of fat

Wednesday
Breakfast -> oatmeal with 2% milk
Lunch -> ham and cheese sandwich, strawberry apple sauce
Dinner -> salmon croquettes with white rice and spinach
Drinks -> skinny cappucino, about 56 oz H2O
Total Calorie count = 1265 with 38.3 grams of fat

Thursday
Breakfast -> oatmeal with 2% milk
Lunch -> spaghetti leftovers, strawberry apple sauce
Dinner -> two chicken fajita tacos with jalepeno refried beans
Drinks -> skinny cappucino, one Dr. Pepper, about 72 oz H2O
Total Calorie count = 1750 with 31.5 grams of fat

Friday
Breakfast -> oatmeal with 2% milk
Lunch -> ham and cheese sandwich, strawberry apple sauce
Dinner -> Chick-Fil-A original chicken sandwich and yogurt parfait with granola, late dessert of angel food cake
Drinks -> skinny cappucino, about 56 oz H2O
Total Calorie count = 1628 with 41.8 grams of fat

There you have it. And to top it off, Christopher and I went grocery shopping this evening and some really good produce was on sale (Haas avocados 4 for $1!), so I expect to have some delicious salad and sandwiches next week, woohoo!

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When you're in the mood for a sandwich but not in the mood for bread - try the KFC Double Down! With this sandwich, there's no room for bread with its untold meatiness. I hope I'm never so hungry that I actually try this. I see the ad for this chicken pile, and I imagine grease splashing all over someone's face. Ew.


This non-sandwich is over 500 calories with 32 grams of fat. In fact, this new item on the KFC menu grosses me out so much that I have decided to write down what I eat every day for your reading pleasure. By Friday or Saturday, I'll have about a week's worth of meal and drink choices to share. Why does this sandwich disgust me so? To be honest, I'm not sure... there are other choices at chain restaurants that are potentially worse. The Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries are 400 calories and 29 grams of fat per serving (there are 3 servings in a small order; so says their menu). So if you eat it all to yourself, you've just had 1200 calories and way too much fat. Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad has 1400 calories and 88 grams of fat. Uhm - yeah, a salad. I can probably find dozens upon dozens of examples. But for some reason, none make me want to lose my lunch quite like the Double Down. In fact, I don't even want to think about it anymore.

So with that, I felt like transparency would help me feel better about food choices that people make in general. And, you can see that my choices aren't perfect - but perhaps you'll agree with me that there are other things out there to choose than the KFC Double Down. See you at the end of the week with food diary in hand.

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After over 30 minutes of discussing what to have for lunch while dilly dallying around the apartment, Christopher and I decided to take our indecision on the road. We summarily rejected all the usual places as we passed them and turned into a shopping center to see what was available. The first restaurant on the corner was Dodie's Cajun Diner.


We parked and took a look at the menu before deciding to go for it and take a seat. The weather this past week really can't be beat. We took advantage by sitting outside on their patio. After some deliberation Christopher ordered the shrimp combo and I ordered the "Toulouse pasta." My lunch came with a house salad. As far as salads go, I'd give this one a 3 out of 5. The lettuce was fresh but there were only two types (romaine and iceberg, it seemed anyway). It came with one slice of tomato, one salad pepper, and one pickled okra. I love all of those, so it was a pity to only get one of each. Also, the house dressing was a parmesan italian that was quite tasty; however, there was a bit too much of it. Tasty - but it could have been better.

My Toulouse pasta was very good. If we go back to this restaurant, I would order it again. It was corkscrew pasta noodles with a green onion and red pepper cream sauce. I'm not sure how much was on my plate; it seemed like a lot, and I had to ask for a take-home box at the end of the meal.

Christopher's shrimp was good as well, he said. It wasn't overcooked like shrimp can easily be. The tartar sauce was no good, because it was very thick compared to average tartar sauce and was overly mayonnaise-y. On the other hand, they had a "Dodie's Sauce" that was a decent replacement, basically Tabasco plus Louisiana sauces with blended pepper and garlic. And, his shrimp came with hush puppies (never a bad thing).

