Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Taking the plunge!


Today was sign ups for the Blogging A-Z April Challenge & this blog is # 276!  This is my second year doing this.

This challenge in a nutshell... there are 26 days in April, not counting Sundays.  Each day, the topic will begin with a letter of the alphabet.  April 1 = A, April 2 =B, etc.  Simple as that!  And since this is a blog without a real theme (RANDOM!!) I just chose topics that interest me.

I really like that they're giving you the option to categorize your blog, so if you don't really want to read about book reviews or gaming, you can easily avoid them!    Too bad it only looks like about half (so far) of the sign ups have done it.  I put this under "Personal".  It seems to fit.

Last year I was slightly freaked out, since I jumped right in with all 3 blogs.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I did learn a few things to do differently.   I already have a spreadsheet 98% of the way filled out with topics for each blog (darn those X's & Y's!!) and I have created and pre-scheduled posts for each one already, even though the only content is the letter of the alphabet and maybe a link or idea. I'll go back and edit each one later.  I did this last year & it worked.  What I learned.....
Lesson #1 - make sure to actually edit them!  I missed a couple last year.  Embarrassing!
Lesson #2 - put a blurb at the beginning of each challenge post with what is going on to differentiate these from regular posts.
Lesson #3 - don't ignore regular posts

So go ahead & sign up - you know you want to!!


Took the plunge!

Today was sign ups for the Blogging A-Z April Challenge & this blog is # 274!  This is my second year doing this.

This challenge in a nutshell... there are 26 days in April, not counting Sundays.  Each day, the topic will begin with a letter of the alphabet.  April 1 = A, April 2 =B, etc.  Simple as that!  And since this is a weight loss / health blog; my topics are different exercises, healthy foods, stuff like that.  You don't even need an actual theme!

I really like that they're giving you the option to categorize your blog, so if you don't really want to read about book reviews or gaming, you can easily avoid them!    Too bad it only looks like about half (so far) of the sign ups have done it.  I put this under "Lifestyle".  It seems to fit.

Last year I was slightly freaked out, since I jumped right in with all 3 blogs.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I did learn a few things to do differently.   I already have a spreadsheet 98% of the way filled out with topics for each blog (darn those X's & Y's!!) and I have created and pre-scheduled posts for each one already, even though the only content is the letter of the alphabet and maybe a link or idea. I'll go back and edit each one later.  I did this last year & it worked.  What I learned.....
Lesson #1 - make sure to actually edit them!  I missed a couple last year.  Embarrassing!
Lesson #2 - put a blurb at the beginning of each challenge post with what is going on to differentiate these from regular posts.
Lesson #3 - don't ignore regular posts

So go ahead & sign up - you know you want to!


Monday, January 28, 2013

Friend Makin' Monday - Getting to know each other

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Hubby got home just in time for dinner last night - he was up north doing radio stuff for a snow / road rally.  Surprisingly his furry shadow (aka Miss Maddie) didn't mug him.  In fact, I woke up during the night with her lying on my chest, sound asleep.
 
What a life!  This is why my bed didn't get made yesterday!

I also spent quite a bit of time preparing for the Blogging A-Z Challenge.  Sign ups are Wednesday!!  Basically your first post will have a topic that starts with A, next day B, etc. etc. I'm doing all 3 blogs so I needed to get ideas down on my little spreadsheet.  If I do it right, all my posts will be done & pre-scheduled before April! 

But now it's FMM time!



Now it’s that time…If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Getting To Know Each Other

1. What is your favorite color? I like all colors.  But I look better wearing jewel tones like the darker reds / blues / greens.

2. Share one or more of your talents. My family all think I'm creative & crafty.  I do come up with some neat stuff, tho.

3. If you were spending the day getting to know someone new, where would you want to go?  Probably on a walk around the park or getting coffee at Tim Horton's.

