I Haven’t Abanadoned You

I know I haven’t blogged in forever. But that’s because I was working on making my website my blog! (Okay, not the entire time. I also spent a considerable amount of time reading trashy summer novels, napping, and petting Nola and Coco.)

Go check out my new blog and bookmark it!

Pre-Owned Pets

Today when I logged on to the magical world of the Internet, I spotted this headline:

21 Things You Should Never Buy New. You know what number 10 is? Pets. You should never buy pets new. In fact, the article even says

Instead, adopt a pre-owned pet from your local animal shelter and get a new family member, fees, and vaccines at a substantially lower cost.

Pre-owned??? Who has ever heard of a “pre-owned” pet? Don’t get me wrong, my cats were both strays when I made them part of my family, but I never thought of them as pre-owned.

Maybe I should have checked to see if they’d had their oil changed and tires rotated before I took them home?

Does It Count?

Does it count as meditation when I’m using one arm to pet the noisy and demanding cat on my lap at the same time?

Physical

Pet Peeve:

Grown men who, instead of saying

“Fiscal Year”

Say,

Let's get Physical

“Physical Year”.

I’ve heard it twice this year alone.

Scarfing It

About a month ago I hit up Old Navy for some inexpensive and fun clothes to wear for the summer. While there, my mother convinced me to get a scarf, because they’re in. She knows this because she saw it on TV, and I don’t know this because I’m completely clueless about most things fashion. Give me a pair of jeans and tee-shirt and I’m good to go. And something green. I have a green Fossil purse and a pair of green Kangaroo sneakers. I don’t know why I’m always attracted to green clothes and accessories, but it’s been that way most of my life. Back to shopping.

I decided to get a scarf that matched a cute little dress I bought. No, I have no pictures, use your imagination. The dress is blue. Oh, hey, I found a pic of it on Old Navy’s website.

Okie Dokie, that’s the dress. I got a scarf that was whitish with some colors on it, like the blue in this dress, purple, and shockingly, green.

For some reason I never thought to actually wear these items of clothing, they just sat in my closet, wondering why I was ignoring them. I’ll tell you why: because if I wore that dress to my office I would turn into a flesh-flavored Ice Pop, and if I wore it at home I would turn into a woman wearing a cat-hair dress. However, last night I finally wore the dress and the scarf. My conclusions:

Pros of a scarf:

• No need for a necklace
• I look like I might be living in the year 2010, instead of 1995, the peak of my fashion awareness (yes, I still own a pair of Doc Martens that I bought when I was 15, and a pair I bought when I was 18. You cannot make me get rid of them)
• Something to entertain myself with when bored
• Can be used to climb out of a second story building in a pinch

Cons:

• Having something tied around your neck, even a light-weight scarf, in this ridiculous heat we’re having, adds about 17 degrees to your body’s temperature
• Hard to lean forward and eat anything, especially Indian food. I had to turn the scarf around to the back while I ate dinner last night!

All in all, a successful modern fashion experience. Today, though, I’m back in jeans. Just be thankful I left the plaid flannel and Pearl Jam tee-shirt at home.

Polar Bears

Hey, I’m blogging. Why haven’t I been blogging lately? Beats me. I guess I’m too busy sweating my butt off in my house and truck that don’t have A/C, freezing my, uh, other parts, off in my office  because the thermostat in the building where I work is clearly controlled by Polar bears, and I’m lazy. And I procrastinate.

Want to know what I learned yesterday? That I can do basic algebra. Why did I, at age 30, figure that out? Because Anthony needs to take a math placement test to sign up for a math class this fall, and I was looking at a practice test he was working on and realized how little I knew, so I got a friend from high school to tutor me in the subject. Over Gchat, no less, because I’m modern like that.

It actually all came back to me as he was explaining it to me. The irony of the situation is that the friend who was teaching me was the boyfriend that prevented me from doing well in math in the first place in high school. Actually, I prevented me from doing well in math in the first place because I preferred to write seven-pages long notes (I’m not kidding) to my best friend during algebra, to talk to my boyfriend at night while I should have been studying said algebra, and I’m lazy. And I procrastinate.