The prices were a bit high for what we like to pay for a Saturday lunch out. Because of that, we probably won't go to this restaurant again soon; however, I'm pretty sure we will go again at some point. I guess that means it's not a glowing review, but we did enjoy ourselves while trying out this new (to us) restaurant.

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Every day, with few exceptions, Renn gets a nice long walk around the neighborhood, park nearby, and walking trail. Total walk time in one circuit is 30 to 40 minutes depending on how long he stops to sniff and how many other doggies he meets. This walk is one of the best parts of my day because it is relaxing, healthy, and I just like being outside. Interestingly enough, although we walk the same circuit, it does not get boring. We can generally find fun things to keep us occupied. One thing that Renn is especially good at is attracting lost doggies.



Our first lost dog encounter was quite some time ago. We walked past an apartment complex off the trail and two dogs came running up. One was an adult chihuahua, and the other was a young medium sized mix of some kind. I was a little annoyed because I saw two people standing about 50 yards off, and I thought the two dogs belonged to them. It's not cool to just let your dogs run around without leashes around here. However, the two individuals looked my direction and then turned and went inside an apartment. Apparently these two little guys did not belong to them. I continued on my walk thinking that the dogs would go back to their home; however, they just kept following me and Renn. Renn was perfect during this time. A true pack leader! We couldn't take them home with us, so I had Renn follow me to the office of the apartment complex, and the doggies followed him. The office workers had been watching us and were already ready to take the dogs into the office.

Lost dog encounter number two was not too long after that. Again, two little ones came running up. Fortunately, this time both had collars and tags. I took Renn's leash off of him and put it on the more skiddish of the two strangers so she wouldn't run farther away. Then I called the number on their tags on my cell. Turns out, their home was in the neighborhood, but their family was moving and leaving all the doors open in order to take things out of the house easily. I walked one of the lost dogs while Renn and the other followed us back to their house. The owner seemed really embarrassed and thanked us (well, he really only thanked me, but I'm sure he meant Renn as well) for bringing his dogs back.

Those two encounters happened in 2009. This year has been about the same for finding lost animals.

Last month, on the street behind us an older dog came up to Renn and I. We were very lucky that a father and his son were out in the schoolyard next to where we were walking, because they recognized the dog and said it belonged to a family a few houses down. That was easy enough to resolve. I just put the leash on the other dog instead of Renn, and we walked to the house in question. The family was home and took the dog back in.

Two weeks ago, a lost dog came running up to Renn and I. It was a male mix of some kind and yellow/white in color. It looked pretty healthy, but it didn't have a collar or tags. I saw a young kid (maybe 17 or so) running up to us, and I assumed it was his dog. But, he told me that he had been chasing it for a few hours in order to rescue it and take it home. By that time, the dog had already trotted a few paces away, so I wished the kid good luck, and Renn and I went about our walk.

Then yesterday, we were once again on our familiar path. A female Shepherd mix came sprinting up to us out of nowhere to say hello. She had a collar, but no tags. As there were no people out, I called Christopher to bring the car to pick us up so we could find her owners. She was super sweet and a really good back seat passenger. The first thing we did was take her to our vet to see if they knew where we could drop her off. Our vet (who is extraordinarily nice) first brought out his pet microchip finder to see if the dog had one. Unfortunately, she did not. So, he gave us a few numbers to call to have her picked up. The Animal Control rep was out, so I left a message while we drove back over to the street where we found her to see if we could locate her family on our own. We didn't have any luck there, but the employee called us back so we could meet her to drop off the sweetie. A few minutes later, we met with the employee behind City Hall where they keep their trucks. Our city doesn't have an animal shelter, so she was going to drive her to the next city to drop her off. By the looks of her collar and face, she was definitely someone's pet. Hopefully she didn't have to spend the night away from home, and the family called the local shelters quickly.

