I'm crazy...

I knocked out another early morning workout today. Yesterday, too. I took Wednesday off, because I really tried to push myself on Monday and Tuesday and my hamstrings were starting to give me a hard time about that. But I realized something when I "slept in" until 5:30 on Wednesday -- I actually MISSED my super-early morning workout. Yes, that's right -- I MISSED flopping out of bed at 4:40 in the morning and stumbling blindly toward (what I always hope is) the bathroom... and I missed awkwardly pulling on my workout clothes with one eye still stubbornly shut (because it's absolutely refusing to believe that I could really want it open at such an hour)... and I missed loping into the kitchen for a few bites of banana (just enough to stave off my hunger while I work out) and a bottle of water... and I especially missed getting onto my treadmill and having an hour to myself to see how many miles I can squeeze in before I absolutely, positively, need to get into the shower to get ready for work.

Yes, I'm surprised, too. I mean, how can anyone actually ENJOY rising long before the sun and immediately exerting effort? How can I actually enjoy vigorously moving my legs and arms before most of my neighbors have done so much as hit the snooze button? It's a little bit insane, right? (Well, I guess that's my answer... :))

I have never been -- and still am not -- a "morning" person. It may seem that I'd HAVE to be a morning person to get up even before most Morning People are awake... but the fact of the matter is, I'm REALLY not fond of early mornings at all. I can't STAND getting up when it's dark out. The temptation to throw my alarm clock against the wall and just sleep until I feel like getting up (whenever that may be) is quite strong. (Although I rarely need an alarm to wake me -- if I know I need to be up at a certain time, I just wake up... I don't know how I do that... I think the aliens put a microchip clock in my brain...)

But what I've started to discover, over these last few weeks of regular morning workouts, is that my love of my workout is overriding my hate of early mornings. So much so, in fact, that I feel a TON better on the mornings when I work out compared to the mornings when I skip. Even though I get a little extra sleep on my "skip" days. It has gotten to a point where I WANT to get up in the morning to work out, because I know it'll set the tone for the rest of my day.

But is it easy? Absolutely not. I do it because I DECIDE to do it. What's easy is knowing I don't have to get up at any particular time tomorrow morning. Soooooooo happy about that... :)

Random stuff...

Gee, I was doing so well with my blogging, and now I've been slacking again for more than a week. (Well, I wouldn't say "slacking," exactly. Just busy with other things.) Rick and I were actually quite productive last weekend, and managed to take care of some grocery shopping, picked up some odds and ends at Home Depot, bought some new workout clothes at REI, caught up on laundry, vacuumed the house, changed the burned out light bulb over the porch, cleaned the kitchen... AND I finally took the Christmas tree down. I took all the decorations down a couple weeks ago, but somehow the tree itself managed to stick around. And as much as I enjoyed the feeling of living in a pine forest, it was time for that tree to go back in its box in the garage. (Besides, I have two cats who liked chewing on that thing WAY too much. Plastic pine needles can not be good for a cat's digestive tract... or ANY kind of digestive tract, for that matter...)

And then Monday and Tuesday I was struck down by my most-hated of nemesis-- uh, nemesises? Nemesi? Nemesisen? Nemesisoti? Um, ENEMIES. Yes. I was struck down by my most-hated of enemies -- cedar pollen. (What the heck is the plural of nemesis??? Dictionary.com... dictionary.com... ah, okay, it IS nemesises... my spell check doesn't like that word for some reason. I take it most people speak of merely ONE nemesis as opposed to MANY nemesises...) Anyway... the cedar was rather brutal for a few days, causing me to once again ponder the possibility of literally sneezing my head off... it's not a pleasant prospect...

I'm watching a rerun of Friends, and getting jealous of Monica because she gets to hang out with Ross so much... yes, that's right, I get jealous of fictional characters, okay? It's just dredging up disappointment over my canceled Chicago plans. A year ago, I was looking forward to having lots of time to hang out with MY brother, and plotting all the ways I was going to make his life miserable... mwahahahahaha... (wait, no -- I would never do THAT... :)) I can't believe it's been almost a year since the Chicago rug was pulled out from under us... oh well... a predictable life is a boring life, I suppose. (But I still miss my brother! Love you, E!!)

