I honestly thought that I might miss the whole presents thing this year once Christmas came around. But I have to say that I really don’t. It just means a lot to be with my family having a good time being silly with each other. 

Last night we stayed up until 2am playing games. We first played Apples to Apples, which is a bit of a simple game, but it’s so much fun. We then played my favorite, but everyone else’s least favorite, Trivial Pursuit. It was a new version that has Easy, Medium, Hard questions. That ended up taking us forever. But I love it, so everyone else can just suck it :D

We’re probably going to go see a movie later. Most likely it will be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I always think it’s weird when people go see movies on Christmas. And then it dawned on me that we do it almost every year. Huh, we are a weird bunch, no doubt.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone!!!!!

I also want to say hey and thanks to all my new visitors lately. Thanks for all the comments. I promise I will respond more in the future. With the holidays, I’ve just been a bit preoccupied. 

I’ll have to tell y’all about our recent adventures in a Cary, North Carolina hookah bar next time. Good times.

My family could single-handedly bring this economy to a complete halt. You see, we are not buying each other any presents this year. I know, it’s quite shocking.

For those that are not in the know. The six of us - Mom, Dad, Bro, SIL, Me, Mike - tend to go a little nuts when it comes to giving each other gifts. For a few years, I would rack up the credit cards at Christmas, and then pay them off throughout the year. Now I’m smarter. I use my Amex Blue Cash all year long for every purchase possible, so I can get the cash back. We get quite a bit back, which I then use to pay for Christmas stuff.

One year, for example, we all gave each other a Playstation2. That same year, I got a Sony MiniDV camcorder. And those were just 2 of my gifts. I’ll have to find some pictures of underneath our tree, cuz it’s one of those things you have to see to believe. A couple years ago, we caught a clue, and decided we needed to tame it down. So, we tried to put a limit on how much we could spend per person ($150). My mom hated that. She, of course, did not stay within that budget. Then last year we tried doing a secret santa sort of thing. We still had the same limit of $150, but each person only had one person to buy for. Mom still didn’t quite stay within her budget, but she did get better. She was insanely frustrated by her inability to buy for both of her kids, since she had gotten someone else. Last year, we put all the names in the hat, and pulled them again for this year.

Then my brother had to go and move to North Carolina, and my mom went off on her boss and tendered her resignation as of Jan. 1. With those particularly strenuous financial situations, we decided to do no gifts at all this year. Considering the loot I generally walk away with, you’d think I might take this decision hard. Fret not. I was actually suddenly very excited.

I don’t have to buy any gifts. I just have to get my butt to Virginia to visit my family, and that’s that. How freakin’ awesome is that?

But, to my fellow Americans and Earthlings…. I do apologize for what this could do to our economy :D

She worked on my hip flexor muscles and my IT band. The hip flexors were the real killers. Because I sit on my butt all day at work and at home, this makes my hip flexors pull at my lower back when I am in a more straight position. My right side was my main problem, and this was no different. My right hip was insanely sore. She had to stop about half way through and ice it while she worked on the other side. The left side was pretty brutal too. If I was going to scream during one of these, it would have been during this part. She has to keep reminding me to breathe, cuz I would just quit suddenly.

Later that night, I managed to put myself through some more pain. I took an ice bath. Holy moly. This was just torturous. There I am sitting in the bath while the cold as hell water fills in it up. I’m in a hoodie with the hoodie on and tied, biker shorts on, and my teeth are chattering. And this is all BEFORE the ice gets put in! Mike had the pleasure of emptying two bags of ice into the bath with me. And I do mean pleasure, cuz that boy was laughing quite a lot. Once the ice was in, I stayed in there for a little over 10 minutes. I quickly dressed into every warm piece of clothing I owned and went under the covers. Slept quite nice that night.

And the most shocking thing of all… I went back yesterday for my third P&M session which was focused on my right hip a little more, my right hamstring, and my left achilles. When she worked on my left achilles, she actually worked on my calf alot. There was some crazy pain in there, no doubt.

So, for now, I’m good to go. Physically at least. I haven’t had a headache since my first session and I’m feeling quite loose. It’s definitely something I will continue to do in the future when I feel myself tightening up. Better that than waiting til I’m in such crazy pain.

Woot!

Mike, my workout bud Sarah, and my boss’ daughter Courtney were with me. I’d heard from my boss how much his daughter was into the books, so when I had an extra ticket, I offered it up. She was super excited and really sweet. I hope she enjoyed herself.