4. What is your favorite meal?  probably the grilled sirloin & shrimp from Texas Roadhouse.

5. Do you prefer to text or talk?  Depends.  If it's just a quick note - text.  But actual conversation is good, too.

6. Share something about yourself that might surprise someone that you’re getting to know.  Hmm.  I was enlisted in the Navy for 8 years?  Heck, I have a tab with a whole list of stuff about me!

7. Do you color your hair? Yes.  My natural color is mud.

8. Do you wear glasses or contacts?  Yes.  I am blind as a bat without them!

9. What is your favorite breakfast food?  Omelets with bacon & hashbrowns.  Or grits with runny eggs.  Yum!

10. Would your friends say that you’re sarcastic?  Probably Yes.

11. Do you prefer salty or sweet?  Sweet.  Although if they came out with a chocolate covered Payday bar, I'd probably OD on them.

12. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?  face / eyes

13. What is the last movie you watched?  Saturday night I introduced my daughter to the joys of Top Gun - she enjoyed the volleyball scene in particular!  I took it as a walk down memory lane, since I spent 3 years stationed on an aircraft carrier.

14. Are you religious? I believe in God, but I can’t really call myself religious. (keeping Kenlie's answer)  I also occasionally find the need to pray - but it's usually for other people!

15. Are you a neat freak, a slob, or somewhere in between?  In between.  My house is cluttered (too much stuff and no place to put it!) but there are no dirty dishes or food left all over the place. I try to keep the kitchen counters cleared off and try to keep the clean laundry put away off the couch, since the dog likes to snuggle into it.

16. Share something from your bucket list that you hope to do someday. I want to visit all 50 states.

17. Are you a risk taker, or do you prefer to play it safe?  Hmm.  I used to be a real risk-taker all the time, but not so much anymore.

18. Have you ever worn braces?  Nope.  I probably should have, tho.

19. Would you rather spend an evening at a theater or at a club?  Back in my wild days, I'd say club since I love to dance.  Now I'm married to a guy who has no rhythm at all, so I'd have to go with theater.

20. If you could have three wishes, what would one of them be?   To be able to tear down & rebuild my house, my kid to do well in school & life, and for Randy & I both to live long, healthy lives.  Is that technically 6?  Oh well!

Have a great week!  

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Brrrr!




In case you've been under a rock, or in a volcano and have not been on Facebook recently, you already know that it's freakin' cold out!  I pride myself in being a Northern girl who likes cooler weather. I can't handle the heat.  I mean literally, we went to Arkansas one July and I swear I almost melted.  But this is ridiculous.  Highs in the single digits and words can't describe the wind chill.  Like, ice crystals in the nose kind of cold!  

However....this photo was taken yesterday & posted on the Hell, Michigan Facebook page - Hell has NOT frozen over!


LOL!  But the windshield solvent in my car sure froze!  And I fill mine up at work with the same stuff they use in the tractor-trailers so I'd think that they would have to good stuff, but I guess not!  I finally got some to come out this afternoon & it promptly iced up my windshield.

Randy is gone for the weekend, he's way up north doing radio stuff for the Sno-Drift Road Rally.  Basically it's a car race on snow.  Yeah, I'm glad I'm not there.

Of course last weekend our furnace tried to go kaput on us.  We have baseboard heat & the boiler unit is probably several years older than the 1973 addition on our house. It was leaking so bad that the carpet on the other side of the wall was soaked.  And of course it's right where my feet go when I get out of bed!  But we got a repair dude to come out & it seems to be running OK now.

Last night I woke up when Chester jumped on the bed.  I heard Maddie meow, then sneeze but I couldn't figure out where she was.  Usually she curls up on Randy's pillow when he's not home.  I found her, under the covers, down where Randy's butt would be.  Chester had stepped on her, hence the meow.  What a goofball!  Her favorite place lately has been on top of the aquarium.  The light in the hood is nice & warm so that's where she goes.

So mot much else is going on.  I obviously haven't gotten around to changing the look of my blog.  I want to find something that fits both the randomness of my posts & my personality.   That's OK, I'm still not happy with the look over at The Life of Lisa, either.  It's getting there, but not yet.