I had a horribly unproductive workout this morning -- it was one of those days where I just seemed to be devoid of energy and couldn't make my legs work as hard as I wanted them to. So I only managed about two and half miles on the treadmill, and then eked out a couple measley sets of push-ups. By the time I was finished, I felt like a wimpy loser... but at least I did SOMEthing, which is always better than nothing. So maybe I should say I just felt wimpy... a loser wouldn't have even bothered to try, right? Right. :) I made an awesome corn chowder recipe last night (can't give the credit to Cooking Light this time -- I found it in my Shape magazine...), that was only 178 calories per serving. Since we had it for dinner, I ladled out about a serving and a half for each of us, plus added a spring mix/spinach salad for some greens. Good stuff. (And on a side note -- I have recently discovered that I love Cholula hot sauce on just about everything... why did I never try this stuff before??)

Well, I obviously have nothing interesting to share. But I thought I'd better post something, to make sure I'm still trying to keep my "post on the blog more often" resolution. (Hey, I never said I would write more INTERESTING posts... just that I would write more posts... :)) Hope everyone is getting ready for a great weekend!

2 for 2...

Well, so far, I'm very happy with my Cooking Light subscription -- Eric and Rachel rock! :) It was a rather fortunate coincidence that my first issue showed up when it did. During our last big grocery trip, I bought a butternut squash on impulse. I've never bought one before, and I had no idea what I would do with it, but squash is in season right now so I figured why not. The squash, however, sat idle on my counter for over a week without being called into play... it just watched from the sidelines as other vegetables took their places on my plate, no doubt wondering when the Kitchen Coach would finally recognize its usefulness to the team.

And then my Cooking Light showed up, just as I was planning to make a roast chicken for one of our weekend dinners. And as I thumbed through the issue, lo and behold, what did I see? A recipe for roast chicken with potatoes AND -- butternut squash!

So I clapped my hands together to rile up the team, gave the butternut squash a hearty pat on the, uh, butternut... and huddled everyone up to discuss strategy. I decided if I was going to use some of the squash for the chicken recipe, I should probably just bake the rest of it, too, and store the leftovers in the fridge. So while my chicken was roasting, surrounded by purple potatoes and cubes of squash (yes, the potatoes were purple... I believe I've discussed this before, although I am unable to find the specific post at the moment. So you'll all just have to take my word for it -- yes, you can buy purple potatoes at the grocery store :)), the rest of the squash was baking along with it.

The chicken turned out great, and the potatoes and butternut squash were awesome. Success! But now the leftover butternut squash gazed at me from its baking sheet, obviously wondering if it would ever be as useful as its counterpart. I sliced it up and arranged it in a plastic container, then put it in the fridge to await Monday night's dinner. Enter my Cooking Light magazine, which I thumbed through again until I noticed a recipe for vegetarian chili. Since I like chili, but DON'T like meat in my chili, I thought it might be a good recipe to try. I scanned the ingredients to see if I had everything on hand, and was happily surprised to see, about six or seven lines down -- good ol' butternut squash! I don't think I've EVER seen a chili recipe that included butternut squash, and yet here it was, during the one week when I just HAPPENED to have plenty of butternut squash in my house!

I had to tweak the recipe a bit, since I didn't have everything (technically it was supposed to be a "three-bean chili" but I only had two kinds of beans... and the recipe called for vegetable broth, but I made do without it and just added about a quarter cup of water to thin it out), but the end result was AWESOME! Seriously, it was probably the best chili I've ever made. I topped it with a little dollop of sour cream and a little bit of shredded cheese (just a tad, so as not to negate the whole "Cooking LIGHT" philosophy), so it was all melty and spicy and butternut squashy and delicious. This recipe is SO going in my rotation...

