Hot in the City….

May 23, 2010 at 8:33 pm (Day to Day, Exercise, Find The NY Coffee Cup, Hiatus, News, School News, Shameless Self Promotion, Updates, Warrior Dash) (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , )

It is Sunday, May 23, in Chicago. It’s a blazing 90 degrees and I have been drinking margarita’s all afternoon. This is my first post, post-nursing, first year. I am done for the summer! Passed successfully the course, the final and the final-final for the past year of material. I will be enjoying this afternoon and evening and start reading some more stuff on Monday. It’s recommended. But, no pressure so its really more for fun. Haha.

Anyway, let me rewind the week, but fast-forward the boring parts (zip it Amanda…some people do not think this is ALL boring like you…har har) anyhoo…let’s see…oh yes…my sister (Amanda) squeezed out yet ANOTHER child into this world…good job! Welcome Everet Jase! Congrats to the family!

I passed my classes, I registered for fall, I paid for fall (lots of money I don’t actually have…and don’t even qualify for using student aid…but hoping for good luck with some working scholarship money, and I bought some lottery tickets also as a back up plan.

Saturday, myself and the family (kids and bf), babysat for the new bean so my sister could go to a wedding and try to wear sexy clothes and drink for the first time in 9 months. She looked cute but the alcohol didn’t take. She tried her best but we are thinking that the bartender thought she was still a pregnant lady and gave her non-alcohol drinks! We have to get that baby weight off! Which leads me to our next big thing…Warrior Dash! It is coming fast and neither of us is ready and I don’t have a baby as an excuse for my chub…only fast food and laziness. So that means you get to follow along on the progress all summer! I may have pictures…they are guaranteed to be funnier this year because they have that same wall for me to not be able to climb over again AND a new net-wall-army-thing that I will probably never get my big booty up on. So you’ll definitely want to stay tuned.

After the babysitting, 3 am, yikes, and an hour drive home, we get to bed at 4. Kids leave at 11 ish to go to an other-family-thing with their dad, and I get the idea to go for a nice bike ride with the bf, you know, get a jump start on the massive diet and exercise program that begins tomorrow for this entire household. The “Summer of Slim”, the  “Focus on Fat”, the  “Abolishment of Adipose”…we need a catchy slogan for my program, especially since we will all be crying by Tuesday about how hungry and tired we are of this horrible plan…and how we’d rather just stay fat…no no, not this year. My goal is my son. Slim by seventh…that’s good too…hmmmm….anyway, it’s happening and I will be unliked for some time this summer.

Back to the bike ride…we decided on a modest 9 miles (thank goodness the bf doesn’t listen to me, because I first suggested the 19 mile loop we were doing last year, which we would still be doing right now). So, to the trail, on the bikes, riding, riding, riding, sweating, hills, 90 degrees, more hills, sweating, still riding…9 miles is really long, even on a bike, if you haven’t done it in a year, finally down to 2.8 left, I was like, what???, man I thought we were done, but we made it back to the car and even went past and back to make it a nice even 10 miles. Felt good. Felt sexy, in that sweaty, I-just-exercised-don’t-I-glisten-in-the-sun kind of way! And then driving home we go right past this Mexican restaurant with awesome margarita’s and I said that’s what we should do…have margarita’s for the rest of the day. So we change, drive back, drink margarita’s, eat guacamole and enchilada’s with green sauce, and watch the Hawks win it for the city! But the fun doesn’t end there….we need home margarita ingredients!

To the liquor store…got it all, Tequila, mixer, salt, limes….and more heat. It’s still like 80 something outside, no air conditioning inside, wouldn’t put it on anyway because it’s only May, and it’s 8 o’clock pm. I’m on, like my third glass, but it’s hard to tell because it’s never really an empty-fill thing, it’s more like a continual addition to what is already in the glass thing. At any rate, it’s lovely, and it’s getting hard to type or see, because dusk is upon us here in the Midwest. My kids should be home soon. Dirty and sweaty from their day and needing showers for school in the a.m. Well, shower for one anyway…the girl broke her arm again and is limited to baths with her cast sticking out…I have pictures!

I have lots and lots and lots more stuff to tell and write and show and post, I have missed so much since Easter because of school, but I shall have the whole summer to amuse my loyal fan base!

I also have pictures but cannot post any because I am not typing this on my computer where the pictures are. My computer is trying to get reconfigured for better speed and quality of content. So this will have to be good for now.