All these little adventures are fun but also a little sad. In the 7 lost dogs that we encountered, only 3 had any form of identification. Keep collars, tags, and microchips people! That way, the lost dogs can get home swiftly! In the meantime, Renn and I will still be walking our normal route corralling strays.

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"Saturday, March 20, at approximately midnight is the official first day of spring for 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere (Vernal Equinox)." So why was I able to take the above picture this morning? Very crazy weather here; his past week it was high 60s and gorgeous. Now.... snow. At least our dog, Renn, had a very fun time bouncing around in the snow like a bunny rabbit this morning. He enjoys running through snow drifts, sticking his nose all the way down to the grass while little snow-cicles stick to his face, and generally becoming one with the snow while I laugh on the other side of the leash.

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I often let coupons guide my buying decisions at the grocery store. Lately, I've let certain commercials/plugs guide that as well. I love Kroger for groceries, by the way. And, if you have a Kroger plus card, you can create an account online at their website. By doing so, you have access to bi-weekly/monthly rotating coupons that you can load on your plus card. The coupons will be taken off your bill automatically at checkout. I've done it. It works. The one downside is they generally don't have a lot of coupons on things that I use. But I have found one or two that were helpful to me.



Now, I'll move on to the critique. The first product that is new that we recently tried is Yoplait Smoothie found in the freezer section.
Christopher and I have tried the tropical mix (shown) and the strawberry banana mix. Both are delicious. It does make two servings as stated on the package. We use our Magic Bullet to make one serving at a time using the Magic Bullet blend cups. It only takes one half cup of milk for each one, blend, and done. The price tag is a bit high I suppose (I can't remember exactly, maybe $3.20 or something like that), but for the convenience of having what you need in one bag I think it's worth it. We'll definitely buy and eat this again.

Product number 2 under review is Simply Potatoes. We picked up this item on special in the refrigerated section of the store. I'm not sure where you would see it regularly, but on this trip, it was out in the center with their sale items. Anyway, as I intended to make us a big breakfast on Saturday morning, we picked them up and tossed them into our cart.
As you can see from the photo, they brown pretty well. And, overall the cooking time is as stated on the package. I did find it a bit different working with unfrozen hash browns. As far as instant potatoes go, I've always been an Ore Ida gal. What I like about these is that they are definitely not oily, and I didn't even use as much oil as suggested on the package. What I did not like was the taste. They were pretty much the blandest potatoes we'd ever eaten. If you prefer not to eat frozen potatoes, I'd say just get a whole potato from the produce section and make your hash browns that way. We will not be buying this product again.

Last critique of the day: Folgers Black Silk coffee. I bought this because of the coupon. The store had marked the price down by a dollar, and the coupon was for a dollar - so I figured it was a good time to buy at two dollars off the regular price.
The verdict is this stuff is just plain good. Prior to this tasting, I was a fan of Maxwell House and would always go to that before Folgers. However, Black Silk may have made me a convert. I like the full flavor of the coffee without the bitterness that some dark roasts have. I do recommend it, and we'll definitely get this one again.

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When Christopher and I moved into our current apartment, we really wanted to lower our total monthly expenses and enjoy our apartment to its fullest. So far, so good. One bill we decided we could certainly live without was our cable bill. At our previous apartment, we paid for a bundle package (phone, TV, internet). As we rarely used our home phone compared to our cell phones and the TV packages included more than we needed, we decided it could go.



We've found that we don't even notice not having a home phone. If anything, we prefer it to having one. Solicitors are by law not supposed to call cell phones, whereas they can call home phones all day every day if they wanted. Although we tried to remove our number from call lists, we still managed to get daily solicitation calls. No bueno. The peace and quiet is worth not having a home phone for unlimited local calls.

As for cable, we did think we would miss it pretty terribly. We have quite a number of shows that we enjoy on a regular basis, and we like watching TV together just to spend time with each other without going anywhere. However, cutting the cord was really easy. Now, we set up subscriptions (no cost) on Hulu.com, and we watch all our TV on the internet. This works well for us because we simply use our TV as the computer monitor. In the case where the show we want to see isn't on Hulu, we can almost always find it on the network's website.

