Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Leaping into Fall

I really need to stop using "okay" to start my blogs. I have a better background than that, and while this blog isn't professional or trying to be, starting 75% of my posts with the word, 'okay,' is not.  It's almost the end of the month and it's finally starting to feel like autumn.  Since the Autumn equinox was on the 23rd of the this month, it's about time.  I like summer, but I think that's more along the lines of the fact that I used to be off.  I'm not anymore and this 110 degree weather at 6 pm is for the birds!  The last two days, it was around 60 degrees when I left the house, so I brought out my pediatrics jacket.  I like it, since I don't have another zip up jacket in brown and it's comfy jersey knit without being too heavy.  I've been trying to look for sweater dresses too and I'll have to do more shopping this weekend -- maybe check out Dillards, Sears, and Target before Ross and Marshalls.  I've looked at Penney's briefly and Kohls didn't have anything like last year, but it's been so abnormally humid that I don't think they wanted to put out long sleeves too soon.

I've been playing a new game on Facebook called Cupcake Corner, which is a lot like all the other cafĂ© games, except this one is little desserts and I love cupcakes, so I joined.  It's kind of cute, but I don't like that it runs all the time.  I like games that when I leave, I don't have to worry about things going bad or losing all my money.  I'm not all about the real-time.  I have enough real life. I don't want to have to devote more to the games on facebook.  Am I not on that soul-sucking website enough?  I'm still trying to work out and I've re-cast on that pair of socks from hell and I'm working on the stockinette stitches before starting the pattern back up.  For those of you who don't knit, that's the part where it looks like just rows and rows of the same stitch.  When you do straight knitting on two single sided needles, that's accomplished by one row of knit stitches and one row of purl stitches, which alternate to give you this pretty flat fabric of little 'v's.  On socks, and other "knitting in the round" projects, you knit every stitch on the circle, because you always knit across from the same side instead of turning your work back and forth.  Some knitters get really bored with stockinette stitch, because it's the same two stitches over and over, but really, all knitting is the same two stitches over and over, it only matters if you do them in a different order or if you twist stitches to make new patterns.

This week, I hope to bake a loaf of homemade bread -- yum yum -- perhaps bake some cupcakes as well.  I'm thinking about cheesecake cupcakes or dr. pepper cupcakes.  Both sound really promising.  I'm also almost ready to tally up all my workouts for the next month.  I've got to subtract the money for the Halloween polishes from China Glaze and I needed to buy a new needle, because Lislis destroyed one of my cables last weekend, so I ordered two balls of Pirate King from Knit Picks to make the shipping worth while.  That will either become socks for Aaron or my brother.  I think that's it for today.  If I think of anything else, I'll do edits later.

Totals since my last post:

September 23, 2010:  Nothing.  I was going to workout with Aaron, but did not feel well.

September 24, 2010: 8 flights of stairs (30 minutes)

September 25-26, 2010:  Nothing, I went home for the weekend.

September 27, 2010:  Nothing.  My out-of-town doctor and the nurse returned and I was swamped all day.

September 28, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (30 minutes).  I usually work out tonight, but Aaron won't be staying to workout cause he doesn't want to miss Glee so I won't get the chance. 
Complete total so far:  71.5 -- I think I'll need to reevaluate my minutes for next month and cut down on the amount for stairs. *nods*

That's it for now.  Okay bloggers -- what's your latest purchase and are you super happy about it?

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Sock Woes

Okay, so the day I'm having hasn't been the greatest, but Mom was able to find me a ticket to Hope's play this weekend, and I'm going home so I'll get to see the family, which is awesome!  Hope will be in Bull in a China Shop at Le Petit Theater this weekend, and all the reviews so far have been great!  I'm really looking forward to a little bit of theater with my mommy.