I have money to post! I have found alot of spare change in the last few months. I have saved it all for you in one location so I can total it up and be very dramatic about it. And I have Cool Words galore thanks to my girl…she has been saving them and is anxious to start helping me. I have Warrior Dash training, and PF 5-Mile training, and get-my-son-slim-by end-of-summer training and healthy cooking (?) attempting, and music! Music music…I have been so slacked…playlists and inspiration….you do not want to miss any of it!!

Also I want to thank my followers, particularly the one who sent me the notice about the creator of my favorite coffee cup…the New York Coffee Cup….we are happy to serve you…blue with gold trim….passing away recently. I have the Time magazine write-up abut it and him and the iconic piece of history he left behind. Thank you for keeping me informed when I cannot!  If you want to see more about the cup, click here, NYCC, and if you just want more, I will be back soon with all the good stuff…hopefully late late tonight or tomorrow once the computer is fixed, the kids hit school and I hit the gym (training starts NOW), I also need some healthy food items in the house…we are down to coffee, 4 slices of bread, almond and rice milk, and eggs…which I am going to go boil right now for tomorrow.

Until then, have another drink, maybe one more for tonight, and enjoy the heat wherever you are. It’s good to be back! Cheers.

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So, based on the number of hits I got today, you actually like the site BETTER when it’s all screwed up!

August 3, 2009 at 4:30 pm (Day to Day, Exercise, School News, Shameless Self Promotion) (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , )

Sick! Sick people. Everyone loves a train wreck! Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I think I have fixed the problem. My earlier posting of some benches didn’t sit right with Mr. Internet, so it went all loopy.

I just took a break, went to go run (had to anyway) and now I am back with a clearer head and a better idea of what and how to fix these little problems. So, now we can get back to my monotonous life!

This an exercise update: Bike ride. We did 19+ miles on Saturday and I thought we would do it again on Sunday, but no. The BF had a better idea: Riding along the Old Plank Trail. Click on the name to see what it is and then finish reading, or just skip ahead and pretend to know what this means. Either way, it’s just a long-ass bike ride.

If you look at the site and click on the map, you will see Richton Park to the right and New Lenox to the left, that’s what we did. Rode from Richton Park going west to New Lenox. I too was like you, phhhtt…what’s the big deal?? We just rode 19 and it wasn’t even a problem (except that my butt bones are sore to the core) I can barely sit on that stupid bike seat much less ride it for 12.5 miles. In one direction. And then you have to ride it back, all 12.5 miles, because it’s not a loop. And your car is now 12.5 miles in the exact opposite direction. OMG. Easy on paper, quite a struggle on the path. I was sure I wasn’t going to make it. My knee was hurting from the ever-so-slight bending action required to peddle (not good–I think I need to raise my seat) and my butt was screaming! Everytime it would get nice and numb we would have to stop to cross a street and then, to sit back down, or even move the bike forward from a stop position was like pushing boulders up a hill with someone poking a red-hot pointy stick in your butt cheek, if I can get a little graphic here.

By the time we crossed Central and went under 57 I was ready to cry. Tears for the pain and tears because we were so close. As we came around the final turn to the parking lot where the car was you have to go down a curb bump. I think tears did spring to my eyes as I hit that last one and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get off of the bike. I wasn’t sure I could swing my leg up high enough to get it over the middle bar. Obviously, I did.

We even recovered enough after a few hours to go get sushi and walk around a car show, how’s that for diverse?

All in all, we logged a little over 25 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The only good thing was I was able to eat pretty much anything for dinner and not feel bad. I’m back to the calorie count and the eating plan. With the exception of no dairy now. That was the culprit in my terrible skin rash that kept breaking out on my face and cheeks (face cheeks, people! sheesh!)

Don’t worry, I took lots of pictures from sushi and the car show, but I have to post those later because I have a school meeting to attend and I can’t be late!

In case you were wondering, I ran 4.2 miles today. Legs were just fine. Did it in <49 minutes. (I hope that symbol means “less than”–I’m kind of beat–and dizzy from running—and I always get them confused when there’s only one of them—so forgive me for not knowing)

Stay tuned for later! Seriously. I have the kids room finished, Japan, Germany, some You Tube, the Oscars (fishes–in our tank), cars, words, quotes, and anything else that happens between now and 7 pm.

Keep me viable! My goal is 6000 hits by 6 months (September 17, anniversary) and only YOU can make it happen!

Thanks for staying to the end! Be back in a flash. L.

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Don’t Read TIME Magazine!!

August 1, 2009 at 7:01 pm (Day to Day, Exercise, Pictures) (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , )

Or NewsWeek, or any of the other kind of magazines that make you think about the world and problems and issues and things that are important to life and living here in America and on Earth. If you do, you will only be sorry. Like me.

