yoga, books, movies, tv and WAY too many crime procedurals – not necesarily in that order
Real runners like to run outside and enjoy the scenery and run for the joy of it. At least, that’s what SEEMS to be the case. I’m not a real runner.
First clue: I like to run on the treadmill. I’d rather run on the treadmill than anywhere else. There are a lot of reasons for this, the first being my Barefoot shoes. Since my last pair of “running” shoes (possibly in conjunction with running on the road) gave me Achilles tendonitis, the Barefoot shoes have made a resurgence. No Achilles tendonitis. Also, no running outside -what with the snow and ice and Barefoot shoes. My love of the treadmill is bigger than shoes.
When I was in junior high and high school I ran track. I ran sprints, more specifically – at one point or another, everything from the 100 to the half mile. Either through lack of coaching or sheer stubbornness, I managed to avoid distance training. The end result is that I have two comfortable speeds – walking and sprinting. The treadmill is good because when I’m running a program it forces me to adjust my stride and speed, which I wouldn’t do running on my own. As a result, I get a better overall workout.
I’m also competitive, though mostly with myself. I don’t like running with other people because it puts me off MY pace (see above) and the treadmill insures that doesn’t happen. More importantly, if I’m tired or slacking I have to OWN it. When I’m outside running, I can kind of slow down and there’s no real consequence. On the treadmill I actually have to admit surrender or defeat and HIT THE BUTTON to slow down.
The other thing that proves I’m not a real runner is how loud I am. If my life ever depends on running through a deserted building or silent forest at midnight to avoid a psychopath, I’m fucked. I sound like a Clydesdale on a hamster wheel. My husband – more than twice my size – runs more quietly than I do. I’m not sure why – maybe it’s the footfall (I run on the ball of my foot) but I’m LOUD. Treadmills mean I can keep it a secret.
Today’s half-assed, almost homemade Mexican-style feast:
2 packages of Old El Paso Spanish Rice (the kind that preps in a minute)
1 value pack of chicken breasts (I think it was 5 breasts)
1 package of Fajita seasoning
2 sm 10 oz cans of RoTel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chiles, drained
1 large pkg (4 cups-ish) shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 can black beans, drained
1 large can Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce
Flour tortillas
So first I made the rice and while it cooled, put the flour tortillas in a 13×9 pan. I put them in propped together taco-style but you could also just make a top/bottom layer probably. I filled the bottom of each tortilla with the Spanish rice
I put fajita spice on the breasts and put them in a pan with a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil. Cook until browned on one side, flip them.
While the chicken is cooking, put the tomatoes and beans in a bowl and stir to blend. Once blended, scoop beans/tomatoes into each tortilla.
Once the breasts were browned on both sides, I took them out and sliced and then cubed them, then putting them back in the pan to finish cooking and added the rest of the fajita spice.
Once the chicken was done, I scooped it into the the tortillas, put in a handful of cheese each, and then closed the tortillas. I had to use toothpicks but whatevs. Poured in the can of enchilada sauce, covered the whole mess in cheese, and baked at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I took out the toothpicks, put them on plates and put on more cheese. Served with tortilla chips.
Dudes, it was WICKED AWESOME. Delicious and since I didn’t use more than half of my chicken meat, we’ll have another pseudo-Mexican meal later this week.
Anyone who knows me knows that I hate housework. “Loathe” wouldn’t be an exaggeration. When I was working part-time I managed to come up with a system that worked and kept the house tidy. When I started my holiday job (in addition to the part-time job) I was working 60 hours a week and pretty much didn’t touch a broom for two months.
Now that I’m down to 40ish hours, I’ve been re-evaluating the system. When I work afternoons (leaving the house at around 1pm or later) I find that I’m actually MOTIVATED to clean in the mornings. I get up, put things away, wash the dishes, et cetera. When I work mornings, though, I get up at about 4:30 am so that I can leave the house by 5:30 and let me tell you there is NO HOUSEWORK HAPPENING. If you’re lucky, I remember to clean up after myself so that there aren’t clothes strewn about the house and makeup all over the bathroom countertop.
The problem with working mornings is that when I get home I’m TIRED. It’s typically been a full 8 hour day and my shifts involve physical labor- not just standing at a cash register. I get to decompress on the drive home (45 minutes, more or less) and then by the time I’m at the house, I want to lay on the couch. Alas, dinner needs to be made and let’s face it, Spouse is the breadwinner no matter HOW many hours I work. I’m cool with the cooking and cleaning being part of my job, I just don’t LOVE it. The cooking is generally a nonissue but when I get home from work, there are invariably the dishes from Spouse’s breakfast (cooking and eating) sitting there, as well as the clean dishes from the night before and probably clean dishes in the dishwasher too. Not exactly INSPIRATIONAL.
