September 6th, 2008 by Missy

So, Thursday Dan and I are sitting down at our computers, Alex is in the kitchen eating a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich.  Next thing we know he walks around the corner looking like this, and we both just started busting up laughing.  I love when you know someone so well that you just KNOW what they’re thinking, and we were both thinking “WTF Joker”.

Anyway, now for the promised Alex quote.  We’re outside and I’m working out on the Bowflex, Dan is treadclimbing away.  The kids are playing in the nearby sandbox, having a tea party on the concrete, picking flowers, running around like nuts, etc.  Anya comes up to have a chat with me while I’m working out and screams and says that a bug ran across my butt.  I didn’t feel or see anything, but I took a glance around, didn’t see anything.. and got back to working out.

The next thing I know, I look down and an ENORMOUS spider is ON MY LEG.  And when I say enormous, I’m not just being a girl, it was seriously enormous, even Dan admits it.  He estimates 4″ across, perhaps a little bigger.  A fuzzy, hairy, disgusting thing.  So I scream at the top of my lungs and jump up… the spider falls on the ground, Anya is trying to scale me to get away from it..

Alex just kind of stands there looking at it and Dan stomps on it to shut Anya and I up.  The two of us are practically hyperventilating while the boys are just standing there.  I asked Alex, “You weren’t scared of that spider?”

He gave me this look like I was a complete moron and said “No, I’m a man.”

November 26th, 2007 by Missy

.. which is what I spent most of today doing. And it sucks. A lot. Woke up this morning intending to hit the Bowflex but Dan left too much weight on it and I couldn’t get the plates off (afraid I’d bust a nail, yes I’m girly), so I just walked on my treadclimber, which was a good workout nonetheless. Anya also hit up the treadclimber at a whopping 1 mile an hour with resistance set to 0! She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, though, which is what matters.

Now that the house is all picked up and such, hoping to get some painting done tonight ^_^ Yesterday was spent working on another skink paint scheme. I haven’t finished the model, but it’s black-skinned with a rainbowish stripe running down each side. His scales are blue and his crest is still green. I’d post pics, but I’m considering tossing it in for the DakkaDakka painting competition, not that it has any chance of winning (no, I am not just being modest) and the rules forbid the model being posted anywhere prior to the competition. Once it’s finished I’ll probably decide that it sucks too bad to enter in the competition and then I’ll post it up here (or in my gallery, more likely). I’m honestly not sure how I’m liking it at this point. I think I like the rainbow skink better and I didn’t even really like him *that* much. Maybe with some modification to his hands.. hmm. But yeah, when I do eventually post the new black picture I’d love some input on which is better. And which will go better in my army. I’m feeling like the black skink is too dark to go with my current Saurus theme, and I’m actually quite fond of my Saurus theme so.. Although I did recently make a minor change to my Sauruses, which I haven’t posted yet. It’s nothing major, but I added a red undercoat to the scales so that they appear to have a little more depth.

So, anyone have any ideas / tips for painting black skin? That’s what I’m mostly not liking about the new skink at the moment.. the highlights (blue) just aren’t looking great to me, but I can’t figure out what to do to make it better x.x

November 15th, 2007 by Missy

I don’t really have anything to say, although I imagine that by the end of this blog I will have found 700 different tangents to go off on and it will end up quite long indeed. Basically, I am bored out of my mind right now. I haven’t been bored all day, of course, but I’m bored right now. Lets see — I swung by the bank to get the money for my treadclimber (which we picked up today, whee!!), went to my Grandma’s new place.. did a puzzle, watched “The Last Unicorn” and “Zoom” (very cute, by the way), had lunch… Lunch was Butternut Squash soup. Comes in a cardboard container (in the soup aisle, not refrigerated), made by a company called “Imagine”. It was ridiculously delicious, and I definitely suggest buying some if you see it. I sprinkled a little nutmeg and cinnamon in mine and added a dollop of natural goat cheese (comparable in consistency to warm cream cheese, but crumblier). Sooooooo good.

