Dang those weights were heavy!

After taking three days off from working out- which, along with a birthday party featuring awesome food and cake made me feel pretty pudgy today, it was time to start Phase II, weightlifting. Holy Moly that was a hard workout. I did ten minutes on the rowing machine to warm up my upper body and then there were only six exercises on the workout I got from Bodybuilders.com. So, I thought it would be easy. Well, six exercises involving 4 sets of each is a lot. The workout started with compound exercises, bench press and bent-over rows. I started with a warm-up set using just the barbell; it weighs 45 lbs. Then progressed 5 pounds each set by set up to 75 pounds. The rows are supposed to be barbell rows but I wasn't sure where to do them so I used dumbbells instead, starting with 15 pounds and going up to 25- but not able to complete 8 reps. By the time I got to the last two exercises on the list- tricep presses and bicep curls I was weak- but I did as many as I could and worked to failure. 'Failure' is good in strength terms, you have to go there to gain any. Once home I could barely lift my arms to wash my hair in the shower. Plan for tomorrow- Spin in the am, then lift for lower body.

Dressing with just six items- are they kidding me??

Yahoo's homepage has a link to their Shine pages which discuss women paring down their closets to six items and wearing them for a month. First of all, it is July, which means it's hot everywhere and heat equals sweating. So, here you are with your black dress (July! hot!) white button-down shirt, skinny jeans, white tee-style shirt, black trousers, and, fitted blazer (we'll give them the blazer for overly air-conditioned offices). Monday you go to work in the white tee, blazer and black trousers, Tuesday you wear the black dress. Wednesday it isn't Friday yet so you have to wear the pants again, so you wear the white tee with the trousers. Thursday you wear the dress that you had to make sure to wash and dry again, you also had to wash both shirts so you could pick one to pair with the jeans on Friday. On the weekend you remain nude cuz you are already tired of everything in your closet! Ahh, Internet advice, always to be taken with a lot of salt and your own common-sense.

Fitness, anyone?

Here is a little secret about me. I don't like Summer. Yes I realize that makes me practically inhuman but cool weather and wind make me feel alive in every cell. Hot humid days do the opposite. That said, it's deep in the summer now and I needed a project. When the shorts I pulled out of the bedroom drawer were a good three inches from meeting at the waist the project was clear. It is time to get in shape. I get the magazines and pay attention to the latest fitness news, for example, the recent news that middle-aged women need to exercise for an hour a day to prevent obesity. Simple enough right?

Nope, browse through some more fitness websites and they say that much steady exercise will just leave you at a minimal level of fitness and bursts of high-intensity cardio and strength-training make a person fit. One thing most agreed on is that one cannot effectively burn fat and build muscle at the same time. Exactly what I want to do. Bummer!

Here is the program. Two weeks focusing on cardio, sometimes two sessions a day including high-intensity interval training and bodyweight exercises in order to blast as much fat during the exercise sessions as possible. Also, some research indicates that high-intensity interval training causes the body to continue burning fat after the workout. Probably while you are sitting quietly after the shower trying to get back to feelin normal in my experience. Then two weeks focusing on strength-training and including at least three cardio sessions weekly in order to build more muscle to boost the metabolism and stay as vital as possible. I plan to be one of those active old people.

It is the end of the first two cardio weeks and I am so glad! Who would have thought I would be itching to pick up something heavy and actually a little over the Spin room? Now I just have to decide when to start lifting, over the weekend or wait until Monday. Also- the shorts button, not totally comfortably yet but three pounds later gives me hope. After cycling through twice, two months, it will be time to re-evaluate and possibly tweak the program. Now, what is your Summer project?

shoes shoes shoes

As the cliche goes, I love shoes. Sexy high heels, cute little sandals and don't even get me started on boots. There is a glitch in the system however. The shoes I need, shoes to work out in, are exactly the kind of shoes that I am unenthused about buying. My lack of enthusiasm is only matched by my actual need for gym shoes that provide good support for the varied activities done. So, my search for good cross-trainers continues, if anyone has a suggestion for long-lasting cross-trainers that work for a person who over-pronates, hit me up!

