the treadmill ...

remember the pioneer woman? turns out she has a has a cookbook coming out later this month, and is doing a book tour. book tour? as in traveling to different cities to talk and sign books? yes, friends. i merrily clicked on the link to her book tour page to find out when she'll be in denver ... and found out pw will be in town on a monday night, which is when i have whiz kids. blerg. i was thisclose. alas!
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we've been working out at the rec center near us for the past year, and i have to say that other than the few weeks that we did weights in 10th grade p.e., this is probably the first time in my life that i've actually enjoyed and looked forward to working out. i'm glad for that, because a few years ago i really despaired that i would never enjoy exercising but felt like i should do it anyway.

along with enjoying working out, i'm also enjoying the benefits of working out - not that i've lost any weight (which doesn't really make sense to me), but that i'm definitely in better shape than i was pre-workout era. i remember the first time i used the elliptical, i lasted like 10 minutes and was huffing and puffing the whole time with a ridiculously high pulse rate; now i have to remind myself to get off after 25 minutes so that i can get some stretching and weights in before scott's done with his workout. the first time we rode our bikes last spring, i think we rode for a grand total of 20 minutes and my legs felt like jelly afterward; our last few rides of the season, we were out for close to two hours and went home because it was pitch dark out and we have no bike lights.

the point of this storytime, though, is that i very proudly reached a new milestone in my workouts last night. the past few times at the gym, i didn't feel like i was coming away feeling as pushed as i used to, so i decided to step it up a notch and hit the treadmill. the treadmill. i have only used a treadmill one other time in my life, when we lived at our first apartment out here that had a mini-gym in the community building. i think it went well, though. i spent about 25 minutes on there, half each running and walking, split up into several minute segments. the gym does have an indoor running track, too, and maybe i'll venture up there eventually; for right now, stepping out of my elliptical comfort zone within the safety of the cardio machine section is enough. when we got home post-gym last night, i realized that after spending an hour at the gym, i actually felt energized rather than ready to collapse. my legs (and ribs??) ache for sure, but in a good, i-pushed-myself-and-won kind of way. i guess getting out of your comfort zone every once in a while is a good thing.
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oh, and for dinner last night, i made stuffed peppers. they turned out well! i used a salt-free tomato sauce and felt like i added a ton of salt to the rice/meat mixture and that it was still bland, so i'll probably use a normal tomato sauce next time. and maybe add a few dashes of tabasco to the mix. i was skeptical, but one stuffed pepper each was really enough for us for dinner - scott did request that we have corn and/or beans on the side next time, which i suppose is a request i can accomodate. all in all, very tasty - i recommend it.

lazy lazy weekend

oh my, what a lazy weekend. we had planned on going apple picking with friends yesterday, but then that fell through so scott watched the football game with the alumni assoc downtown while i hung out at home and did laundry and baked. (pumpkin chocolate chip cookies - they turned out very well, even if the recipe does make them a little bit fluffier and cakier than i typically go for. i stepped out to run errands later in the afternoon, came home to the overwhelming smell of baked pumpkin, and found myself craving turkey and mashed potatoes.) we had my office tickets for the nuggets pre-season opener vs. belgrade last night, and scott looked up insults such as "you suck" in serbian on my iphone before i took it away from him. i made up for it by cheering for them - they only had like 40 fans in the entire audience (shocker), so i felt bad. scott tells me that i'm going to be that soccer mom who cheers for the opposing team if they're losing. haha!

today i did even less than yesterday: sunday school, church, lunch with sunday school, then home for a 2.5 hour nap followed by sitting on the couch watching tv and reading john grisham's the innocent man. scott did take me for a walk just now which made me feel at least a little less slothful. aaaaaand, that's my weekend.

i think as an adult i like summer for the same reasons that i liked fall as a kid: it's when new things happen. by mid-summer, i really just wanted a week of doing nothing on my couch at home because we were so busy and traveling and doing new things and hanging out with friends all the time, but now that fall has hit and things are calming down to the point where i can basically spend an entire weekend at home doing nothing, i really miss our fun active summer. and yes, i really was that crazy kid who loved fall because i got to go back to school and see friends and play soccer and be busy. i'm pretty sure i even told me 5th grade teacher that i liked doing homework on weekends.

scott just finished doing his spiritual gifts survey for the application to do children's ministry (we're working in the nursery together once a month starting this fall!), so i'm off to make an evite for a bbq for our sunday school class next weekend. and in case you were wondering, my "spiritual gifts" are administration 89% and servant/helps and hospitality each 78%; scott's are leadership 89% and administration and teaching each 78%.

revision of opinion

i stand corrected: apparently mackenzie phillips speaking out about the completely icky nature of her relationship with her father has led to an increased number of people calling into sexual abuse hotlines - which hopefully means that more abusive relationships are being reported and stopped. in that case, while i'm still super grossed out by the story, well done, mackenzie phillips.

bow ties revisited

so i was alone on the elevator with the bow tie wearer from across the hall just now, we exchanged hello's, and i then spent the next 45 seconds trying to figure out how to ask him how he decided upon bow ties. today's casual day at their office, though, so he was wearing jeans, a purple striped shirt, and a blazer - and no tie - and i just couldn't figure out how to phrase the question without making him think that i was a) stalking, or b) flirting with him. perfect opportunity lost; now the world will never know.

h1n1

h1n1 is closing in. hearing about it on the news, it's easy to think that i'll be able to get through this flu season without getting sick - but in the past day, goo told me that her roomie likely has h1n1 and so asked if she can camp out at our place this weekend, and our building managment sent out an e-mail that someone in the building got h1n1 this week. plus, whiz kids starts on monday so i'll be around 22 grade schoolers once a week every week, and we all know what a breeding ground that is. *sigh. i'm trying to resign myself to the fact that i'm almost definitely going to get sick, and i am not a fan of that. i hate puking and fevers and using personal days at work just to lay in bed sick.

also, i'm very sad to report that chicago did not win the olympic bid for 2016. scott had promised me that if the olympics go to chicago, we can make a special trip back for it. yes, that's in 7 years, but let's face it, it's a good excuse to see chicago in the summer and actually spend time in the city, not just drive by on the way to see friends out in the burbs at snowy chilly christmastime. so, i guess i'll need to think of another reason to get back to lovely chicago. i was reflecting yesterday that my whole childhood, i dreamed of either growing up and moving to chicago, or of growing up and living on top of a mountain (inspired by our two trips to colorado as a kid - was it two? or just 1?). overall, while denver is NOTHING like chicago, i think denver's a good mixture of the two. i've got the mountains, i've got the city. maybe the only thing better would be living in chicago, and then having a home on a mountain with a private jet to fly in anytime i want. i'll work on that.