This week I decided to do an experiment, since last week’s cleaning BEFORE work went so well. I’m still not going to clean at 4am but I thought I’d do something to help with an afternoon energy boost – enough to pump me up for cleaning and then I could cook and relax. So after I got home from work, I let the dog out and got on the treadmill. It turns out that a nice solid 30 minute run (intervals of some sort usually) gives me enough energy to beat the midafternoon tired slump and then I could clean with the music cranked up. Once I get the dishes done (one of my least favorite things) I put laundry in (once a week) and did a quick run of the floors (every other day). After that, I start dinner and clean up as I go. Once dinner is done, I’m all about the couch – at least until about 9 (when I have to pass out or risk not hearing the alarm for work).
So far I’m optimistic about the new system working. It looks like my morning schedule will be more regular and the run has the added benefit of making me feel good (in addition to keeping me awake).
In my ‘Newest Music’ playlist this month: MoZella – Belle Isle, Ben Folds – supersunnyspeedgraphic, Chin Chin – Chin Chin, Hurray for the Riff Raff – Young Blood Blues, Ladytron – Velocifero and the Glee Soundtracks.
The Eris is by far the most affordable phone of its capability and the multitouch screen is soopa sweet. While the touchscreen keyboard takes some getting used to, the fact that it “learns” is awesome.
And no, I do NOT mean the Winter Olympics.
Got a notice from Verizon last week that I was due for a phone upgrade. I LOVE my LG ENV2. Love it. This is the phone that, not even two weeks ago, survived three hours in the freezing slush of the work parking lot and possibly being run over by a coworker. LOVE that phone. So I wasn’t really inclined to change when I had a perfectly acceptable and functional phone, right up until a friend mentioned that she kept her really good phone as a backup and upgraded to a new gadgetier phone. That planted the seed. Then I made the trip to the local Verizon dealer to scope out the offerings. The only thing really catching my eye was Droid.
The store didn’t have either droid model in stock (Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris) so I went home and checked out gizmodo and cnet and the usual suspects about the two models. I know people love the iPhone and, no lie, it’s a sweet device, but AT&T provides absolute shit service up here – so much that the tourists CONSTANTLY bitch about it. Not only that but it’s not exactly CHEAP.
I got to mess with the display models at the store and while the Droid has some really nice bennies, the slide out keyboard frankly feels cheap. Like plasticky might-break-if-you-drop-the-phone cheap. The Eris doesn’t have the same battery life but it comes with an 8 gig micro card and is upgradeable. It’s also got Google with voice search and sweet market apps and frankly, the keyboard didn’t mean that much to me – especially because it felt like a crap feature. So. Droid Eris.
Dudes, I LOVE THIS PHONE. I spent a ridiculous amount of time finding and discarding apps, customizing the look, and setting up all my contacts with Google so that I can access my rss feed, my twitter account, my gmail, and pretty much everything I love on this phone. I’ve got Pandora, a great calendar (which is shareable) and this AMAZING app called Ringdroid. Ringdroid lets you take any audio file and customize a ringtone from it. It is THE BALLS. I now have a ringtone that says “I swear to god I’m going to PISTOLWHIP the next asshole who says SHENANIGANS!”
LOVE.
So pretty much all my free time has been sucked up with searching for neat shit on my phone and tweaking my apps. It’s sad. I know.
I’m also a good chunk of the way through Middlemarch, thanks to audible.com. I bought the audiobook because I couldn’t bear reading it and it’s turned out to be surprisingly good. I’m leaning toward the test of a good book being it’s ability to show interesting parallels between its time and now ( whenever “its time and now” happen to be). Also (unsurprisingly) it’s full of great social commentary. So there you are. Go classics!
Last night we had a homemade mini-pizza party with post-apocalyptic virus film chaser. It was kind of fantastic.
In TV news:
Mercy knocked it out of THE PARK this week. I’m always surprised by how much I enjoy this show and that they’re willing to be (sometimes) shockingly honest while at the same time (sometimes) screamingly funny. I laugh out loud during every episode and I also see something that makes me think. I love that. One of our friends who was a career nurse ALSO has great things to say about it and that seems to be a rare thing in med-drama circles.