I still have some of that butternut squash in the fridge -- there is a LOT of squash in a squash. But perhaps I can figure out something to do with it tonight... I wouldn't want it to feel useless and lonely on the bench...

How about some random thoughts?

Oh, wretched cedar, why must you torment me with your pollen? Beware, for one day soon I shall procure a chainsaw and remodel my home to include cedar-lined closets...

Ah... cedar season.... I've always thought it was strange that the WORST allergies of the year occur during the winter months here in Austin. Seems like spring and summer would produce more allergy-inducing vegetation, what with all the flowers and grass and weeds that pop up. But I guess cedar trees (like all the ugly live oak trees in this city) just grow all year round and never hit a "dormant" phase... I woke up with a very itchy throat this morning, which is probably my least favorite of all my allergy symptoms. Not that I have a "favorite"... I mean, it's not like I happily skip around town with my Kleenex box, dancing along the city streets as I sneeze my head off. (And by the way, I was, a few days ago, seriously worried that I would LITERALLY sneeze my head off, because I was sneezing so much. Is that possible? Is it possible to sneeze so much that your head literally detatches from the rest of your body and scurries under a bed, in an attempt to protect itself from further abuse?) Wow, that was a rather disturbing image... I shall blame it on the allergies...

Moving on... I have been SO tired this week. I suspect it is partially stress, as I've been seriously stressed out about some things this week. But I'm sure it's also simply an inability to bounce right back into the routine of early-to-bed-and-early-to-rise that is required when I'm regularly working and not enjoying a holiday in Chicago. Oh, I loved enjoying a holiday in Chicago... (And while I meant "holiday" as in Christmas, that sentence ended up sounding rather British, with "holiday" perhaps refering instead to "vacation." I love holidays AND holidays...)

So tonight is the University of Texas/Alabama championship game. We're rooting for UT, of course... except that Rick was born in Alabama, so he's always been a bit of an Alabama fan, too. (But he IS wearing a burnt orange UT shirt today, so I'm thinking he's leaning more towards wanting UT to win... :)) I'm continuing my tradition of making fajitas and homemade pico de gallo for major game days, and we're having my parents and Rick's parents over to eat tonight. (I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday, otherwise I never would've agreed to take the time to make pico and fajitas -- it's amazing how time-consuming it is to cut up a bunch of tomatoes and onions and garlic and cilantro -- and to CLEAN UP afterwards. Actually, I think Rick promised to clean up... yeah, I'm pretty sure Rick is cleaning up... :))

Look what was in the mail when I got home today!

Eric and Rachel got me a subscription to Cooking Light for Christmas! I'm seriously excited to start looking through it to get some new ideas. (By the way, I'm also eating some of the Ghirardelli chocolate Eric and Rachel got me for Christmas... Cooking Light AND chocolate -- either these two really know me well, or they're trying to confuse me... :))

And finally, I have to give a shout out (yes, a shout out -- because that's how I roll...) to my very good friend Cindy, whom I love dearly. Cindy, Nick is the closest thing Rick has to a brother, and YOU'VE always been the closest thing I have to a sister -- so you guys are, without a doubt, our family. When Jordan finally succeeds in taking over the world, I hope he'll allow us to work in the mines and the fields together. :) Praying for you!!

Okay, I'm off to prepare for company and make fajitas! Hook 'em Horns!!

I love lamp...

(Ron Burgundy: Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?

Brick: I love lamp... I love... lamp.)

Seriously -- I really do love my new Crate and Barrel lamps! I've been wanting lamps for the living room for a while now -- we have lights in the ceiling of the living room, and they do a reasonable job of lighting the room... HOWEVER, the ceiling is two stories above the floor. And while a couple of those lights may be accessible from the second-floor balcony that overlooks our living room, there are at least two lightbulbs that will never be changed if they burn out unless we call in some sort of lightbulb-changing superhero with a gigantic ladder...