It is true that Hulu's quality is not as good as our HD cable used to be, but it is nothing that we cannot see past with a price tag of free.

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I know that things have been going on over the month of February and in the last 10 days or so since our(my) last post. However, it's been difficult to think of something to blog about. So, I think I'd like to take a moment to be mildly political. I do not wish for any of my dear friends and family to blog-jack this post and make all kinds of crazy rants in the comments section. No offense, just get your own blog. :D



Now that that is over (phew), let's talk about full body security checks at airports. The Wall Street Journal had an article last week about these newly minted machines that was quite informative (see article here). Now, the Wall Street Journal is not necessarily the best newspaper out there. It's full of right-wing, wishy-washy, and/or uninformative non-opinions at times. But at other times, I'm glad my work keeps the break room stocked with the daily rag.

This was one of those times. I had vaguely heard of full body scanners being implemented, but I really didn't have a notion of how that would work exactly. I think I liked it better when I didn't know. According to the article, the scanners take full body images of an individual that could potentially see doctor's-office-quality imaging (I'm talking all your private bits and love handles people); however, before the image is produced, a "privacy algorithm" modifies the image to a Gumby-like character and indicates if there is a potentially harmful item on said individual. Let's not be idiots, friends. If a computer hacker with enough knowledge wanted to undo the "privacy algorithm" and change the machine to record the anatomically correct images, don't you think they'd find a way? But wait, you say. These images/machines should not be networked. Well, the article states, "..seen by a remote operator who cannot see the actual passenger." This would presumably be the case for (1) security of the machine operator, (2) privacy of the passenger, and (3) diminishing of possible profiling. But it also means that the machine is networked. That's not comforting.

Also unsettling is the prevailing theme that this is the "final stop" with airport security. Far from the final stop, this is a dead end. Furthermore, I cannot even imagine the cost associated with production and maintenance on these scanners. Reliance on these measures will not curtail terrorism. Perhaps one would-be criminal will decide to attack a train rather than a plane. The only measures that will stop terrorism are pro-active ones, not reactive ones. For example, the US government maintains lists with the names of individuals who could or might be persuaded to consort with the country's enemies. When the x-mas day bomber made his failed attempt, the government had been forewarned by this man's own father who had told a Nigerian official about him. A decent proactive measure would have been to make sure to check out the father's claims and place his son on the no-fly list for at least a probationary amount of time. But that did not happen. One excuse is to say there are too many of such lists/databases. And some feel it is too great a cost to cross-reference and/or consolidate them. Would it be more costly than replacing every airport's current metal detectors with full body scanners? Probably not. In fact, the government could outsource the task to Google, a home-grown company. One would think they could come up with a comprehensive database that is easily search-able and user friendly for security personnel.

With all that said, I am willing to keep an open mind about the scanners, but right now I'm not a happy traveler. Mildly political post fin.

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This year I wanted to do something extra special for Christopher on his birthday. Usually birthdays for us are pretty low key with just a couple of friends over to the apartment for some finger food - or maybe just the two of us going out to dinner. So earlier in January, I started planning.



The guest list was about 20 people long, with 15 of those RSVP'ing yes. I'd say that's a pretty good turnout. I had thought about non-food related activities we could do (bowling, pool, darts, movies), but decided dinner was really the best way to have everyone sit down for a conversation rather than being split up into teams or using different tables, etc. Christopher's party started at Mattito's Tex-Mex restaurant. We had a long rectangular table at the back of the restaurant to ourselves. I had reserved a table about a month in advance (although, I think they take reservations the same week if needed). It would have been nice to have a private room, but semi-private suited us just fine. Dinner was lots of fun with excellent company and really good food. I ordered the tortilla soup, which is my MO at this restaurant. Christopher departed from his usual tamales and ordered the fajitas.
Trying to leave the restaurant was interesting. We were a large group paying separate tickets, and one waitress to help the 15 of us. She had struggled throughout the dinner it seemed to keep up with drinks and orders, but over all she wasn't bad. When it came time for the check, she failed. We had our check done incorrectly 4 times. After the third time, our waitress sent over someone else to hand us the latest version - also wrong. I grabbed the manager from behind the bar to help out, but when the two of us finally got back to our table, the waitress had just dropped off the final and correct version of the ticket. Since everyone was in good spirits, this definitely didn't ruin anyone's night, but it would have been nice to just get a correct ticket the first time.

