Let the Good Times Roll

It's almost as if I can hear The Cars - Let the Good Times Roll start playing in the background as I write this.

I reconnected with a childhood friend via Facebook today and it brought some great memories flooding back in. It's amazing the random things you remember from being a kid.

In the photo is my sister and I as Digger and Pammy (from The Shirt Tails) for Halloween. I remember my mom putting on our cheap costume makeup that came with the crispy plastic costumes from the 80s. We loved it! I think i was only about 3.

It's wonderful for the soul to think about all the great times... Heck, I even teared up reading the account of my jam packed weekend to San Francisco to see Ben Folds and meet a bunch of .org buddies. So many things you forget in the day to day, but wonderful things that are worth revisiting and reliving.

Daily life is a lot different now than even back in 2002 when I went to San Fran... but things are great in different ways now, and it makes me thankful of all my friends, family and fun that have led me to where I am... what is next who knows! Maybe i will do something to get my etsy store up...?

February in a Nutshell

Ok, so wow... a dog takes a lot of time and effort! I knew this going into it, but feel neglectful of my new blogging venture. I had high hopes of an entry per week, and I've fallen short in February. However, I do have things to share!

On vegan night, I mastered the Angry Whopper - vegan style! I made spicy black bean burgers from scratch, hot n spicy onions and a special angry sauce, all topped with some vegan pepperjack cheese and the usual burger fixins all on a whole wheat bun. A side of baked sweet potato fries made the meal complete! A definite crowd pleaser, and the ol' George Foreman Grill came through for a winter grilling sensation.



I've been neglectful of the gym a bit, after I had a crappy cardio instructor, but taking the little Oates man for his daily walks is doing me good.

I'm also getting through "Me Talk Pretty One Day." I just got my third renewal notice for the library books i checked out in January, which i will probably try to renew ONE more time. Maybe checking out 7 books at one time was a little overzealous?

However, it's the perfect day to curl up with a book. Today it's snowing, two days ago it was 68 outside. Maybe that's why I'm about to finish off an entire box of kleenex. But the snow is pretty and Oates is cute in it! Starve a fever, feed a cold? I want a cheeseburger. :(

Perfect Puggle

So here we are in February already -- The groundhog saw his shadow, but it was 70 degrees yesterday. I'm not getting too comfortable with the warmth, but I'm taking advantage of it! I'm ecstatic to announce that I am now a dog owner! These few warm days are great for giving him a neighborhood tour and letting him play outside.

He's the perfect specimen of a Puggle, the kind of dog I've been looking at for months, and on top of that he's also a rescue from the streets. It's truly fate that we're together! So far, no major problems, but there's definitely a few changes in lifestyle!

Getting up in the morning is now a must. I scrambled for coffee this morning at 7:45, but can't find the filters... It's now 9:25, I'm still groggy. Yesterday I was up at 7:30, and somehow motivated myself to clean the floors, vacuum the couch and clean my car.

It also takes a lot more activity to keep up with a little doggie - activity that is surely welcome to keep me moving! Talking him on walks, playing in the yard... Good for everyone.

I'm still trying to finish 3 Cups of Tea.... only a few chapters left. I hope to wrap it up today so I can start something new. Maybe Virgin Suicides?

It's Craft-Tastic!

This will mark my 4th post of the month, and will also mark the 4th and final subject of this blog.










In case you didn't catch on, we've got 4 main topics going on here:
+Food
+Fitness
+Books
+Self-Marketing

This hyphenated last topic is all about selling and marketing my own creative talent in a way that can hopefully make me some extra dough on the side.

So far, no physical progress, but plenty of mental progress! These things take time and patience. If you haven't already checked out etsy.com at some point in your web surfing, you should. I discovered it over a year ago, and have found tons of cool stuff on there that I'd buy if I had the money. Wonderful modern handmade gifts and vintage stuff too.

I've thought about putting my own stuff on there, but didn't really know if it would sell... So finally after many rave reviews of my work and encouragement from people over the holidays, I've decided an etsy store can't hurt, and could be a great first step in some sort of direction.

I've got a little more research to do to make sure I carve myself a unique niche, but as soon as I get the rest of the photos taken of my stuff, I'll at least get the store started.

I plan to make a trip very soon to Urban Arts and Crafts to generate more ideas and inspiration. Cheers! to the beginning of using a random talent -- Making adorable tiny things out of polymer clay. Who knew?

And yes, those owls are my design, fresh out of my brain for the 2008 Holiday. Copyright - Me.

Stay tuned for next month... I'll still be commentating on reading, eating, working out and hopefully have an etsy store up and running!

Glass half full... of books!

I borrowed this book, "Three Cups of Tea" from a friend... it's my first book to read for 2009. It's a far cry from my normal reading material - shopaholic books, harry potter, dwell magazine, does the Crate and Barrel catalog count? Hey - I'm having a cup of tea right now, whoa.

I'm not what people consider "a reader" here. I always liked english & literature in high school and college though... so i have it in me, and it's time to wake it up!

I took myself to the Library shortly after the new year and checked out no less than 7 books. All due on January 23rd... I don't think I'm gonna get em all read guys. Sad. But, maybe I'll finish "Three Cups of Tea" by then. Granted two of the books I checked out were about puppies, so that's more or less skim and flip-through material. And two were health books, one of which I plan on thoroughly reading. I just better make sure I can extend the check out.