Oh, I almost forgot - sign ups for this year's April A-Z Blogging Challenge are next week!  I've been preparing   I made up a spreadsheet with a column for each of my 3 blogs and have listing topics for each one.  I wasn't sure about doing all 3 again this year, but I'm almost 2/3 of the way done with ideas.  So I guess 3 it will be for me!  And I already pre-scheduled posts, even though it's just the letter for the subject & the appropriate date for it.   Now if I got the days wrong, I'll be pissed!

Alrighty, it's time to turn in for the night - stay warm!!

50 degrees in California and Michigan. Course if you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait five minuets.

13 in 13 update

One of these days I will find a darn template / font that I really like & feels right for my blog. Dammit. I do like this grayish-green, tho.  I wanted my bedroom painted this color, but it came out very minty.  Oh well!

I have another rant about other people's eating habits.  Last week were the annoying people who "forget" to eat.  This week it's the people who think they're eating healthy, but obviously are not.  Have you ever witnessed a work marriage?   It's hard to describe, he protects her from evil co-workers and caters to her every whim - she will go get him lunch and coffee, etc.  It's quite disgusting.  Anyhoooo, this particular couple calls this Mediterranean restaurant almost every day and get chicken fattoush salads.  By the way, everyone else takes their lunch to work.  We don't want to pay the $10 a pop for a freakin' salad!  Besides, they don't offer to pick up lunch for anyone else.  Moving on,  I was curious and looked up what a chicken fattoush salad is. It's basically a salad with a variety of greens & spices, grilled chicken, some kind of garlicky dressing & pita triangles. Looks fairly healthy.  But the past week or two, Princess has been complaining about how swollen her fingers are and she can't get her wedding rings off, no matter what she's done.  Lotion, cold water, Epson salt, nothing will budge them.  Well, I bet there are truckloads of sodium in those salads.  That's probably her issue, on top of whatever garbage she eats at home.  And she sure doesn't drink any / much water during the day to flush that salt out, either.  Of course she's a complainer, too. 

Speaking from experience, I got a basic grilled chicken salad from Burger King a long while back that was reasonable in Points, but the next day I had the same problem with swollen fingers & such.  I looked up the stats on that basic salad & it had like 1700 mg of sodium!  You're only supposed to have 2000 mg a day!  We haven't gone back since, not because of just the sodium, it's been an unspoken, unanimous decision.

I was down a whole whopping 0.2 lbs tonight at weigh-in!  I'm pretty sure it's because I have been slacking on drinking my water, so I'll be sure to remedy that this next week. I mean, why shouldn't I?  Look at what I found at Walgreen's...It tastes like a pina colada!
At the meeting tonight, we got in groups and had to figure out a 10 Point meal that included certain criteria listed in our weekly handouts. It was pretty fun. Lots of ideas.  We were challenged to plan all of our dinners out this week in at least a day in advance.  I usually do this anyway, before grocery shopping.

So let's check in, shall we?


1) plan meals weekly - check!  Randy is gone until Sunday doing radio stuff for a road rally up north, so I only have one picky-ass to feed.  Leftovers last night, Taco Bell tonight, she's going to a friend's tomorrow, so I'll just have to figure out Saturday.  I make more of an effort when Randy is here.

2) eat more / new veggies every week - check!  My new veggie dish was to saute up a mess of squash and mix it in with my leftover spaghetti.  It was really good!

I tried a new fruit, too.  A blood orange!  It was pretty tasty, once you get past how gross it looks. 


3) take better care of my skin - working on that. I don't appear to have any hangnails at the moment, but my cuticles need some work.

4) be a better blogger.  I'm going to be signing up for the Blogging A-Z Challenge again this April with all 3 blogs.  So I've made a spreadsheet with columns for each blog and am listing topic ideas to fit each of my themes.  I'm probably 2/3 of the way done with ideas. Sign up is next week!

5) work on getting my house de-cluttered.  Meh.  I'm averaging 4 days a week.

6) dust off my Walk At Home DVDs.- check!  I've done 3-3 mile walks and about 45 minutes of Wii Yoga.