Keep the cool air in!

Heat waves are beating the East Coast, and here in Florida we know a thing or two about staying cool in relentless heat. Common advice is to stay hydrated, and it really is easier when you have a Brita pitcher and filter for tap water. It's easy to fill, takes up little room in the fridge and you can monitor how much water you have had simply by looking at it. That is why, I finally washed the one that has been hanging around the kitchen for months and filled it up. What was I waiting for all that time?

Another help is the black-out curtains. The ones I chose are from Bed Bath and Beyond with the help of the 20% off coupons that they send everyone and these curtains have made a noticeable difference in the room that was the hottest one during the day. The southwest facing room was a boiler, and now that the curtains are up it's comfortable and cool. I haven't seen a difference in the electric bill which I attribute to the hotter temperatures outside forcing the air conditioner to work harder, curtains or not, and the local electric company raised rates last year so it is hard to compare. Being able to sit here typing in comfort is enough for me!

So what do I like? Here you go.

Yes, usually this blog gives my opinion of services and items purchased that did not live up to expectations. Today, a positive spin is the way to go and I am going to share something that made my life easier. Number one is my Macbook. I went for the cheapest one in the Apple store back in May 2007 and this little guy is still humming right along.  I have tons of images on it, as well as short video clips the included software helped me create and you can bet the next big laptop purchase I make will be another Macbook.  Some of the included software was beyond my capabilities or patience to learn, such as Garageband, so I deleted it and haven't missed it yet. It does get hot, so not great to have directly on the lap; other than that it is the most satisfying, dependable computer I have owned.

Aha! Blogger just wants me to do it twice.

 For quite a while I was unable to get into dashboard to blog. I would go to the sign-in page, type my e-mail and password, and get the page that says 'wrong email/password combination. So I assumed I was doing something wrong and went on to do other things. Well, I took the time to look for my written-down information, and what I was typing in matched, so this time, when it told me I had the wrong combination as it did yet again, I simply did not take 'no' for an answer and retyped it.
Voila! I am in and for some reason craving chocolate like you cannot believe. There is a big chocolate cake in the refridgerator (hmm, how does one spell that?) but it has soy in it, much like every other freaking yummy thing in the world, so I'm avoiding it.  I am making this post in honor of the cat in my life- he's fine, don't worry! Here he is being very catlike, paying more attention to whatever is outside, a lizard, birds or squirrel instead of moi. Can you imagine?

B & B Major Appliance Service Inc and my poor experience with them.

The dryer stopped tumbling so we called a service company, B and B Major Appliance Service Inc in St. Petersburg. While the service man and co-owner of the company Ervin Brown were in the garage I looked up the problem online as well as the cost of the parts that were potentially needed. The belt was the most likely problem and wholesaled for $8 or so. Ervin Brown from B and B Appliance came into the house waving a long black belt and said he would see if he had one in the van. Well, he drove away immediately and returned an hour later, with the 'special' part, then cheerily gave me the price of $108 before taxes to replace the belt and reset the idler pulley, which took him 15 minutes to do. In the process, he also pulled a huge clump of lint form the vent behind the machine and left it in the middle of the garage floor. So, including driving time, he made $100 in half an hour and left a mess behind.

Help for frizzy hair.

As one who posesses long curly dry hair that frizzes at the mention of humidity, conditioner is important to me. I follow all the rules, not washing it every day, combing with a wide tooth comb rather then brushing and keeping heat styling to a minimum. I have found a conditioner that I like, the problem is that it can be hard to find. Recently, after running out of it and going to three stores to purchase a replacement, Rite-Aid, Tops and I forgot the other one, I decided to give another brand a try.