I’ve been working early shifts which generally means going to bed early, but our DVR was otherwise occupied on Thursday and wouldn’t record The Mentalist. I wanted to go to sleep but it was all Cho, all the time and I just couldn’t pass it up. The writers do such a great job on that show – I knew whodunnit as soon as the culprit was introduced but I DIDN’T CARE because they did such awesome character stuff.
Chuck continues to be awesome. Kristin Kreuk is 1000% less annoying than when she was on Smallville and I’m digging the new team dynamic. Having Superman aboard isn’t hurting things one bit.
Castle is consistent and engaging. I found out during the Superbowl that it’s a local-friend fave as well.
I haven’t caught up on all my Thursday and Friday shows yet.
Work is good! It looks like I’ll continue on mornings/days full time. I’ve been enjoying my tasks and team work so I’ve got zero complaints. Life in general is pretty kick ass.
Apple iPad – TERRIBLE name and a surprisingly disappointing device. It’ll prompt Amazon to send out more Kindle updates though, so I’m not complaining.
State of the Union. Yeah, I played WET on my Xbox instead of watching. Frankly, I think the whole point of the internet is to keep me from having to watch the news. I’m largely disappointed that everyone in Washington is too busy trying to keep their jobs to actually DO their jobs. I’m tired of them bitching about something being wrong when THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WITH THE POWER TO CHANGE IT. That’s not to say that’s what I think Obama was doing but I couldn’t stand to watch all the bi-partisan asshattery.
As an aside, every time I see John Boehner I think “John Boner” and then wonder how someone named “Boner” got elected in Ohio. And then I go OH YEAH.
Listening to MoZella’s album and I LOVE IT. It’s like a cross between Feist and Maroon 5. Also the Glee soundtracks and am continuously creeped out by She’s Having My Baby – to the point where I may need to delete it from my entire collection. P.S. How did we get THAT but not Single Ladies?
Whip It came out in DVD. I was VERY EXCITED. I watched it three times. It will get its own entire post.
Indulged a little today by getting a manicure. I’ve been working with cardboard pretty much nonstop for the last month and have an event Monday and Tuesday. The back room project is over at work (at least this stage) and my hands can (hopefully) return to normal. At the very least, the mani will make me presentable for the event and then I can hopefully maintain.
Sometimes when my husband is looking for something and can’t find it, I want to hit him with a hammer.
Dead writers. I can’t be arsed to care, really.
Haiti. Well, the only time we care about poor countries are when there are natural disasters, not things like DICTATORS AND GENOCIDE. SIGH.
Booked my flight for the Seattle trip. Next up- hotel rooms.
We’re watching Public Enemies right now. I’m currently unimpressed. I did watch I’ve Loved You So Long on Netflix and I thought it was fantastic. The Edge of Love was passable but not great.
Listening to Middlemarch on my afternoon commute. The audiobook is DEFINITELY better than reading the damn thing myself – especially since it’s a practical use of the drive time. Eliot is droll but somewhat heavyhanded in the use of narrator commentary. I am reminded (as with East of Eden) that some topics are just as relevant now as they were in other centuries.
I still love work. I’m enjoying it immensely and have fun with my coworkers. Hard to beat that!
Yeah, yeah, everyone else is watching the Haiti telethon. I’m finishing a BluRay double feature that included Inglourious Basterds and District 9.
Dear Peter Jackson,
I’m sure that combining Kafka, mid-east war policy criticism, robot tech and Bad Boys sounded like a good idea. Hell, when I put it like that, it sounds like a good idea to ME- but REALLY. Couldn’t you have made it SUCK LESS? Because I swear to Brutus that this fucking movie wasted a full hour of my life before your plot even started to happen and then when it happened it was so predictable that it hurt. Seriously. Chock full of suck. I feel like you should pay me for the time I wasted on this movie.
No love,
Me
Dear Quentin Tarantino,
I’m super glad that you’re in love with yourself because you need all the self-esteem you can get after Inglourious Basterds. It was like Moulin Rouge meets The Dirty Dozen but less funny and less good. The best part of the film was Shosanna and she was seriously in all of about 15 minutes of the damn thing. When even MY HUSBAND doesn’t give a shit about your characters an hour in, you’re doing something wrong. Like taking yourself too seriously. Please to be back at the drawingboard and huffing less of your I’m-a-Misunderstood-Genius-Juice. Come back with something more like From Dusk til Dawn and then show it for free to make it up to all of us assholes who rented this crap.
No love,
Me
I honestly never thought anything would make me WANT to watch that Haiti telethon but these films really make me wish I’d watched that instead. Feh.