7) cut back on unnecessary spending. - check!

8) MGC fence  - No Check!

9) rededicate myself to Weight Watchers. - check! I've been tracking so well that it's a real eye-opener.  I ran out of my weekly Points last week and started using my earned activity Points!  I've been guilty of never tracking over the weekend.  I did this week.  Hence all the walking sessions.  I noticed that if I get up on a Saturday and don't have any protein of some sort, I will eat like a freakin' pig all day.  It's like I can't get satisfied.  So I guess I can't just have a bowl of cereal in the morning any more, unless I go somewhere to keep my mind off the munchies.

10) figure out and use my Kindle Fire.  Using somewhat.  I'm actually reading one of the books I got from a little book store that closed.  I don't like going on Facebook on it, since if I click on a post and then go back to my feed, it'll take me back to the top, instead of where I was.

11) get my RACES certification.  I did find and open the book, enough to remind me how incredibly boring Government publications are!  But at least I know where the book is and that it's handy.

12)

The big #13 - Cutting back on pop.  Check!  I've been having water at dinner more often.

 It's been crazy cold here lately, so stay warm, wherever you are!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Friend Makin' Monday - Just some things

Since our lovely Miss Kenlie  is off taking care of some family stuff, Chris over at Wisdom, Courage, Power has taken the reins and created an FMM for this week.

Thanks, Chris!!

Middle name?  Marie.
I have been called the oddball in my family many times.  Besides being the only child born in an odd year (until my own daughter arrived), I'm also the only one named after my Mom.
Dad's name was James Curtis.  My half brother is named Jimmy Curtis.  My brothers are John James and Terry Curtis.  My nephews are James Richard & Alexander Curtis.  My sisters are Laura Lee (Dad's Dad was Homer Lee) and Linda Bea (Dad's Mom was Ora Beatrice).  Yup.  I've mentioned before about the ego in my family - see where is comes from??  Mom's name is Mary.
Incidentally - notice me & my sister's names all start with L, end with A and middle names rhyme?  We're just awesome like that.  Not planned, either!

Pets?  My Beagle Jack and 2 cats, Chester & Maddie. I consider myself to be Bi-petual since I love them all equally.  We also have 3 fish tanks.  One of them is a huge old pleco (the algae eaters that suction themselves to the glass) called Mr. Clean.

If you could only do one workout, what would it be?   Hmmm.  I like the challenge of yoga, but I've only done the Wii version.  I imagine the real kind is much tougher.

Do you have a mentor, or at least someone to look up to?  I can't think of anyone personally that stands out.  My dad, up until he passed away, probably.

If you could have one Superpower, what would it be?   I'm not up on my Wonder Friends, so I'll guess something like super speed so I can get housework & mundane crap done quickly.

Do you have a talent?  I have a vivid imagination and like to create.  My Halloween display at Maple Grove Cemetery is a good example of that.  I made everything myself, with very minor assistance from the hubby.  For some reason he didn't want me using the circular saw myself.  pfft.

So that's all for now - hope Kenlie & her family are all doing well !

btw - don't talk to me about the Wing's game Saturday.  I turned it off halfway thru the 3rd.  Apparently someone forgot to tell them the lockout was over!!


Saturday, January 19, 2013

It's hockey time!


Finally!  Get to watch the first NHL game tonight & am very happy about that!  Can't wait to see how our new Captain does!

I woke up at 7:30 this morning & freaked - I thought I was late for work!  Then I realized what day of the week it was.  But I never really did get back to sleep.  Miss Angela was over at a friend's house and I wanted time to do a nice 3 mile walk before going to get her.  She has her acro class at the studio at 11 on Saturdays so I just got up.

Did some tweaking on the blog tonight.  I'm still not sure about it.  It's very blue and the white post background is blinding.  So there may be some other changes, but not tonight, since it's almost time to drop the puck!

Warning! This song will get stuck in your head forever!

It's time for some HOCKEY !!!