However, my sad news is that the socks I've gotten a good section finished on will have to be frogged back to before the pattern work.  There's several reasons for this.  One -- I miscounted the number of rows I needed in the length, and subsequently forgot to accommodate the extra length of the foot in rows of plain stockinette stitching.  Two -- I misread the pattern when I transcribed it from cuff-down to toe-up and I've been doing a single cable twist over two stitches instead of a double over four stitches, which changes the look of the pattern.  Normally, I would just leave this and keep going anyway, but as these socks are supposed to be a test knit for someone else's pattern, I'll have to go back and fix the error.  At least I'm only about 22 rows into the pattern, which is where I was supposed to start the heel, but am not ready, so I'll just undo those rows, add the extra stockinette rows and start the pattern over.  It's not an outrageous amount of work, but I really hate frogging those little stitches.  Maybe I'll move my Addi Turbo needle to the front side while I work up the pattern and move it back for the heel.  I'll be sure to take a picture before the frogging and after, so I can post them both on here and you can see the difference.  The only thing really making me frown about this is I'll be pulling out the lime green stitches, which have been giving me no end of grief, and putting them right back -- yes, it's still cute, but the other sock is SO much cuter for not having a HUGE break in the color.  You'll see when I put the pictures up.


Workouts have been doing well though, and we're getting closer to the end of the month! Yay!

September 18-19, 2010:  I don't work out on the weekends, because I try not to do much and relax.

September 20, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (up and down, remember) (30 minutes)

September 21, 2010:  8 flights of stairs; 30 minutes of DVD workout.  (60 minutes)

September 22, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (30 minutes)

I'm supposed to be working out with Aaron tomorrow since W will be gone and getting ready for his trip to France.  Let's see how that one goes!

Oh, as promised, here are the pictures of the Soft Rose Wave Socks!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Woot woot!

So, it's finally Friday -- this week has just drug it's feet on some days, and a couple of others, I looked at the clock with a double take that it was already 2 or already 3 (Then the rest went backwards. . . *HMRPH*

Yesterday, I got home from work and picked up the towels -- after stopping by Target and buying way too much stuff, including cake mix, so I can bake cherry coke cupcakes this weekend.  (They had some really cute Halloween cupcake papers and bone sprinkles, but I didn't buy any of them!  I stayed with the plan.)  What I did get, however, was some 1lb wrist weights because with the stairs I've been climbing at work, I'm not doing much for my upper body.  That's what yesterday's workout was all about.  I did the cardio and the upper/mid fix workouts on my Carmen Electra DVDs, to add another 30 minutes to my 8 flights of stairs (That's 8 down and 8 up.)  That means, I got a full hour.  I'm a little on the tense and sore side today, but I have to go get the mail in a few minutes, so I'll try to keep it up.  I've done it 3 days already this week.  I'll also try to get a little exercise besides walking the mall or Boardwalk this weekend -- maybe I'll take a brisk walk around the neighborhood.  I should also probably get on a scale Sunday.

When I checked the mail after my workout, however, my order from 8ty8beauty had come in!  That's right, China Glaze's Awakening Halloween Polish set.  Here's the display image:  
Aren't they just to die for?  I love the purple one (Mummy May I) and the Orange-y one (Ick-a-Body) Ya know, like Sleepy Hallow?  I think they have great names.  The Green one is Zombie Zest and the other polish is a clear top coat, although a moon light white would have been cool too.  I'll post swatches after I paint with them this weekend, although, there are lots of swatch posts all over the web.  (It took my forever to find someone selling these.  I've searched Ulta, Sally's, and all the mega chains -- I finally found them on one of my e-tailers, but the other is still sold out!)

Anyway, I finished the "Soft Waves" sock, (pictures later) and I've got almost two inches of the "Sherbet Socks," so I hope to add to that too, and I need to fix that last image set from the Northwestern game last weekend, and I want to do some more scrapbooking on my Disney Halloween scrapbook, so I've got a lot to do this weekend.  I hope I can get at least some of it done before it's over.

September 16, 2010: 8 flights down stairs and 8 flights back to the office. Then cardio, upper/mid fix from Carmen Electra  [60 minutes!]