After dinner, most of the party-goers went back to our apartment for dessert and drinks. More good times were had by all, and we were even joined by more friends/family who couldn't make it to the restaurant. For dessert I had set out a birthday cake, tiramisu, candy, and homemade butterscotch oatmeal cookies. Sweet teeth were able to indulge.

Christopher had a great time, and I was super excited the party was fun for everyone. Since then, his birthday really hasn't stopped. He's received cards and gifts in the mail from people who couldn't make it to the party, or didn't send a card until later. And finally, today I was able to take him out to get my birthday gift to him - a grill. I sweated over website after website to try to find the best grill out there for what we need. Most all grill-fanatics say the Weber series for charcoal grilling is the way to go. However, I didn't know that Christopher was planning a switch to gas. So, we went out today to Home Depot to see what was available. After careful and long (emphasis on long) deliberation, Christopher decided to go with a gas grill. We had seen and really liked the Weber Performance charcoal grill - the look and size of it were perfect for our needs. But, it didn't come in a propane-ready version. So, we left Home Depot (as we couldn't make up our minds as to which one to buy), and we headed over to Barbeques Galore. This place has quite the variety of grills. Upon entering, we immediately started talking with Ray - the mild mannered BBQ salesman. He really was extremely mild mannered; it was actually sometimes difficult to hear him, he spoke so softly. At any rate, he really knew his stuff and helped us through all the options, price points, models, and pros and cons of all of the above. Christopher finally decided on a house brand propane grill called the Globe Cafe. They didn't have one in stock, so we ordered it today and should be getting it on Friday. I'm looking forward to the deliciousness to come!

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A well deserved congratulations to our friends and family who seem to be taking life by the horns! Pretty much every week someone passes along some good news about either themselves or someone else. That rocks. Due to all the wealth of happiness being shared by the people around me, I have been motivated to think more seriously about volunteering and what I can do to improve DFW. Below are some options...



North Texas Poodle Rescue. I have no idea why poodles would need to be rescued as they are adorable, loving family members. However, the reality is that many animals need care and love as they are regularly abandoned. I think I would quite easily open myself to the needs of the dogs (my co-workers call me the Dog Whisperer - well not all the time) and be able to help in many ways. Although, Christopher brought up an excellent point when we discussed this; I would very quickly see myself bringing home some puppies on a regular basis. Win-Win you say? Perhaps, but we are going to stay a one-dog family for now.

AFS. An excellent choice for volunteerism as I participated in this program myself as a high school student. We would not need to host a student; however, there are other opportunities to help out such as being a buddy/liaison to an exchange student, organizing events, and coordinating airport drop-off/pick-ups.

Church activities. An interesting idea as I've yet to call a church home in the area; although, I've visited a few. Generally, churches have many volunteer opportunities; however, some of them may require being in proximity to children. Since I'm looking to spread happiness, I may need to steer clear of the young ones.

Finally, I looked a bit into local area volunteer services. That could be anything from the local SPCA to the family center not too far away from here. Not really sure what I'd specifically like to do, but helping out locally is appealing.

I'll probably do a lot more research before I try to commit to something. In the meantime, I still would like to think I'm using my free time wisely. I also need to put some more miles on that library card of mine.