First off, let me tell you my pre-watching thoughts. I was not in love with the casting. I could definitely see Kristen Stewart as Bella. But I was really not digging on Robert Pattinson as Edward. I mean, c’mon, Edward is supposed to be this beautiful being. While Robert Pattinson isn’t unattractive, he’s just not even close to what I pictured for Edward. The rest of the cast I wasn’t too concerned with, but I wasn’t awesomely thrilled. I did hope the casting of Alice would be good, cuz she’s a fun character. To sum it up, I loved the books, so I was really wary of the movie.

Ok, now to the after-watching thoughts. Casting wasn’t as awful as I was thinking. With the exception of Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen. What the hell? Bizarre. Overall, I liked it. But I didn’t find it terribly moving. Kristen Stewart was good, but didn’t have a tremendous amount of range. Shockingly, I really did enjoy Robert Pattinson’s performance. I still don’t feel like he looks like Edward. I don’t even think I would call him beautiful, as Edward is so often described in the book. Handsome, yes. Perhaps even untraditionally so, thus the allure. He’s got enough “ugly” in him to make it interesting. What do I mean by that, you may wonder? I think that the people we are drawn to in flocks have some slightly off about that beauty. And he definitely has something slightly off. But I can dig it. Anyhoo, back to the performance. I definitely felt the attraction from Edward towards Bella, but not so much in the reverse. The main part of the story, the falling in love part, was the part that I missed most. It seemed like one minute Edward was all hateful towards Bella, the next they are in complete and utter love for all eternity. Nah, not so much. Granted, this does happen in the book, but in such a way that it builds properly. I missed the buildup, cuz it just wasn’t there. My husband, Mike, also pointed out a hole to me that I probably looked over, because I’d read the book. There’s a bad vampire that gets a whiff of Bella and suddenly has to have her. So they take off running to get her away from him. However, we never really find out why does this vampire have to have HER. Why would he be willing to run all over the US tracking her down? That is covered in the book a bit more, so I guess my mind filled in the blanks.

I also didn’t love the camera work and choice of shots. I know this is supposed to be an intimate story, and a good way to get that across is close-up shots. But, yanno that adage.. too much of a good thing… definitely applies here. There was also a lot of handheld stuff, and it seemed slightly messy. The glaringly awful thing in the movie was the special effects. Wow, bad. There’s a scene where Edward exposes his skin to the sun and it “sparkles”. Man, talk about velveeta. Yeeeow. Edward’s skin overall (non-sunned) wasn’t too bad, but Carlisle’s?!?!?! Wow, let’s dip a dude in a vat of rice powder or something. Goodness. But I do need to remember that the budget for this movie was kinda low ($40mil) for such a largely hyped movie. So, they did good.

Don’t get me wrong, I did like this movie. I’m even contemplating seeing it again. And I very rarely see movies more than once in the theater. It just felt loose, watered down even. I do recommend anyone into vampire love stories with a bit of blood & action go see it. Then, if you haven’t read the book, go do that. You’ll like it even better.

7 out of 10

It seemed to start while I was working out. I was doing my usual lifting of weights with my trainer and I had some seriously major pain shoot up the right side of my neck and explode inside of my head. I shake it off, try the exercise again, and bam. Same thing. My trainer feels my neck and presses around in the muscles and he actually can’t believe how tight my neck & shoulder muscles are on my right side. He says the left side feels absolutely relaxed, but the right is like a series of rocks. He helps me stretch it for a bit, and we try again, and happens again.

So, this happens on certain exercises for a couple weeks, but it gets to a completely unbearable point. My neck is also so tight it gives me headaches everyday for 3 weeks. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So, I do the unthinkable. I get a full body massage at my gym. Yes, I did get a massage in Hawaii for the first time, but I still don’t consider myself a person who gets massages. You have to understand how uncomfortable even the thought of massage makes me, so I had to be in some serious discomfort to end up getting one. Well, i did. It was great during, and even for a couple hours after. But then boom, I feel it all coming back.

The only thought that crossed my mind at that time was “Motherfucker!”. I hate to be so crude. Ha! You know me, I lie. I love to be so crude. At this point, I know Mike has had a type of massage that helped some weird problems he’s had in the past… numb/tingly elbow and other weirdness. It’s a seriously painful type of massage but in the end it seems really helpful. Since a really painful massage is hard to .. you know.. get excited about and all that… I finally came to a point where I was willing to give it a try. I make an appointment at Therapy Central of Round Rock.

My appointment was yesterday, and I absolutely loved the therapist I had. I knew I adored her from the first 90 seconds. Which I guess is kind of important in someone that is going to make you feel intense pain. Mike’s friend actually works there, but he just had some knee surgery, so he couldn’t see me. But while I was there for my appointment he was also there to get seen for his knee. Before my session started he came in and said hello and whatnot. He had joked to not worry about all his screaming, but that turned out to also be true. He did scream quite a bit. My therapist, Susan, and I were laughing about it. Well, I joined her in laughing when I had the breath capability to do it.