Dinner tonight was also delicious. We had mini-penne (we eat mini-penne a lot) tossed with steamed asparagus and chicken (the chicken wasn’t steamed, of course — just one of those precooked Foster Farms packages), and Walden Farms 0 calorie Alfredo sauce. The Alfredo doesn’t really taste like Alfredo, but with a little salt and a lot of pepper added it is actually quite good. On a side note, the Walden Farms marinara is quite tasty. The scampi, peanut butter, and jellies are all decent — the consistency is just a bit strange, but on a piece of toast (the peanut butter and jelly, duh) they aren’t bad at all. The BBQ sauce is really good and I would definitely definitely suggest trying it. My next order will also include an order for the apple butter, which I am definitely itching to try.

I think I also mentioned in my previous Walden Farms post that I ordered some 0 cal chocolate syrup as well. I used that (plus Splenda and fat free evaporated milk) to make some Irish Cream today. I made a regular batch as well (well, three regular batches, but they fit into one old Maker’s Mark bottle) with good’ol sugar, Hershey’s and standard evaporated milk, but I am most excited for the low-cal version to mature. 8oz of the regular version is close to 600 calories and 8oz of the low-cal version will be 185ish. Still hefty for a drink, but definitely much better and I have to have my Irish Cream for the holidays!

Oh, for anyone curious, here is the recipe! I’ll list changes to the recipe for the low-cal version in italics.

• 1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk / 1 1/2 cups fat free evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup Irish whiskey (I use Jameson) / 1/2 cup Irish whiskey
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar / 2/3 cup Splenda
• 2 Tbsp chocolate syrup / 2 Tbsp Walden Farm’s chocolate syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp instant coffee

Mix it all together, stick it in a bottle, shake really well and chill in the fridge for at least a week to let the flavors meld. Serve simply over ice, mix it with your coffee, or blend with vanilla ice cream for a tasty dessert!

On another side note, I think I might like to take a pottery class (wheel). I’ve always had a desire to do something creative, but I am terrible at drawing / painting, crocheting and knitting are both too… mindless… I am too shy / nervous to share my writings with anyone, and aside from that I never have any good story ideas. Pottery just seems very intriguing. I’m hoping to beg Dan into a class (or perhaps I’ll use whatever Christmas money I get to sign up for one). Dan said he might consider going with me to a pottery class. Not that he is particularly taken with the idea himself, but he said he would like to go with to watch me be happy. Apparently I am cute when I get what I want ^_^

Anyway, this is starting to get pretty long. I did say that would happen, didn’t I? So, I sign off for now.

And Disney soooooon! Jamie comes tomorrow, then Disney when we wake up!!!

November 14th, 2007 by Missy

I know I say this like.. every day (at least out loud, I’m not certain offhand how many times I’ve said it in my blog), but my husband is the most adorable, sweetest, bestest husband ever! Yes, I know bestest isn’t a word, but it fit anyhow. As to what prompts my husband worship for the day, Dan is going to buy me a Bowflex Treadclimber too!! I always loved using the treadclimber at the gym, even if it was hard to find an empty one… They only had four and you’d have to like, sit around waiting for one to open up, and then fight with the other ten people waiting for it.

Basically, it’s a combination stepper and treadmill. It feels most similar to an elliptical, but because your feet aren’t stuck on those teeny little elliptical stepper pad things, you have a much freer range of motion and it feels better on your knees. The best part (to me anyway) is that you set the speed like on a treadmill, so you have to keep up. On a manual treadmill or an elliptical I tend to start off at a decent pace and then just slowly piddle down to barely walking. I am inherently lazy. I greatly benefit from having an enforced speed! Anyway, whenever I’ve used the treadclimber at the gym it’s like.. 20 minutes, your legs are tired, you’re dripping sweat, etc…

I know I’ve mentioned it before (probably countless times), but I hate hate hate running. Basically, all of my cardio since we stopped going to the gym has been — walking with Dan. Which is not really cardio. I might attempt a jog or two during the day (since the only thing I hate more than running is running with someone who runs faster / longer / better in every measurable way than me), but I really can’t with the kids. I thought about getting a treadmill since they’re cheap and like.. standard.. but then we come back to the point of — I HATE RUNNING. So then I got to thinking, I hate running, but I don’t hate using the treadclimber, and honestly, given how slowly and pathetically I run, 30 minutes on the treadclimber burns as many calories for me as 30 minutes on the treadmill. Obviously, for someone like Dan a treadclimber wouldn’t be a great investment, but for me..