I chose Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Instant Melting Conditioner for frizzy, dry, unmanageable hair. Well jeez with a name like that how can it go wrong? It doesn't work, at least not the way I want it to. My hair doesn't slide through my fingers while I rinse it out in the shower, and looks parched and in need of more products to smooth the curls' puffiness after its dry. Which one do I like? Clairol Nice and Easy color seal weekly conditioning gloss. It's the conditioner that comes with the hair color kit and it give my hair the softness and shine that makes me happy. What do you like or dislike? Edited to add, thank-you Wegmans for carrying my Holy Grail conditioner!

effing soy allergy!

This post is a rant, be forewarned. I am allergic to soy. Soybeans, soybean oil, you name it if it is derived from soy and I ingest it soon my lips become swollen and huge, days later they are stiff and the outer layer of skin starts painfully cracking leaving me with open wounds for a mouth. This continues for a week of misery. For a while it seemed like doing a couple of shots of apple cider vinegar was controlling it but it suddenly reared up again, maybe I wasn't vigilant enough about taking the vinegar. One needs their mouth you know? This makes me feel shitty and cranky.

The Living Well Health Master aka the Montel blender

My aunt bought this the other day and asked me to give it a whirl as I cook more often then she does. It's pretty intimidating right out of the box, huge and digital so I looked it up online and found the main site which has instructional videos. A dvd and booklet came with the blender but I didn't know where they had been placed by my aunt so this was a quick way for me to see how to use it. Once I saw that the blender and lid both had to be locked in place, and that turning it on requires two buttons instead of the normal one, I was ready to go.

Now, this isn't one of those Consumer Report reviews where they check all the features and make the recipes included. I have a couple of foods I make with a blender, and created one of those. I'm about as veggie-oriented as the rest of America, I like them but sometimes preparing veggies seems like too much work so years ago I created a green soup. I use a tomato and whatever leafy greens are in the fridge, a shot of hot sauce and some water, blend the whole mess together and heat it up with some chopped up cheese.

This blender uses centrifugal force to heat the liquid inside, which basically means you blend the hell out of it and it pours out steaming. Well, I just couldn't do it. Being from the generation where hot foods in the blender equals a broken seal, when the greens and tomato looked emulsified I poured it into a bowl, topped it with the cheese and microwaved the soup the way I normally would. It worked well as a blender, and as I am fearful of using it to heat the food (the instructional video said it takes 8 minutes on high, level 8) I'm not sure this fancy of a blender is one I would purchase. That said, it was easy to use and seems sturdy and safe.

The runaway wife

As usual I wake up to the Today Show. I love to hate that show. Sometimes it focuses on the most "huh?" people, Kim Kardashian and Hulk Hogan come to mind. It is usually a mix of dark and light sufficient to keep me somewhat occupied without having to think too hard in the morning, which is probably their goal.

Today they took a break from the disasters hitting America to interview the husband of the latest "Runaway Mom". Now, I haven't had a child, but I have nieces and nephews and the idea of a mom abandoning their baby is sickening to me. If, however, one is a person who can do that, seems to me she shouldn't get that baby back when she changes her mind. Dual custody, maybe. Even that is risky when the person already took off to another state without telling a soul.

The interview was obviously slanted the same way (this I find insulting, let us decide for ourselves but that is another subject) with the repeated shot of the frumpy overweight wife and her disreputable-looking, in need of a haircut boyfriend entering a cheap car. When an interview is obviously biased like that I want to root for the underdog, but in this situation even I cannot. If you want to leave, tell the person you are with. This major search for clues that you are still alive thing is all kinds of unethical.

Update on the Cat Emery Board

My cat doesn't like it, he prefers the regular scratchy board so much it has a deeply scratched dip in it. He either isn't using it at all, or he is using it when I am not home and it hasn't made any difference in the sharpness of his claws. Ah well it was worth a shot.

Yesterday a friend and I went to downtown Buffalo and had lunch at Gabriel's Gate, a popular place on Allen St. It was one of the few places I had been to in the area that offered a steak salad, so I ordered it but was disappointed that my 'mixed greens' were only Romaine. It was an okay salad, not something I would order again if at the same place. The bartender was friendly and entertaining and the decor is certainly unusual as you will see in the clip I am providing so all in all it was a nice lunch.