The method they use is P&M (Pin & Move) Myofascial Release. They pin the muscle, and that alone can hurt, and other times hurt so bad you don’t want to breathe. However, when they start moving that muscle as they have it pinned, you really want to slap yo mama. Yowza, Holy Crap, and Kill Me Now… all in one go. She worked on my chest, my shoulders, shoulder blades, and neck/head. Some of the places on my head hurt in that “OMG, this hurts but I love you so much for finding that spot”. She also suffers from migraines so she knows all those sweet spots.

Right after I felt fabulous. All loosey goosey, and just high on life. A few hours later some of the soreness started to set in. It made me not look forward to today… cuz OMG. I am so sore today. And what do I have to do first thing this morning… go work out with the trainer… on my Chest/Back/Shoulders. All the spots got worked on. Man, i cannot believe I made it through. I hurt just having my t-shirt on. Holy moly. I was expecting to be literally black & blue everywhere. But I wasn’t. If I had been I would have taken pictures for you. Cuz it would have been gross, and you’d need to see that.

Anyway… even though, I’ve gone on and on and on about the pain (I mean, look at their logo for Pete’s sake, they advertise the pain!!)  I would highly recommend this to anyone. Even if you aren’t suffering from something major. I think it would be good for anyone to get your shit all worked out.

Up next… Monday… where we work on my lower half. I’ll keep ya posted on how much fun that ends up being :D

My (RED) RAZR was good for about the first year, and then went to complete crap after that. I took it into Sprint several times, and they gave me new batteries twice, but now refuse to give me new batteries. They say nothing is wrong with the battery, it’s just that I have a crappy Motorola phone. Um, a crappy Motorola phone YOU sold me. Douches. It was after the last time they refused to fix my phone, that I decided that I would be willing to switch to AT&T to get an iPhone. And I hate AT&T. But, I really really want an iPhone. Hell, a phone that works for longer than 15 minutes would be an improvement.

So, I’ve been counting down until the day that I could get an iPhone and dump Sprint. Do I currently have an iPhone? No, why? Well… Mike thinks that the iPhone will be updating soon. Most likely in its size. It doesn’t help that this website seems to be supporting his theory. The iPhone is listed as being in the final stages of it’s current cycle. But, I’m thinking the next update isn’t going to be available until February.

I’ve been counting down for 3 or so months, and now I’m possibly looking at 4 more? GEEZUS. It’s driving me insane. I want a new phone dammit. Patience is SO not my forté. This is my dilemma. Buy my precious new phone now… or wait and get a bigger one, for the same price… and most likely keep it longer.

AHHH. Yes, I know the better thing to do… but my technology cravings are strong.

We ordered the 5-course vegetarian chef’s tasting menu with paired wines. We’ve done this 3 or 4 times before, and it’s divine. I’ve never understood wines going with food until we had done this at Wink. Our first course was a sungold tomato salad with parsley and a basil pesto. It was paired with a Rosé wine. It was very good. I was bummed about tomatoes this year, cuz I hadn’t had any decent ones. But hurrah! Finally, some really delicious tomatoes.

Second course was a sweet corn cake with grape tomatoes, sauteed zephyr squash, arugula, and black pepper honey. This was paired with an Alsace Pinot Gris. OMG. OMG. This dish was divine. Sweet lovely heaven. The wine was paired to perfection. There was a slight honey flavor going on in the wine, that went well with the bit of black pepper honey in the dish. Delicious.

Third course was spaghetti squash with Boggy Creek Farms green beans & rapini, chicken  fried mushrooms in a brown butter sauce. And by butter, they mean BUTTER. This was really good. I especially enjoyed the green beans and mushrooms. This was paired with a White Burgundy wine. Very good pairing.

Fourth course was a hand-rolled couscous with brassica greens, truffel oil, a bit of shaved truffels, baby carrots, and grilled red onions. This was paired with red wine that I forget what it was called. It was super strong smelling, and had a very strong flavor, but went with the very earthy taste of the course. This was Mike’s favorite course by far. He said it might even be his favorite course he’s ever had at Wink. Oooh-la-la. Big words.

The last course of the tasting menu was an italian cheeseplate. It consisted of fior di langa, vento d’estate, pecorino stagionato, & gorgonzola naturale. I think this was paired with a 2005 Hekate Vino Passito. But not 100% sure.