Back to blogging. I even have some pictures on my camera to share on the blog! But I haven’t downloaded them yet. And Ann even took some photos of me and my eggs (that didn’t sound weird) when we went to lunch last weekend. And she sent them to me. And I still have not put them up yet.  But I will.

And really, I’m not lazy. I just haven’t felt like blogging. I’ve been journaling, lifting weights regularly (!), cooking, going and and meeting with friends, and doing lots of stuff. And it’s summer. And I’d rather be fantasizing about a trip to the ocean.

Okay, I’m totally rambling, and my stomach is totally rumbling, so it’s time for some lunch.

Found My Greens

Success at the Farmer’s Market yesterday! First I got local, free-range eggs.

I love how eggs from the Farmer’s Market don’t all look exactly the same, like they do when you buy them from the store.

Speckles!

I also found the green I was craving:

This is a bunch of Dinosaur kale, tied with twine. How cute and quaint!

Looks like dinosaur skin? I can’t wait to use it in smoothies and stir fries. In fact, the absolutely adorable woman who sold this stuff to me told me how to make a frittata with this stuff. She was so enthusiastic that I wanted to take her home with me so she could make me something!

On my way out one older gentleman said, “Don’t you want some broccoli or spinach to go with your eggs and kale?” Darn it, he sucked me right in! Not that I’m complaining:

I love fresh produce, it’s so pretty! He didn’t sell me on any spinach because I thought I had plenty, but I should have bought some. Oh well, I just bought a bunch of organic spinach at the store, but next week I’ll buy it locally.

I know I’m going to make a spinach Quiche for Anthony, but I don’t know exactly how I’ll use the rest of the eggs or the greens I got. Believe me, it will be eaten somehow!

Far-Retched

Last night I went to see Sex and the City 2 with Ann and Regina. Small world: when I worked at the Balsam Mountain Inn from 2005-2008, I was the event coordinator, and had met Regina there since she is a wedding photographer. Ann got married in Asheville a while back and Regina was her photographer, and they’ve kept in touch. I actually hadn’t seen Regina in a few years, but it’s funny how someone I just met (um, through the Internet, because I’m modern like that) knows someone from my past. And Ann also knows someone from my present, who works in the same building as me! Oh, the coincidences.

Anyways, back to last night. We went to Cinebarre, which is a hip movie theater where you can order from a full bar and food menu and eat while you’re watching the movie. Ann and I ordered Sangrias, which took 45 minutes to get, and about 6 minutes to drink 🙂 They were delicious. We also ordered the “Braveheart” pizza, which has all sorts of extremely delicious things on it like sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes. I also snagged a couple of Regina’s delicious “Mr. Chips and Salsa”. Our food and drinks did take a while, but everything tasted great and the movie distracted me from my rumbling belly.

Which brings me to my review of Sex and the City. I’m not much of a movie critic, but I will say this: when I was typing an email to my mother this morning about the movie, I intended to type, “It was fun, but some of the scenes were far-fetched.” However, I actually typed “It was fun, but some of the scenes were far-retched”. Freudian slip?

Actually, I had a great time, I enjoyed the scenery from the movie, some of the clothes that weren’t too over the top, and some of the humor.

I’ve been busy this week, Thursday night I attended the “On the Verge” art show opening at the Flood Gallery with Amy. I am trying to find some pictures to put up some of the work, but I’m having a hard time finding any of it. I did love the pottery of Maggie Jones, but even that link doesn’t show much of what was in the show.

Today I’m headed to the Farmer’s Market to see what I can see. Last time I went I snagged local free range eggs and a GALLON of strawberries, and I’m hoping by now someone has some fresh green things for me to purchase.

I’ve also been keeping up with my strength training, but more on that in another post. And pictures, too. I’m going to take pictures. Not of my strength training, because that would be both difficult and embarrassing, but of something.