September 17, 2010:  8 flights down, 8 flights up, then 3 more down and 3 more up. [40 minutes]

Have a great weekend, mina-san.  And if you'd tried these, or you're doing your own workout plan, leave a comment and tell me about it!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Chugging

. . . and not the beer kind.

I have been trying really hard to get into workout mode lately, but being alone most of the time makes it really hard.  Aaron works out at school with W and keeps saying that I could come too, but they mostly do weight training and I'm not into that sort of thing.  Plus, I don't want to interfere with their 'bro' time.  I've been doing my Carmen Electra dvds at home, but although fun, it can be quite boring without someone to share it with.  I know it's hard to talk while working out, but I want someone to collapse with after and smile and think -- yea, that was a great workout.  Not a cat that sniffs my face while I'm doing pushups. It's not so cute, and cat hair is really hard to dislodge from sweat-soaked skin.  I won't enumerate what I see in the mirror these days, since it's too depressing, I guess I just have to take it a little at a time and hope it all works out. (No pun intended).


September 11, 2010:  Sweated my butt off in 100 degree weather in an open-air stadium at Northwestern, which would count if I hadn't eaten Popeyes for supper and shared nachos at the game. [0 --boo!]

September 12, 2010:  Nada. Blah! [0 minutes]

September 13, 2010:  3 flights up, none down.  [5 minutes.]

September 14, 2010:  6 flights up, 8 down and 8 more up.  [45 minutes] [so far.  Workout night!]

September 15, 2010:  Didn't work out -- instead went to academy and school with Aaron, who needed to see if he had closed his lab. Today -- 8 flights up and down. [30 minutes.]


On the up side:  I finally found someone who had the China Glaze Awakening Halloween set on sale and ordered them immediately before they sold out.  Aaron says that counts toward my total for next month, but I have to argue, because I was lemming them and looking for them WAY before I started my work out regimen.  Maybe I'll take half the price from my total in compromise.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Keep on burning . . .

Okay Day 4, September 10, 2010.  Aaron didn't work out yesterday with Walter, cause he's headed out of town for a concert this weekend, so I didn't get much of a work out either.  Went down 8 flights and up 5, and I realized that each flight is 24 steps, not 20.  That's a whole nother 4 steps!  WOOT!.  Wish me luck!!

September 10, 2010: [25 minutes] (so far!)

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Being Resolute

As much as I hate to admit it, I've put on a few pounds -- it's not like a ton, or even really like 20 pounds, but I am getting heavier and I need to get off my fat butt and work out again.  So, with the idea from flinty over at Polish or Perish,  I'm going to start an incentive program for my work outs.  For every 10 minutes that I work out, I get 1 dollar to use on nail polish or cupcake items.  She has hers set up that the longer she works out, the more expensive of a polish she can buy, but since I rarely have days that I can workout for 90 minutes or longer, I'll just use the dollar increments and they only last for the next month.  No roll over to get something really expensive, so I have to work out for it in that month.  At the end of the month, I'll tally all the times and that's how much I can spend in October.  And to keep my honest, I'll try to post all of the totals here.  We're at the beginning of September, and I know I've done some stairs in the past week, but since I can't remember exacts, they don't count.  Here's the total so far:

September 7, 2010:  30 minutes of intense cardio;  3 flights of stairs (that's 72 up and 72 down, which is 10 minutes, as agreed upon by Aaron.) [Totals: 40 minutes]

September 8, 2010:  Nothing yet today, but I'm going to take the stairs down this evening and back up to get my things for class, which should count as 192, plus the 60 steps back to 5th floor, which is not working out for 30 minutes, cause it only takes about 15 minutes total but as 72 steps is 10 minutes, 192 steps should be just over 30, but I will count it as 30. (Okay -- so I didn't make it up all 8 flights, but I made 6.) [20 minutes]



Wish me luck on keeping up with it, since my thighs are a little sore today.