November 12, 2008
A Review You Don’t Want to Miss
I think the house will be ready for the virtual open house by the weekend, maybe. We're having a major curtain push tonight, so things are getting done.
I'd like to direct your attention to The BBM Review today. I just read an absolutely haunting book and I wrote a review about it. If you have an interest in the war on terror, Gitmo, or if you just like books written by military (like I do), please check it out. There are also some other great reviews on the site. If you're starting to look for gifts for little ones in the family, there are plenty of toy and movie reviews. There are also some martial arts book reviews that have gone up. Check it out!
Also, thanks to Marguerite for the card!
November 10, 2008
Back Off
I was seriously trying to talk myself out of going to the gym today. I kept making excuses. Then I talked to Mr. BBM. He told me I should just go. It's going to be uncomfortable working out there until I get used to it and there's only one way to get used to it. Drag my butt there; just go.
Part of why I didn't want to go is because after two sessions with a personal trainer, I was getting the hard sell, and they were trying to convince me that I needed to pay a fortune to work out with a trainer on a regular basis. As much as I'd like to do that, we just bought a house. I don't have money growing on trees. In fact, I have no trees. Hell, I barely have grass as this point.
Today was the first day I had to see the trainer since I didn't call him back. Of course, he was right there as I walked in. I told him money is tight and I'm waiting to see how much of a credit I have at karate from my year on hiatus until I make any decisions. He shrugged it off and said he was there if I needed his help.
So, I got right to it. Today was legs and I spent time working on PT like things and also doing some weight lifting to build up the muscles in my legs. I had spent about 40 minutes working my legs and abs and then walked on an incline for 20 minutes on the treadmill.
When I was finished, I saw my trainer and thought I'd ask him if he could help me hook up some kind of weight lifting harness so that I could do some exercises that my physical therapist taught me. He and about three other trainers started scratching their heads. No one had a harness. They just had these stretchy bands. It wasn't working. At one point, there was one band wrapped around my waist, another wrapped around me being held tight by a trainer behind me and a whole mess of trainers watching.
The one trainer, who always seems a little sour asked me why I wanted to do that exercise. I told him it had really helped me get my leg stronger when I was going to PT. He asked me what I had done and when I told him I had surgery for my ACL in December, he started getting on my case. "You should be doing deep squats by now on that knee. You're babying that knee too much." He wouldn't shut up. He had some company.
Since I always take the high road, I fired back, "How many trainers does it take to hook up one harness?" I told him that my surgeon doesn't want me doing deep knee bends and that I had an overuse injury. I'm anything but a slacker when it comes to getting my leg back in shape. I resented his little comment that quickly began to feel like a public stoning. Here were a bunch of guys with leg muscles the size of my whole body, telling me and my stingbean leg that my PT doesn't know anything, and they want me to sign a long-term contract so I can take this kind of abuse weekly?
At one point, the out of line trainer asked me how I had hurt my knee. "At karate while sparring," I said. The trainer I had worked out with last week shot the guy a look that told him I'd probably be more than happy to snap kick his head off. He would have been right.
During the debate, one of the trainers disappeared and came back with his own personal weight lifting harness. He handed it to me. "Try this," he said. It worked perfectly. He began asking me about my injury and what types of exercises I was doing. He told me that he's a trainer who trains athletes, many who've had ACL reconstruction. He was rattling off statistics and talking about the differences between women and men and why this happens to women more often. He told me he could teach me some exercises that would really help strengthen my leg to prevent it from ever happening again.
Unfortunately, the KidZone was closing and I had to go grab Lil C. When I was putting her shoes on, I realized he had followed me. He told me he'd be happy to show me some exercises later this week, so I made an appointment with him. It's free. I'm just hoping I don't have to endure 30 minutes of post work-out pressure to sign a contract again.
November 9, 2008
Vanished
I hate moving. Inevitably, something goes missing. Inevitably, it's always something important. No, I couldn't be missing the box that contains old college textbooks. Those boxes are all accounted for. And it's not another miscellaneous box full of baby toys either.
I'm missing two boxes to be exact.
I'm missing my very small and carefully labeled box with St. Joseph in it. I'm also missing my box that contains all my curtain rod brackets and picture framing hardware. I'm starting to suspect that St. Joseph wasn't really happy about being packed up temporarily and that he decided to mess with me a bit. Taking my curtain hardware would do just that.
I'd like to let St. Joseph know that I have big plans for him, and that I have a place of honor picked out where everyone will see him so I'll be able to tell the story about how he helped us sell our house and thereby increase everyone's faith. But I can't do that unless I find him, and find him, I can't.
November 7, 2008
Coming Soon
I am getting there with this house. Things are starting to find a place, and I'm gradually working on window treatments throughout the house. Our garage door openers will be installed next week. I can not wait for that! Once I have things together, I plan to do an online "open house" so you can see how it all looks.
So far, my favorite thing about the house is my jacuzzi. I've been in a few in hotels and beach houses, but I've never had my own. This jacuzzi, in particular, is pretty awesome. It has these perfectly placed two little jets right at your feet. I think I'd live in there if I could.
I've found that having big windows means big bills when buying window treatments. It's amazing how fast a couple hundred can go down the tubes when trying to cover up your windows!
Thanks to the nice weather we've been having, our grass is really starting to grow. Our yards looks like it has a nice haze of green over it right now and we're just praying that it gives us a good head start in the spring. Having this great yard, but not being able to go play in it right now is torture.
I've been lousy at posting lately, mostly because I've been falling asleep on the sofa around 9 p.m. each night. I'm exhausted from the move, and exhausted from planning and grading during the last month of the semester at the University where I teach. Exhaustion makes for minimal posting and lackluster content, I know.
Hopefully this will be a very productive weekend, full of picture hanging and getting these girls to sleep past 7 a.m for a change.
I also wanted to send out a belated "thank you" to Avitable, who sent me a really nice housewarming gift. Your wine bottle was the first to go in my wine rack, but it won't be there for long. 😉
November 5, 2008
Historical Day
Yesterday is a day for the history books, one that will not soon be forgotten. However, for me, it holds significance for another reason.
November 4th, 2008: the day that my favorite Mexican restaurant became the restaurant that gave me food poisoning.
While the girls are perfectly fine (Thank God), Mr. BBM and I are both suffering a similar fate which we can attribute to either: chicken, lettuce or sour cream.
I guess you could say that it was a crappy day for Republicans; but it was especially craptastic for me, for reasons beyond what I'm willing to share.
Congrats to all those who are happy about Obama. Miss Chris, I'll be needing one of those bumper stickers asap.
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