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Recently (within the last 6 months), I've become enamored with workout DVDs. They are so much cheaper than a gym membership, so much more convenient, and 100% user-friendly. I decided to review the three that I own/use. Perhaps I may persuade others that these little gems deserve some consideration.



First up - So You Think You Can Dance, Cardio Funk
Pluses: (1) This DVD is hosted by some of the more popular SYTYCD contestants from the earlier seasons (seasons 3 and 4, I think). It's very enjoyable to see them again. They really seem to be enjoying themselves throughout the workouts, which helps me want to participate with them. (2) The warm up and cool downs are nice and lengthy with lots of stretching. I have actually seen a measurable difference in my flexibility due, in part at least, to the warm up and cool down exercises. (3) There are three different styles of dance featured: hip hop, contemporary, and disco. (4) Lauren (instructor for the hip hop segment) is a great instructor and could really make a career out of doing fitness DVDs. Hers is my favorite workout on this DVD.
Minuses: (1) Travis' segment (contemporary) is a bit disappointing simply because he's not a very good instructor, in my opinion. All of his queues are followed by "yeah?" So, he might say something like the following, "now we going to take three steps to the right, yeah?" (2) It's clear the dancers are doing their first fitness video ever, in some cases they mess up the lines or look awkwardly at the camera. (3) The music they chose to go with the workouts is just so-so.


Second DVD - So You Think You Can Dance, Tone and Groove
Pluses: (1) As with the other SYTYCD DVD, this one includes the same favs: Twitch, Dmitry, Lauren, Courtney, Katee, and Travis. (2) Three dancing styles are showcased on this one: hip hop, jazz, and cha cha. (3) Dmitry's Cha Cha is a serious ab workout, and the steps are challenging enough that it takes a some tries to get it right. I'm actually smiling almost all the way through.
Minuses: (1) The warm up and cool down segments are identical to the SYTYCD Cardio Funk DVD. A little more variety would have been nice. (2) The same awkward looks at the camera occur in this DVD as in the other one. Once these guys had a couple videos under their belts, I'm sure that would stop.


Third DVD - Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred
Pluses: (1) Her approach is very old-school, so all of the moves are familiar and very easy to follow. (2) She does not shy away from the good ol' jumping jack. I'm a fan of jumping jacks, and I completely agree with her use of them as full body cardio exercises. (3) She reminds viewers regularly what position their bodies should be in, where to hold their arms/legs, and how to engage the muscles. (4) The workout is compact - 20 minutes and you're done.
Minuses: (1) The introduction to the DVD is rather long and you can't skip it and go straight to the DVD menu. I find this a bit annoying. (2) The hook for this DVD is "lose 20 pounds in 30 days." I don't want to lose 20 pounds at all; therefore, I get a bit scared that instead of losing 20 pounds, I would bulk up due to the push-ups, etc that she has in the video. (As a plus though, for those people who want to lose 20 pounds, I can see how this video would really work if done every day for 30 days). (3) The warm up and cool down are a bit short for my liking.

There you have it. I do these DVDs 4-5 times a week. When I don't use them for a few days, I actually miss it and can't wait to do it again. I'm not even sure how long it will be before I tire of these and want to buy new ones. But I think I'll be set for a while yet.

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We're here again to keep everyone up to date on life in Watsonville... or Watsonland. Both are cool places. It's been just over one year since our return from Japan. What an amazing country; we can't wait to vacation there and revisit some of our favorite places while discovering new ones. The past year has been interesting in and of itself of course.



Major events include: my college roommate's wedding, a move into (and out of) an apartment, 12" of long hair pulled into a ponytail and cut off for charity, a new job, a promotion, new friends made, and innumerable day-to-day shenanigans.

2010 is looking like a bright year indeed. Another friend is now engaged, one has decided on a career path, one just bought a house, and the list goes on. For us, we are settled (finally) in an apartment that we love and think we'll stay in for a while. The longest we've ever lived in any one place is less than 2 years. Let's see if we can break that streak.

That's all for now. More updates to arrive in the very near future.

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