We did end up ordering a desert, which we’ve never done before. Usually the five course meal comes with a desert, and I guess this one did (the cheeseplate), but we were wanting something sweet. We ordered the Wink Trio which consists of a sampling of their lemon meringue pot, crème brûlée, & el rey chocolate cake. I think my favorite is still their lemon merigue pot, while Mike is a sucker for any flourless chocolate cake.

We probably should have stopped with the five course meal like we usually do, but we got greedy with the dessert, so we walked out a bit more stuffed than we generally like. But still, it was one of the best meals we’ve had in awhile. Definitely worth the very steep price tag.

We ended the night by going to Whole Foods to pick up some Dirty Girl tomatoes that our waitress suggested. I can’t wait to try those tomorrow!

The next step was to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. My therapist asked me to take Ambien for 2 weeks every night at 9:30pm. If after the 2 weeks, I could not keep the schedule on my own, then I needed to go to the Sleep Disorders Center. Doing that pretty well now. It’s actually quite insane how tired I get at normal hours! I don’t even read for more than 20 minutes most nights. It’s nuts.

The next step was to start getting more exercise. I’m not generally good about this for long periods of time on my own. My friend Sarah had been telling us about the gym she goes to and her trainer. She’s lost quite a bit of weight, so I was definitely interested. She took me to her gym to show me around, and I was in completely and total love. Like, head over heels. First thing I noticed about the gym is that it smells GOOD. Like herbal and fresh good. More on this later. The first thing you see when you go in is a cafe to your right and a friggin’ spa on your left. Behind the front desk is a nice lounge area with a pretty nice TV too. We walk towards the locker rooms, and on the way we check out the climbing rock wall, the gyms, racket ball courts and the like. We go into the locker room, and I just have never seen anything so nice. Oh wait, I did once in a ritzy spa in Hawaii. The nice smell I smelled coming in, seems particularly strong here. I find out there is a eucalyptus sauna. That’s what the smell is. LOVE IT. The lockers are awesome and there are little changing cubicle thingies at the end of each row of lockers. There are mirrors galore, and blow dryers at the mirrors. There are bath towels on shelves in front of rows of lockers. The showers are all individual and personal with curtains on each one. The other gyms I’ve been with didn’t usually have this. As if I’m going to shower all out in the open. Pshaw. When you exit out the back of the locker area you come to your first set of pools. Yes, first set. First pool is a lap pool with 5 lanes. Next to that are two hot tubs with these awesome looking waterfalls. One hot tub is hotter than the other. Sarah said it’s awesome to stand beneath the waterfalls and get a bit of a water massage. The next pool is a recreation pool and it has two monster water slides. This is all indoor, btw. Near the recreation pool is a big dry sauna. Then when you go outside, there are even more lap lanes and a bigger recreation pool with bigger slides. There are tons of lounge chairs, tables & umbrellas, and a cafe/snack bar. Yup, in love. I haven’t even seen the more traditional workout stuff. Sheeesh. We finally go upstairs and voila. This is where all that traditional type stuff is. More machines than I’ve ever seen in one gym, and there are studios up there too for classes and whatnot. I really want to join this gym, but it’s way more expensive than anything Mike and I have paid for in the past. I figure Mike is gonna like it, but not like the price tag. About a week later, Mike and I go there together for the official tour. Mike is sold pretty quickly, and we join! HOLLA!

A couple or so weeks prior to all this we went to see Batman for the second time with Sarah, her nephew, and her personal trainer too. This was kinda cool. Trainers kinda scare me. Well, the ones I’ve seen/met at Gold’s Gym. So, it was definitely beneficial to meet her trainer outside of a gym. So, after we sign up for our membership, we go back upstairs to the trainers’ desk and Mike and I sign up for metabolism tests, VO2/Zone testing, and a nutritionist.  I also sign up for 3 months of personal training with Adam, Sarah’s trainer. Sarah and I are gonna share our hour so it’s a bit cheaper that way.

Next step is nutrition. I get my metabolism tested and find out I burn 1577 calories at rest. That means, at a minimum, I need to eat that many calories just to keep my body fueled. I average about 800ish calories on any given day. Mainly cuz I don’t eat breakfast or lunch. So, I’m definitely in a starvation type mode. Suckage. I also found out that I burn 76% fat, which is good. Mike’s skinny ass burns 96% fat just for a bit of a reference. Mike and I signed up for 4 visits with the nutritionist. We want to make sure that we change our habits together, and not have two different meals for everything. They ease you into your changes, and not slam you with a bunch of stuff. So, we start by making sure we don’t eat any hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup. Even bread has that stuff. Thank goodness we don’t have to change too much in the house for that.

TO BE CONTINUED…