So anyway, I’ve been looking for a couple of weeks now (since right about when we got the Bowflex) for a treadclimber, but they’re all so freaking expensive! I haven’t seen any for like.. under $1250 and I couldn’t justify spending that much after we’d just bought the Revolution, especially since I could always just suck it up and get a cheap treadmill -.- But anyway, I found one for $500! And, of course, my darling sexy sweet wonderful man said I could get it! So we’re going to pick it up tomorrow ^_^ I probably won’t really get a chance to use it right away since we’ll have to set it up which I’m sure will take a while.. and then Friday Jamie flies into town, and Saturday (like 4am) we leave for Disney (a girly trip — Anya, Pumpkin, Jamie, Katie, me). I’m sure Dan will have it up and running by the time I get back though, and my intention is to use it every night when Dan gets home from work and is doing his weight routine, and I’ll just continue doing my normal weight routine in the mornings. Hopefully this will break the weight plateau I’ve been stuck at for the past.. I dunno.. it feels like forever. For reference, I’m at 132 right now. My goal is really like.. I dunno. If I’m actually at 27% body fat then I need to lose around 10% to get visible ab definition, which is my goal, meaning I need to drop 13 pounds. To me, it really seems unreasonable that I would need to weigh 119lbs. Doesn’t that seem too low? But I suppose I’ll also be putting on muscle weight in the meantime so I won’t end up at 119 when I get ab definition. Oh well. Here’s to hoping the treadclimber kicks things into gear for me.

Oh yes, I will obviously post a Disney summary and pics when we get back!

October 25th, 2007 by Missy

Well, back to the diet board, today. Dinner tonight will be grilled chicken, peas, and brown rice. Unfortunately, trying to eat super-low calorie can often get.. boring. Which had me bemoaning the fact that I can’t put BBQ sauce on my chicken. I could, of course, but it seems like such a waste of calories just to add a little bit of flavor. Then I remembered about Walden Farms.. I had purchased their products once a while ago and really liked some of it (the chocolate and pancake syrup particularly, not so much the salad dressings, although Ranch was pretty decent), so I figured I’d order up some more today. For those who don’t know what Walden Farms is (probably everyone, I don’t think very many grocery stores carry their stuff, but you can always order it online), they make 0 calorie, 0 sugar, 0 carbs, basically 0 everything dressings, dips, spreads, sauces, etc. So anyway, I ordered up some strawberry and raspberry jam, some peanut butter, a coupla of different pasta sauces, some BBQ sauce.. can’t wait until it gets here, to try it out. I’ll have to make a post when it arrives (as I eat it) to let you know how it tastes. Obviously, it’s not like eating the real thing but neither is margarine, diet soda, wheat pasta, or any other number of healthy or otherwise “diet” foods. I suppose I subscribe to something my mother once said in that “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. I’m sure not everyone agrees, but I’d rather have abs than BBQ sauce. Not that I have abs. Well, I do have abs, everyone with a torso has abs (at least I’m pretty sure :p), but they definitely aren’t visible yet. I think I heard somewhere (probably from Katie) that most women need around 17% body fat to start seeing ab muscles. I still have a loooong way to go if that is the case. I’m hoping my scale lies when it says that my body fat percentage is 27% — which would put me in the “above average” category (as in the bad above average, as in having more fat than average). I don’t feel above average, but =/

I guess I really need to start mixing more cardio into my workout. I went for a walk / jog today (I’ll be fair and admit that it was mostly walk and a lot less jog), but I don’t really get out and do much cardio at all. When we were going to the gym, I spent most of my time on the treadmill and a lot less time on the weight machines.. I guess things have kind of flip-flopped now. The Bowflex is so easy to use that I just always want to hop on it and get to lifting, but I haaaaate running outside. It’s always so hot and sunny (I don’t wake up early enough to run in the am, nor do I want to) and I feel like every person in every car that drives past is just STARING AT ME WONDERING WHY I RUN SO SLOW or something like that. Or, if I’m with Dan, I feel like he’ll just be puttering along beside me, grumbling to himself about how slow I am, and how much I’m cutting in on his workout. I guess I need to get over it and run more. Or buy a treadmill. Not that I think Dan will go for that anytime soon after we just bought the Bowflex.