Have a great day!

Or Not.

I totally intended to attend the talk put on by Dan Buettner about how to live to 100, based on his research of the so-called “Blue Zones”. The talk was to start at 6:00 pm last night, but I ended up not being able to make it because of some work-related stuff. 😦
However, I have the newspaper article concerning last night’s talk in my hot little hands, so I can at least discuss his top nine tips. (You can read the whole article here.)

Here are Dan Buettner’s “power nine” tips for living to 100 and my thoughts on them, ’cause I know you wanna know.

1. Move: Find ways to move mindlessly. Make moving unavoidable. I have read many times that we should work fidgeting into our lives, and I can’t say I’ve ever made that happen. I do make an effort to exercise every day, and I get up and walk around quite a bit at work. I think I do okay at this, but I could always try to do a teensy bit more.
2. Plan de Vida: Know your purpose in life. Oh boy! Definitely working on this one, though I have times when I have absolutely no idea and I get kinda bummed. Interesting to hear how important this really is.
3. Downshift: Work less, slow down, rest, take vacation. Sounds good to me…did I mention I only work four days a week? 🙂
4. 80 Percent Rule: Stop eating when you are 80 percent full. I’ve heard this over and over again, too. Working on it for sure!
5. Plant-Power: Eat more veggies, and less protein and processed foods. Yay for plant power! And yay for hearing from another source that protein ain’t all that. I first read that protein wasn’t all it was cracked up to be a few years ago in The China Study, and since then I’ve been happy to eat more whole grains, fruits, beans, and veggies and not worried so much about how much protein I’m getting.
6. Red Wine: Consistency and moderation. I love red wine, but I definitely don’t drink it consistently or moderately. Oh wait, that’s not right. I don’t drink consistently, period. I probably have a drink once or twice a week, or maybe nothing at all for a month. And I don’t always choose red wine, either. I’ve heard that if you don’t already drink regularly, there’s no reason to start, so I’m not sure if this is advice I’ll take.
7. Belong: Create a healthy social network. This is something I have been working very hard on recently! Again, I didn’t realize how much of a factor it was in living a long life.
8. Beliefs: Spiritual or religious participation. I’m spiritual…but I keep it mostly private. I wonder if that counts?
9. Your Tribe: Make family a priority. My cats are my family, and I certainly make them a priority:)

Interesting stuff! I wish I had gotten to see him live, but it’s nice to see I’m already on the right track. And yes, I would like to live to 100, but only if I’m up and around and can be vibrant – I do not intend to live any other way.

Have a great day!

Oat Cake Success!

Remember the oat cake concoction I made on Sunday? Yesterday morning I took it for a test drive:

Good job on the lighting, Jen!

This is one serving – a quarter of an 8×8 pan, sliced in half so it would heat up more evenly in the microwave. One half had coconut butter on it, the other had almond butter on it.

Mmmmm....coconut

I love how the coconut butter gets all melty after being heated up!

I also had some local strawberries that I picked up at the Tailgate Market more than a week ago. I froze about a third of the berries, and this morning heated them up to go along with my oat cake.

All together this recipe was definitely a success! It tasted really good. The jury is still out on if it holds me over as long as a regular bowl of oatmeal. I always eat a morning snack, and today I was really hungry by about 10 am (I eat breakfast around 7:30), but that could have been because of my workout before breakfast, it might not have to do with the meal. I have three more portions to try so I can find out, though!

Yesterday I also got to participate in my very own very teeny tiny blogger meet up! While checking out Yoga Pose May I came across this post, and discovered the blogger, Ann, lives about five minutes away from me. We finally got a chance to meet in person when we met at a local cafe for a drink.  Being the sub-par blogger that I am, I took zero pictures. It was fun, though, and it was so nice meeting someone with so many of the same interests as me. Hi, Ann!

Tonight I’m going to this event. I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap, I hope 🙂