Anyway... this book I'm reading is not the light-hearted, silly, magical fun book I'm used to. It's based on real stuff that really happened to a real guy. Yeah, non-fiction?? What the heck Babs? Really? (I know.) So this mountain climber guy tries to climb to the peak of K2 in the middle east, and it ends up changing his life and he starts building schools for Pakistani children. Real life trials, real life tribulations, real life challenges about someone whose doing something self-less and amazing for other people in this world. Pretty amazing.

I'm a little more than halfway, and don't get me wrong, there have been parts I'ved struggled through, but I must finish it. It's good for me. I found out 60 minutes did a story on the guy a few Sundays ago, so if you want to check it out, click here.

That's it for now... these workouts are kicking my butt, literally, my gluts... ow. must stretch.

Cardio Inter-evil

Tonight was my first venture into a group exercise class. Yes, yes... I never took part in jazzercise as a teen... tried to play sick for gym class... and usually was too embarrassed to even GO to the gym let alone try a group exercise class.

However, I am now much more unabashed about such things, and since I'm paying a pretty penny each month for a fancy gym membership, I might as well take advantage of the free stuff! Thankfully I have a gracious friend embarking with me to this class, which i highly recommend.

We used multiple kinds of "exercise equipment" aka: tools of torture. After 25 minutes of fast paced, near grueling movements, we used the body bar... It's big heavy stick. We had to lift it over our head a bunch of times, then some more, but m o r e s l o w l y... Might have been good of me to note the weight before I grabbed one up... I had a 15 pounder, and later read that beginners should start with 5-8 pounders. No biggie, I don't like arm flab, and we didn't do the exercise very long. In fact, it was a welcome departure from the first 25 minutes of fast and furious leg and arm movements.

With hardly a pause to wipe of the sweat, we did some lunges with a body band... try it. Dare you. Side stepping with what looked like a giant thick rubberband got us to about minute 45, and I was really feeling it. It was pretty intense, and i was tired of moving my flabby arms around. So tired in fact, that I was excited to lay down and do crunches!

I can already feel the soreness coming, but all that said, it was a good class. Right when I was about to die, we switched it up to a toning segment, and the hour went by quickly. I'm definitely going again - it was a great balance of cardio and toning all in one. She kept going back to this "grapevine" move... adding more to it each time... I totally didn't get the hang of it with my tired legs and arms, but maybe next Tuesday.

I came home and scarfed down a huge bowl of hearty split pea soup and a huge glass of lemon water. I will sleep like a little babs baby tonight. Maybe I'll get addicted to exercise class?

Meatless Wonder... kinda

Night one in getting back to healthy eating: Vegetarian Baked Ziti.

Or in my case, baked rotini since the grocery store didn't have any ziti pasta (or a wide selection of whole wheat pastas I might add). This recipe was built off a vegetarian lasagna recipe I got from a friend, and since the very same grocery store's only eggplant was the size of plums, (who eats eggplants that small? Little tiny mouse vegetarians?) I opted to adapt the recipe to my other known pasta making skills.

I arrived home with my ingredients, only going $3.97 over budget. That $3.97 went mostly the meatless alternative that I was skeptical of, but interested to try.

I got the pasta going and aligned my other ingredients. I nixed the usual 'heavy-on-the-mozzarella" attitude and used only low fat ricotta inside the dish. The only other dairy was the asiago/romano/parmesan shaker mix that i sprinkled over the top. I sauteed an onion with the non-meat veggie substitute, and the only visual difference was that it was really really ground up and had a beany aroma to it. I have to say, flopping it out of the vacuum sealed package was kinda gross, but so is taking the skin stuff off a sausage link.

When I opened up the can of spaghetti sauce, i saw my first mistake with this vegetarian recipe... "sauce flavored with italian sausage" in black and white... Oops! It was just regular spaghetti sauce, and the message was in fine print. There was little meaty chunks in too. Lucky for me, I'm not going vegetarian, so i didn't have to stop everything and go back to the store. This is one of several reasons I don't want to go fully vegetarian... if i didn't eat meat, i wouldn't have eaten that and I would have had to go through the annoyance and hassle of getting some non-meat flavored sauce. What a pain to worry about accidentally eating a little bit of meat.

So I pressed on. It made a little more than a 9x12 dish, so i zealously filled a round pan for leftovers. With baked pastas, I've found that there is no real need for layering, i just kinda plop it all in there evenly and make sure the pasta pieces are covered so they won't dry out in the oven. II covered the dishes in foil, and into the oven they went.

I slightly missed the bubbly brown mozzarella on top, but the cheese blend sprinkled on top gave it a little bit of a "outer shell" I paired it with a basic salad that was heavy in spinach. Which brings us to my second mistake. I forgot to put the spinach in the bake. Boo. It would have been really good with a veggie addition. I think even zucchini would have been good in there.

Even still, the meat alternative worked, and tasted good. If I made it again, I'd supplement the can of spaghetti sauce with a little bit more tomato sauce; it was a little dry, but it was a big hit to the boyfriend. He wasn't excited about the meat substitute, but after scolding him for serving himself up a third (and later fourth) helping, he told me: "There's just something about that fake meat that just makes it so good!"

And now, as the boyfriend naps in baked rotini coma, I'm pretty sure if I uncovered my "leftovers", it will be at least a quarter eaten or more. At least it was healthy, right? And i would buy the meat substitute again, but ground turkey is a lot cheaper for more of it, so until I get that business venture underway, meat substitute will have to stay on the splurge list.

Email me for a more line-by-line recipe!