Link of the day: Walden Farms

October 23rd, 2007 by Missy

I swear, men always have it easier. Dan and I are sitting down talking today while he’s doing his workout, and he’s saying how he wants to go on the 6-week diet plan in the Bowflex book, since he’s not sure that just working out is going to drop his (practically non-existent) gut. Then we get to talking about what he eats in a day, and he’s estimating that he doesn’t even take in 2000 calories. This sounds strange to me, since I know he eats a foot long sub from Subway for lunch every day, as well as a bag of chips with a 44 oz (not diet) soda. Apparently my darling husband has not been watching his calories for long, because any consummate dieter would immediately recognize that as like a full day’s worth of food. But, of course, I have to get on the internet to prove to my sweetheart that a foot long meatball sub does not contain somewhere in the range of 500 calories. His soda contains more calories than he thinks his meal does :p I guessed it at 1100, he thought I was crazy. You will soon discover, however, that I am always right. That puppy is sitting at 1120 calories. Plus 230 for chips. Plus 550 for soda. I wish that I could eat a 1900 calorie lunch every day without packing on the pounds.

In any case, the decision now is for him to get a 6″ sub (I have no idea what kind, but any 6″ will be an improvement), drop the chips and start bringing a microwave soup from home, and bring diet soda from home (since he doesn’t like diet Coke and that is all that they have at Subway). So yes, it’s patently unfair that hubby can easily drop like 1300 calories from lunch. Lunch. Without too much effort. Yet I can’t really think of a single way in which I can cut calories. Aside from like.. not eating.

For me, breakfast consists of like.. 130 calories of oatmeal. Lunch is 170-220 calories of soup. Dinner is generally a small portion of baked / grilled chicken or fish with a heaping serving of vegetables and some brown rice or a baked potato with 0 calorie spray butter and garlic. I usually don’t snack, but if I do it’s like.. a 100 calorie pack of Oreos, or around the same calorie amount of popcorn. I really can’t see how I’m eating more than 1500 calories a day, if that. I know back when I bothered to track it, I had to keep adding stuff in to make sure I got over 1200, for safety’s sake. I guess I’m just baffled. I will drop into the 120s god dammit >.< I think food just hates me, and loves Dan. Ah well.

Link of the day: Bowflex Insider

October 22nd, 2007 by Missy

Whee, had my first real workout on the Bowflex this morning. Dan and I messed around with it last night, but I really just did one set of everything to figure out how to move the arms and cables and such. Dan did a full workout last night (and one after work today). Anyway, I really liked it. I found the machine to be really smooth, and it isn’t hard to set up and change between exercises. I guess it kind of seems confusing at first because there are so many cables and accessories, but it’s actually quite intuitive once you’ve done a few moves and everything “clicks into place” with how it works. I’m sure it wasn’t confusing for Dan, but for measly mechanically challenged people like me :p

Right now I’m bugging Dan to make me a website to keep track of our weight loss efforts. I’m hoping for it to have like.. our measurements by week with a pic of us underneath. And then, of course, you’ll be able to compare week per week like say you wanted to see your measurements week 1 v. week 3, and it would pull it up side by side. And a little thingee to compare pictures week by week. It all sounds so.. unsophisticated when I type it out like that, but I can’t really think of a better way to describe it. Anyway, I’m off for the night, I think, to try to explain to Dan wth I’m talking about with this website x.x

October 20th, 2007 by Missy

And Anya’s.. since she “wants to work out her butt”. The things children pick up on. Anyway, as you can see, my sexy man bought me my Bowflex today! It took about forever to set it up. It has like.. a pulley system inside and it got all off track from bouncing around in the back of the Excursion and being hauled around like so much baggage. It’s all set up and working now, and I can’t freaking wait to get on it and exercise tomorrow! By the time we got it all set up, my dad had just finished BBQing up some ribs so we sat down to eat, and then it was time to pick my grandma up at the airport today. Whee! My Grandma Joan moved here tonight! It surely means less EQ2 during the day for me, but I am happy nonetheless. Oh, and yes, I do realize that the quality of the picture is awful. My camera sucks and it’s dark out.