Finally!  The Wings are back on the ice tonight with their new Captain.  It's gonna be a fun night, wish I could actually BE there in St. Louis wearing all my red & white.  But alas, I'm sitting at home all comfy and ready to part my butt in front of the TV.

I think tomorrow I'm going to tweak the look of the blog some.  I don't know what I'm looking for, but hopefully I'll figure it out!

(click at your own risk.  This song will get stuck in your head forever!)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

400th post!!!! 13 in 13 update

WOOHOOO!!  My 400th post!  My first post here on Blogger was 7/25/09.  I used to blog over at Yahoo 360, but they changed it and I apparently didn't like their changes and imported everything over. The first 2 years I blogged, I had 19 posts each year.  But they were posts of the novel variety - I mean super LONG posts!  I'm so glad that I learned that shorter / more often is better.  And pictures to break up the text! 

brief rant.  There was a dispatcher at my work for about 3 months.  Do you know I never saw this guy eat?  Never!  And another lady does not eat breakfast (she's a friend of mine & we chat every day) and she has a cup of yogurt for lunch.  And don't get me started on ~those~ people who forget to eat.  WTF, people!  How can you NOT eat?  I can't possibly imagine what I would have to be doing that would cause me to forget to feed my face. 

So let's update.  



To Achieve - Onederland
tonight's weigh in was wonderful!  -3.4 lbs!   I sure hope that means things are finally moving in the downward spiral!

1. plan meals weekly - check!  I guess when I plan the week, I need to keep an easy meal on Thursdays so Miss Angela can make / finish it for me.  Her ballet class is 5:30 - 6:30 and my WW meeting is 7 - 7:30.  So if we do it right, it should be ready when I get home.  I'm still not thrilled with the late meeting time, but it seems to be working.

Parmesan Chicken was quite amazing.  I thought I had the seasoning salt but really didn't, so I put the smallest sprinkle of some Smokehouse Maple seasoning I had on hand & it was really good.  Of course Miss Picky-Ass Angela ate hers with BBQ sauce, so it may have just been boiled.  Randy told her it reminded him of Vienna Sausages!  I was offended!  Viennies (they pronounce it vi-eeeeeeeeenies) are gross.  But I guess I shouldn't complain, since I liked it, and frankly, Viennies are something they both eat & enjoy.  So, WIN (I think)

2. eat more / new veggies every week (1 recipe from book per week) - check!  I steamed some Brussels Sprouts one day and finally tried Kale Chips.  Om nom nom nom nom.  Kale is awesome!

Oh, and I tried Blood Orange flavored Greek yogurt.  It reminds me of a very mild orange / grapefruit.  I wasn't sure what to expect, since I've never had a blood orange before.  Tasty.

3. take better care of my skin (lotion AM, wash face PM, lotion PM) - check!  I noticed while putting lotion on my elbows that I've got somewhat droopy upper arms - got to do something about that!

4. be a better blogger - check!  I posted on all 3 blogs, even if I just posted a pic on MGC.  Look at my awesome Detroit / Monster Jam pics here.

5. get my house de-cluttered (15 minutes per day) - meh.  4/7  not doing so well here & it shows.  But I'm keeping up with laundry (folding & putting away is what I hate the most) and dishes, so that's good.

6. dust off my WAH DVDs (2 or more x per week / other DVD or Wii) - check!    2 mile actual outside walk, I don't know how far walked around downtown Detroit, 3 mile walk DVD, & 2 Wii yoga nights.

7. cut back on unnecessary spending (see #5) - check!  I've only been grocery shopping.  I used a giftcard to order a workout DVD and one of those elastic waist trimmer belts.  Apparently they have those belts for the upper arms & thighs, so I ordered those, too. See #3.  I wanted to get one of the wide belts to help with my posture while at work and found these.  I tend to slouch unless I really concentrate on what I'm doing, but I think I need something to pull my arms back. Hmm.

8. MGC fence - nope.  The building where I work is behind an office supply warehouse, so I keep eyeballing the gigantic stack of pallets they have out back.  They have literally hundreds out there. I've gotten pallets from them before, so they're OK with me just taking them.  I need to borrow someone's truck.....