I feel bad because I did read the TIME magazine this morning, BB (Before Burrito’s) and before Bike Riding, and it makes the silly stuff I talk about all day seem kind of lame. I should have a point or a view and opinions and controversy. But I don’t. I have ideas. But then I see a colorful bird in a tree or a strange frog on the sidewalk and I forget all about deeper issues.

I really do have a master plan, and I do have some really good life improving ideas, but I need to get through school first so I can start earning the kind of money and hooking up with the right kind of connections to put things in place. Plus, I have to get my kids up and ready for high school. That’s their first step toward all of the rest of the education they are going to be required to have to make any kind of difference in this world.

I bring it up now, because I am going to be posting stuff that I get from the “smart” mags along with the usual crap I get from the internet and the gossip mags my brain absorbs like a dried up jellyfish. Plus, I may be suffering some kind of post-exercise-nature-beauty-world-love withdrawal, as the coffee and vodka (not together) courses back into my veins and displaces all the healthy-oxygen-clean-pure-blood, but it takes time!

And! I have some International New Features I want to post! The BF’s good friend from work just moved to Germany with her hubby and sent an e-mail and photo’s that are absolutely out of this world, funny and brilliant and real-world people perspective of other places on the globe. And she said I could post it all here!

For now though, here’s my stuff: We rode those bikes, in the rain (it stopped now and then) for 19.2 miles! Once we got out there the actual trail was a bit longer. Took us One hour and 45 minutes. Not bad for ups/downs/traffic/road crossings/the requisite work phone call (BF is on the job) and a stop to take a picture of an old cemetery that was there in the early 1900’s. The sign explains it, but the Forest Preserve acquired the land with the cemetery on it and chose to keep it as it was. History and all. Now you can say the site is educational and we can both feel better.

There were power lines too! Giant, humming, massive towers that were really crackling in the rain. I was so in awe of being that close and riding underneath all of them that I forgot to take any pictures. It’s probably good anyway. I would have pulled my phone  out, aimed it up at the wires and got electrocuted when an arc of electricity shot out and  grabbed the cell killing me on the spot. That would have sucked.

See? No sense of world. Ooooh…power lines. Electricity. Well, without it, we couldn’t type or read this, so….it needs to propped!

Anyway, if we go back tomorrow—which I’d like to—I will get those pics. It is pretty amazing. I know people that live by them don’t necessarily think so, but I don’t have my brains getting fried on a day-to-day basis…or…?? Just kidding. Seriously. I don’t really think brains are getting fried just because of power lines. You don’t need to live by the high wire to get the high if you know what I mean.

Also, in case you were wondering, I think I successfully burned off all the cals from those terrible, but delicious burrito’s. I checked the internet for an exercise calculator and it says I did. Now, what’s for dinner? Let me finish my vodka lemonade and think about it while you look at pictures of  headstones and a sign.

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Riding in the Rain

August 1, 2009 at 1:06 pm (Day to Day, Exercise, Pictures) (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , )

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So the BF has mapped out a very long 15 mile + trail for us to bike ride on. He has the bike rack on the back of the car. The bikes are ready, with proper tire air and water bottle holders secured. His mileage counter/techy gadget is calibrated and standing by. We are wearing our finest bicycle shorts/racing peddle shoes/tight, wicking t-shirts/fast helmet/goggle combos; aka Lance Armstrong and Co. (Just kidding about the clothes–we live in the suburbs. Of Chicago. We could get our asses kicked riding around town looking like space alien freaks.)

As you may recall, and I see that I typed it last night, I was going running today. 4 miles plus. Which I may do after this “bike ride” the BF wants to do. Our only problem here at the moment is the giant mass of thunderstorms and rain clouds moving across the area this very minute. I have a few choices here.

Just go ride the bikes. It’s chilly and rainy but at least I’ll be moving(??).

Then go run on the trail, after. 3.6 miles will seem so easy then.

Go to the gym. Indoors. Always temperature and weather controlled. (Poop)

Or…STOP eating.

But, since I already devoured 4, yes (shame) four, McDonald’s Breakfast Burrito’s with Hot Picante, while watching Grease 2 (double shame) this morning, it’s probably too late for that option.

My favorite alternative option, since it feels kind of like New Orleans out there; breezy, rainy, Southern tropical; I say we make Hurricanes and sit out on the veranda and drink all day. (We don’t actually have a veranda, but we do have a patio with some very nice plastic Adirondack chairs and a backyard full of grass to look at.) It’s close enough.

And I can’t seem to waste any more time with this post, as I’ve run out of things to embarass myself with. I will be back, much later, with my regular schedule of things you don’t care about.

I have to go lose some calories and be a part of society now.

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