October 19th, 2007 by Missy

Alas, this was supposed to be longer but Dan finished buying his crap in EVE sooner than I expected. More to come after we finish Unrest tonight. But first, check out my sexy man in his Halloween costume. It isn’t quite complete yet, just need boots and pants. And some hair changes ^_^;

—> Here’s the more to come. Got Kaorin’s EoF class hat as well as a Cruel Innovator’s Ring (poor Ven camped that thing foreeeeeever and Kaorin got it on her first run). All in all, things went well. Syslik didn’t die once and Kaorin managed to do most of the healing. Agro was pretty solid, fun was had, etc.

On to what I really want to talk about. My sexy, sexy man. Who is the most amazing Vash in the world (aside from the real one, of course, not that he’s really real). Not only is he the sexiest Vash ever, but he has also agreed to buy me a Bowflex Revolution! That being the newest, spiffiest, and hottest one. Because he is awesome like that. And loves me. And now I *really* owe him. Eep.

But anyway, I am now a happypanda (I don’t think that’s even a phrase, but it should be since sadpanda is). We are going to pick up my sexy Bowflex tomorrow.. and if this guy isn’t there when we arrive, I’m going to go postal. Like seriously. I am so excited, so if he lets me down I’m going to torch his house or something. But anyway, off to bed to dream about my Bowflex!

Link of the day: Bowflex Revolution!

October 15th, 2007 by Missy

Well, as anyone who knows me knows — I have an addictive personality. Or at least really close to it. Once I catch onto an idea, I am completely obsessed by it until boredom finally ensues. I’ve been pretty obsessed by weight loss / exercise / nutrition for quite some time now, probably as long as I’ve ever been obsessed with anything (Everquest / Everquest 2 aside). In the past year to year and a half or so, I’ve gone from 170lbs to 130lbs. For background information here (and reference for my future self looking back) I currently wear a size four jean. Obviously, being the obsessed person that I am, I am not satisfied yet.

Hence my present obsession. Bowflexes! It’s gotten so bad that I’ve even been trying to find (without success) a Bowflex infomercial online, so that I can download and watch it whenever I want. That doesn’t really make any sense, by the way. I’m like.. the one person in the world with a burning desire to watch an infomercial and it isn’t available! You would think they would have infomercial downloads pasted all over the net. Much cheaper than paying to put them on TV, I would imagine. While I haven’t managed to find an infomercial, I have stumbled across a lovely video set on YouTube by Sean McFall, who is just starting his own Bowflex training regime. He’s currently on his second video (of 52, one a week for a year) and the third is due out today, or tomorrow. Being the obsessed person I am, I keep checking every five minutes or so to see if he has updated yet. I’ve had this website for quite a while, actually, and just never put anything on it. The final drive to get off my butt and actually make use of all of the money I’ve spent on this thing came from watching Sean’s video. I figured, hey, I can totally blog about how I’m obsessed with Bowflexes if Sean can make videos about how obsessed he is! Not that I really think Sean is obsessed with Bowflexes, but no one likes to be alone in this world.

On to the topic I’ve been trying to introduce for the last two paragraphs! Given my obsession with Bowflexes, it is only natural that I would be attempting to purchase one. After reviewing the official website, I was sadly forced to admit that I could not afford to get one of my own. I was not to be defeated so easily, however! My clever mind led me to ebay! Maybe not so clever, since no one wants to ship these things. Craigslist! Yes, Craigslist was what I needed! After several interesting distractions, I was able to find many Bowflexes for sale in my area, and at reasonable prices. The most reasonable of which being $225 for a Bowflex XTL in supposedly mint condition. E-mails were exchanged, plans were made to drive the hour to Surprise in the gas-guzzling Ford Excursion to view and purchase my beautiful Bowflex.

Dan and I got to the current home of my lovely Bowflex right around five pm, the planned meeting time. No one was home, of course. We waited until five-fifteen and, of course, no one arrived. I was notably irritated at this time, but we decided to go and have a bite to eat and check back at the house afterwards, since we’d already driven such a long way. We checked back at the house at six and the lights were on, the four or so dogs were barking (who were not barking at the previous visit, might I mention) when I rang the doorbell seven hundred times, a human shadow came to the door.. and no one answered. Needless to say, I will be checking the obituaries for Surprise periodically to see if a woman named Kimberly was crushed under her Bowflex, crapped on by her dogs, and dead by the time her husband got home from work. How tragic.

Link of the day: Sean McFall