He swooped into the house, dressed in shiny boots and a fluttering cape, and told everyone to stand aside as he deftly deployed his unwieldy two-story ladder... in a scant few nimble steps, he reached the ceiling and unscrewed the dim, long-dead lightbulb, replacing it with a brand new one from his trusty utility belt... as the glow from the newly-restored lighting fixture illuminated his triumphant-yet-humble visage, he leapt from the gigantic ladder and scooped it up in a seemingly effortless movement, pausing at the door only long enough to say, "wherever the injustice of dim lighting threatens a night of novel-reading... I'll be there."  

Yeah, so in lieu of THAT guy, we decided it'd be more practical to buy first-floor-level lamps with easily-changable lightbulbs.

We found some online at Crate and Barrel that we really liked, so a few weeks ago we headed down to the Austin store and found the same lamps on display in the showroom. But when we asked for two table lamps and one floor lamp, we were told they only had ONE table lamp in stock. So we sighed and decided to be patient and try again some other time. Rick called them on Friday morning, and they happened to have exactly TWO table lamps in stock. Of course, they refused to hold them for us (really? You can't even hold them for an HOUR?), so we raced down to the store and threw ourselves onto the lamps to protect them from predators. (I may be slightly exaggerating...)

Anyway, we finally have lamps in the living room, which means the lights in the ceiling can have a rest for a while. Maybe if we hardly ever use them, they'll never burn out...  

Pay no attention to the undecorated Christmas tree in the corner... I managed to put away all my decorations this weekend, but still need to dismantle the tree and put it back in its box in the garage. (Actually, I rather like having the tree in the corner... it makes me feel like my living room is in a pine forest...)

 

My little computer area...

 

And lamp #2 on the other side of the couch...

And these next two pictures have nothing to do with the lamps, but they were on the same card when I downloaded the pictures:

 

Awwwww... kitties in the sun... (and they're getting along -- usually Piva is annoying Allegro, and Allegro is hissing at Piva... but something about a sunbeam just turns them both into mush...)

 

And c'mon -- how cute is that face?? :) It almost makes up for the fact that she woke me up at 4:30 this morning because she wanted water from the sink... crazy cat... The only good thing about that is that I was awake soon enough to knock out 4.1 miles on the treadmill.

The bad thing about it is that I've been ready for a nap since 9 am... yaaaaawn...

A few more pics...

One of my resolutions this year is to post to my blog more often. Seventy-three posts for 2009?? That's just pathetic... I'm aiming for at least 74 this year... :)

To start us off, here are a few more Chicago pictures, pilfered from mom's camera:

O'Hare all decked out for Christmas...

 

On our way back to Eric's place after lunch... (nothing burns off the calories like a brisk walk through the snow... right?)

I didn't even think to take any pictures of the lights at night... but mom did! :)

 

 Someone was stalking us as we walked back from the Argo Tea shop...

 

 This is Eric's house (or, rather, the house he WISHES was Eric's house)...

 

 Here's Eric "helping" me make cookies...

 

And here's Kiko "helping" mom finish her glass of water...

Breakfast at the glass-enclosed pizza oven bar...

Okay, that's it for now... one post down, 73 more to go! ;)

Happy 2010!

Can you believe it's been TEN YEARS since all the Y2K hysteria? I think at the time Rick and I were the only people on our block who weren't hoarding one thing or another, in preparation for the inevitable collapse of modern society. (And then absolutely nothing happened, and all our neighbors were stuck with closets full of bottled water and canned corn... :)) Personally, I've never been much of a hoarder... I've only recently gotten to a point where I ALMOST always have paper towels in my house. And I use a lot of paper towels...

But I digress... it's about 15 minutes away from 2010 here in the central time zone, and as soon as my clock hits midnight, I'm off to bed (been up since 4:45 this morning, so I'm tiiiiired). And I'm hoping the people who are setting off fireworks right now will cease and desist once the new year gets here...

I wish you all a very happy 2010!!! :)