Today I'm Reading

Today I've started reading Cleaning, Plain & Simple by Donna Smallin. This is definitely reading-to-learn and more domesticated than I'd like to admit, but I can no longer stand the filth and I simply must learn how to clean our home.

I can arrange, organize and decorate like no one you've ever seen, but I haven't a clue how to actually clean or what materials work best. (Other than vacuuming, I really love that for some odd reason).

So I'm on Page 6 of this book that my friend recommended to me, and I've already learned something. Yippee! Turns out I'm "The Speed Cleaner":

• "You enjoy a clean home, but its not one of your top priorities.
• Cleaning frequently gets postponed for one reason or another.
• When you have free time, you don't want to spend it cleaning toilets.
• You seek quick and easy solutions to your cleaning challenges.
• You may have a tendency to purchase the latest and greatest cleaning products and tools.
• You may have a whole cupboard or closet full of products you've tried that may or may not have lived up to their promises.
• If you could afford it, you would hire a professional cleaning service. If you have a cleaning service, you wish you could afford to have them come more often.

Plain and simple advice: If you want to spend less time cleaning overall, clean more often. Start with a thorough cleaning, and then get into the habit of doing a little cleaning each day. Keep cleaning supplies handy to where you use them or put them in a bucket or caddy that makes it easy to tote them to the job...Give away or discard cleaning supplies that did not work as well as you had expected or that you dislike for any other reason."

I have a feeling I'd better buy my own copy of this book and break out the highlighters and colored sticky tabs!

A Gift To Myself

For my birthday I like to reward myself with a gift. Typically its a girly ALL-ME treat like a facial, mani/pedi, or massage. This year it was an amazing 90 minute massage from my friend Angee who I can no longer live without (I book her every month now!).

As a special gift, I have purchased myself something for Christmas this year. Mind you, I have been waiting and planning this gift for 2 years, so I feel I was definitely patient. I bought my first pair of snowboard boots! Along with all the helpful tips and info from the chatty guy at Sport Chalet in La Jolla, they're adorable to boot (no pun intended there). They fit really well, white and silver, and they're called "Donna" which I think is so cute because it reminds me of the bad-ass chick group, The Donnas and one of their songs, Girl Talk.

Has anyone else bought themselves a present this year?

October 17, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: TWO Weeks Left

I found my thigh high boots and I made my black tulle bustle. I'm so excited because both are uber cute and I'm happy to say my costume is FINISHED!!

 Photo by ChuChulainn - my new thigh high boots from Guess

And, as an early birthday present to myself, I met my goal weight. I'm beyond excited right now for next weekend. Let the Birthday Celebrations begin!!!

Photo from Google images

October 11, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Weeks 7 through 9

So I'm a little behind on posting my progress from the last few weeks.  If I had kept up with it, here's what I would have posted.


Week 7 Progress (September 12 - September 18):
Only one more week until our Nags Head, VA vacation! I ran 3 miles this week and then laid on the couch for 4 days after having 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled. It was awful and wonderful at the same time.

Week 8 Progress (September 19 - September 25):
Sunday I was still on the couch; Monday I flew to Oakland to work up there for the day; Tuesday and Wednesday I was absolutely exhausted and started to get a cold; Thursday I did jack shit; Friday I finally forced myself to pack an hour before we left for the airport; Saturday we were in Nags Head, NC on vacation.

Week 9 Progress (September 26 - October 2):
After 3 or 4 nights of cold medicine not working and getting not much sleep, I finally realized it wasn't a cold but severe allergies. So I started taking benedryl every two hours around the clock. Which meant no alcohol for me, which I was okay with. Once I started feeling better it started raining so hard we couldn't go outside. For days. Needless to say my running clothes went untouched the entire 5 days in NC and 3 days in VA visiting my loverface's family.

BUT guess what...I didn't gain an ounce on this vacation!

Photos by ChuChulainn

October 11, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: THREE Weeks Left

I'm keeping up with my food plan and log, and still running as much as possible. What I'm most excited about this week is that my costume is coming together! My corset was delivered and I love it. I've tried it on a couple times and it's going to work out famously. I also purchased my black fishnets and my black opera length gloves. My blue hair and blue eyelashes were also purchased, so now I just need to find me some thigh length boots. 

I LOVE Halloween! 

 my new corset from eBay - electric blue & lavender

October 5, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: FOUR Weeks Left

Last year me and my girls jumped on the "Hot 4 Halloween" or "H4H" bandwagon to get super fit for our sexy Halloween costumes. It was so much fun working out together, changing up our happy hour routine, and keeping each other accountable for our own personal goals.  This year half my crew has moved away and the other half is going to a different Halloween party then myself, soooo I'm kinda on my own. Actually, I guess not so much on my own, but more with a whole new set of girls.

It's a little strange, but I'm still excited.  This week is officially Week 4 on the countdown to Halloween.  That means I've got 4 weeks to do whatever I need to my body to make sure I'm okay with millions of pictures being taken. Oh, have I mentioned my costume?? MOULIN ROUGE!!!!! If you haven't seen the movie, it's a MUST.  We're doing a group costume theme, so the girls will be in corsets and huge hair, a la the movie and the music video for Lady Marmalade.  The boys will be wearing tuxes, top hats, canes, and the like from the movie. Soooo much fun.

My new corset was delivered so I'll have to post pix on my costume progress as I have them. Anyone else getting Hot 4 Halloween?

 Photo from Google images

September 15, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5 Progress (August 29 - September 4):

I LOST ONE POUND!!! I've got 2 more lbs to go to my ultimate goal weight and I can't believe I've come this far. I'm so so so excited. I also ran a little over 5 and a half miles this week.

Week 6 Progress (September 5 - September 11):

So this week I unexpectedly had to travel for work. I flew from the west coast to the east coast for 4 days in the DC area. It was absolutely exhausting, but besides working my ass off and getting up at 3am my Cali time, I was able to have some fun while there. 

Tuesday night I was able to meet boyfriend's new nephew (only 6 weeks old!) who is absolutely adorable. I call him "Bean" because he's about that big. We had dinner in DC, not far from the White House I'm told, at a place called Birch and Barley.  It was great to catch up with boyfriend's brother and his wife; they're on our Top Besties list for sure, and we started planning our vacation to Turkey next year.

The Bean

On Wednesday the future-in-laws had dance class, so my co-worker and I had a drink at the rooftop bar in the W Hotel, DC. It has views of the White House, the Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial all from one spot, which was seriously amazing. The pix didn't come out well since I was staring into the sun, but maybe you get the idea. These very drunk but very polite older men bought us our drinks as we chatted about lobbying in DC and health care reform. Very sexy. So we hurried with our drinks and popped over to Georgetown for dinner. Of course, before dinner, we had dessert at Georgetown Cupcakes (which is apparently famous and has tv show or something? I'm so under a rock).

Thursday night after work the future-in-laws, the Bean, and my girlfriend who lives in Georgetown all met up for a drink at Lima. I loved that she had "a baby in a bar" and couldn't resist the Sweet Home Alabama line. Then we had dinner reservations at Georgia Brown's down the street from Lima (and my hotel) which was super yummy, except for the part where my crawdad thingy still had its eyeballs in. Yuck! After dinner they took the Bean home and us girls went to play in Georgetown. It was so fun meeting all her "DC friends" at the college bar and watching the Saints/Vikings game. Love, love, love those girls; we definitely became fast friends and I can't wait to go back.

Saturday was back home with my loverface and off to celebrate the 7th wedding anniversary of our friends with a huge party on the bay. I also took a moment to pray for the families who lost someone on September 11th; my heart definitely hurts for the friends and family affected by that terrible day.