9. rededicate myself to WW (weekly meeting / track every day) - check!  Tonight was pretty entertaining. The topic was about taking control of your fridge, making it more WW plan friendly.  One page of the booklet showed inside of the  "bad" fridge & the next page showed inside the "good" fridge.  So we compared them and had a few laughs.

10. figure out & use Kindle Fire - check!  Well, the using part anyway.  I'm on book #4 already.  I am a voracious reader!  3 of those were done Sunday.

11. get RACES certification (30 min per week) - nope

12.

13. wean myself off pop ( stop drinking one hour earlier every month) - working on it.

So that's what's going on so far.  Did you make New Year's Resolutions?  How are you doing on them?

Monday, January 14, 2013

Detroit / Monster Jam

Saturday night was our annual trip to downtown Detroit to watch us some monster trucks!  We seriously have only missed going one year (since 2000) because of a bad ice storm. That night we sat at home and watched the history of Monster Jam at the Silverdome.  Seeing it on TV is NOT like seeing it in person!  And last year sucked because we couldn't find a parking spot, so Randy sent us in without him and he missed over half of the show. This year we were determined to get there early to avoid hassle.

it was actually quite nice. Normally, Monster Jam coinsides with opening night of the North American International Auto Show, and sometimes a Red Wings game, so parking is scarce!  But the Auto Show doesn't start til this weekend and the Wings haven't started playing yet.  The only crowd we had to deal with was all the rowdies coming out of the Fox from the 2 pm showing of Yo Gabba Gabba.   That's a hard core Detroit bunch right there!

Ford Field peeking around from behind Comerica Park

We parked the car around 3.  We were blessed with sunshine & almost 60* weather, so it was nice to roam around downtown in just a hoodie.  There are a couple gorgeous old churches, the Fox theater & the Hockeytown cafe all within a block of each other and Comerica Park the next street over and Ford Field on the other side of that!

 It has been suggested that there be an Apocalypse themed park set in Detroit.  
Maybe the suggestion is true?

 Tigers on Comerica Park




 Hockeytown Cafe


 Mere photos cannot do this place justice.  It's just beautiful. 


St. John's at night.  
It's lit up by spotlights from the top of Hockeytown across the street. 

The Fox Theater

detail of the top of the Fox



Another truly beautiful church. 

 I love this shot!

Jet powered smart car.
I never did get a clear pic of this damn little thing!

 Ground Pounder

Crushstation (yes...a lobster!) 

Wrecking Crew

 Mega-Bite
I was having technical difficulties & missed most of his very short run. 

Krazy Train
He ended up on his lid & still sounded the train whistle.

 
 Shock Therapy got shocked.

 El Toro Loco

 Rollin' Thunder spun down to the bare ground!
Then the truck stopped and the driver got out, pretending to be dizzy.

 Brutus 
his tire is against the wall behind him.

Aftershock

 Zombie

 Close up of Zombie

Zombie's driver on the Jumbotron with his creepy yellow eyes

 
 Avenger.
My truck of choice

 Northern Nightmare
A very sweet truck, also.

 Grinder

Gravedigger!
Angela's truck of choice

Gravedigger did a lot of his run on 3 wheels


 Maximum Destruction


Close up of Max D's new body style.
Very cool & shot sparks all over. 

Another really cool thing.  There was a guy in our row with his 2 kids - they were dressed like the drivers of El Toro Loco and Gravedigger.  After El Toro Loco did his freestyle, the driver came up in the stands and gave the little boy (dressed like him) a part of the door panel of the truck.  When Gravedigger finished his freestyle run, the driver came up in the stands and gave the flag off the back of the truck to the little girl (dressed like him)  How awesome is that??  And when Max D won both the racing and freestyle, he picked random kids in the audience to give the trophies to! 


We had a lot of fun, as usual.  Monster Jam is coming back here in March.  I'll have to ask Randy if we're going again.  If not - next January!