The power of complaining (politely)

Recently someone gave me a generous Amazon gift certificate and I have been ordering items here and there. Unlike my experiences with Ebay, on Amazon the merchants appear to actually care about the customer's experience. One of the items I ordered was a DVD of The Secret. I have and enjoy the book and sometimes it's nice to have positive reinforcement going on in the background, so the DVD playing would be good for that. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the DVD and it wouldn't play past the half-way point. Just as the site recommends; I contacted the seller about the issue before leaving feedback. They apologized and removed the charge right away! Of course, I left good feedback after that. So keep in mind, happy customers are your best advertising.

Goodness me cell phone follies

So I forgot my already missing the back to it phone was in my sweatshirt pocket today and it went crashing to the floor, rendering it inoperable. Damn. Luckily, I had a spare, a cell kindly provided by a friend which had a battery that both fit my phone and made it come back to life. Now I'm just waiting forever it seems for the phone cover I ordered to get here so I don't have to worry about my phone coming to pieces in my hands (or out of my pockets).

In other news, I'm making brownies :-)

Content is king

You hear this phrase all the time when researching search engine optimization. Creating content is key so go with your strengths. I have an account that is very visual in nature, so for that account the content is visual too. I concentrate on creating fresh images, publicize the fact that new images exist and roll out the images in a balanced manner. They entire days work isn't immediately published, this account has an established customer base so I give the current customers the opportunity to buy a slide-show of the best of the day's images while keeping the majority of them off the Web. I chose two or three to use to freshen up different ads. The creation of new visual content then leads to written content as I blog about the new pics and where to get the slide-show.

While I had the model there and ready to go, I also made a Youtube clip to upload to the account's channel. This is called making the most of the client's money and time and creating as much content as possible, now not only does the account have new images to sell and use for promotion, they have a behind-the-scenes type of video clip to promote via Youtube which also links back to their main website. Don't disregard the importance of search for images and videos, it is relatively new as far as companies taking advantage of it for SEO and therefore easier to get to the top of the list.

I bought the Cat Emery board today.

Clipping my cats claws is no picnic so when I read online that these are available in stores I decided to go for it. If you don't know what they are, it is a curved board your cat scratches and is supposed to file down their claws. Great idea, right? Well the jury is still out on whether or not they will use it enough for the intended purpose but I can advise you on one thing. The directions tell you to put the entire bag of catnip, which is included, all over the board to attract the cats to it. Only do this if you know how your cats react to catnip. I put about half of the bag on the board, the whole thing just seemed excessive to me, and my cats went NUTS, fighting with each other and rolling around as if posessed. So, it was an oddly entertaining morning here. I will post again when enough time has gone by to accurately review the item. Also, it was $19.88 at the local Walmart.

Holy lack of privacy Batman!

A colleague tipped me off to a very disturbing website. Type in a name at Spokeo dot com and get WAY too much information. Now, it is hit or miss, alot of info is flat out wrong and somewhat laughable, but still more then should be so easily accessible. To remove yourself from the directory click the 'privacy' link at the bottom of the page, insert the url of your profile and your main email address, complete a 'capatcha' type thing (this seems to have a glitch and keeps refreshing even when you do it correctly), and go to your email to click to 'remove me please' link. Good luck and more privacy to all!

Windy, rainy Friday

Sometimes circumstances challenge even the most positive thinkers to have an off day. This past week was a roller-coaster, awesome economically and challenging on the personal relationship front. As today has been quiet I am reflecting on how to make the best of challenging times. The plan here is to first, take care of myself physically. I developed this through trial and error, one can only booze and overeat it up as a response to stress for so long before you start to feel even more like crap! So rest when you are tired, get regular exercise, some of it outside and eat your veggies so that slip-ups aren't such a big deal.

Update on the Craigslist issue: as long as the ad is worded differently you can contribute an ad daily. No problem! By the way, that cute purse is still available, it is in pristine condition. Any Buffalo-area purse lovers out there, this is the deal for you!

Cute comic

I know just how he feels ;-)