Ravelry!

YAY! I got invited to join ravelry.com and I am so excited!!! I can't wait to keep posting my projects up there!

Speaking of projects, I am almost done with the left front of the Askew tank top - I am working on the strap. Last night I went to see Grease with A2A and sat on the aisle where there was light and knitted while listening to the show. MUST KNIT!

I joined a group on ravelry that's all about earning money for yarn via exercising - totally matches up with my pennies for pampering group on sparkpeople! I'm excited about both!

Today I am excited about all sorts of things. Excited to eat my lunch (I cooked a Hungry Girl Recipe yesterday), excited for my weight watchers meeting tomorrow, excited for my stripe test tonight, excited about knitting Askew, excited about the Sparkpeople convention on Saturday, excited for more groups and communities to be a part of!

Time for lunch. Which means, times to knit.

I WANT TO KNIT!

muustt...makkkkeee...thiiiss....

Want to knit knit knit knit knit. How do I combine my desire for sitting-still-and-crafting with my urge to get-outside-and-move-more? Maybe I could knit while on a stationary bike. Maybe I could knit while just being outside and that would help. Maybe I really need to divide my day up into knitting and exercise portions so that I can accomplish both.

There are two tank tops that I want to knit - both from knitty.com - the Askew tank and the Cleo tank. Both hot stuff. The only garment I've ever made before was a sweater that I recently gave away to Marco because I didn't like how it curled up. I also knitted a beanie-for-pony-tails from knitty, which I wore a lot when it was cold, and I've got some socks... but I guess I haven't really done much other than scarves, shawls, and beanies. I'm really looking forward to making these tank tops. I also want to make that blanket - but I think maybe I won't follow her pattern, just do my own. We shall see.

SO MANY PROJECTS NOT ENOUGH TIME!

I also started the bear-catching-salmon cross stitch, which is 2 in the series of 3 that I brought from Alaska. The moose at sunset isn't *quite* finished - I am being lazy and not going to buy the one color floss I ran out of. Once I do that, it will only be a day or two to finish it. Then I'll need to frame and hang it, because there's nothing else to do with cross stitch. ;)

The bear-catching-salmon one is tedious, but still interesting due to it's newness factor. There's a whole hell of a lot of blue.

So yes. I want to knit and do karate at the same time. How do I accomplish this??? Maybe I accomplish this by not grocery shopping or cooking today, but instead knitting. Hrm. Maybe. Food or yarn? easy choice for me, now I just have to get Adam to go along with it.

Ate too much for lunch. blech. but it was really good food!!! I tried birria for the first time (goat) at this dinky little hole-in-the-wall "autentic" mexican place on 19th street. Soooo yummy. I am a goat convert. ;)

Today I am planning on going to the workout class and to the karate class, so that's two full hours of working out. Hopefully that puts the goat in its place.

Yesterday I did an hour and a half of exercise, but a bunch of different things. It was excellent. Today I am tired due to my medication, which I keep forgetting to take until late. I need to remember to take it around 7 instead of around 10:30.

I ordered a bunch of yarn online yesterday - to make one of the patterns Heidi posted. I found the Berreco redwood mix for 1/2 off on ebay, so I bought a bunch. I can't wait to start an intricate knitting project. I haven't done any knitting in a very long time.

This is all from me. Tonight I hope to cook another hungry girl recipe - healthy beef stroganoff. I need to go to the grocery store though. And to the dry cleaners. Ah!

I want to move it move it

My Spring Fling Festival was a blast, and it's DONE and I can breath again! I have an event this Wednesday, one next tuesday, and one the week after and then it's back to semi-normalcy!!! Yay!

I joined a women's health challenge and am excited to have joined yet another thing. This summer I really want to be more active - I want to run, swim, bike, yoga, and do karate. I think today after work I'll go to the dry cleaners, then go home, grab my bike and library books and ride there..get some new books, and then do my yoga video. Later tonight I'll go to the gym and run and swim. I miss swimming, but don't really enjoy swimming at the gym since there's too many non-swimmers in the pool. I am thinking about taking a swim-for-fitness class this summer at Goldenwest. 6:30-7:45am two mornings a week..I can do that!

Yesterday I cooked spagetti for Adam's lunch, I thawed a veggie stew I'd made and frozen, and made white rice to go with it for A's lunch tomorrow, and then I also made Hungry Girl falafel. YUMMY! I love Hungry Girl. This weekend I am going to the Sparkpeople convention allll day Saturday in San Diego, and so I need to get ready for that too. I slept in accidentally this morning and was 1 1/2 hours late for work. Today is Monday, yes oh yes it is. I also got the craving to knit socks.
Basically, I'd like to be almost anywhere but sitting at a desk right now. Ahhh. Getting restless and it's only 3:40!

good couple of days

The sun is out but it is not so hot as it was the last two days. Oh summer...you are a tease.
Yesterday was another marvelous day for me. Being warm and having sunlight makes SUCH a difference - a difference I don't even realize until I am OUTSIDE and the freckles are popping out on my shoulders and my smile feels warm and stretched and everything is happy.
So yesterday I went for a walk on my lunch break up on the river trail - california sagebrush and blackeyed susans and the sun on my shoulders some more. After work I went home and read some tamora pierce, but fell asleep and took a 2 hour nap. I got up, went to karate, then got home, did dishes, laundry, dog stuff, showered, made lunches, and did my yoga video. I had time to read some more and felt totally relaxed and wonderful all night.

Today after work I am going to go down to the beach and do a half hour of jogging and then lay on the sand for a while. I want to also find a weight watchers or hungry girl recipe to make for dinner, and something for lunches tomorrow.

I love this weather. Adam's schedule has been nice too - this week he hasn't had to be at the academy until 11 or 12, and has been getting home around 11pm, but he still wakes up at 7am with me. So it's been neat getting to hang out with him while I get ready, and then have the house to myself during the evening so I can clean up and get ready for things without him asking more of me, and then be glad and rested when he gets home! He usually does another half hour-hour of stuff, and then we put on a movie and watch it while we fall asleep. It's been nice. Too bad this week is the only week of it.

My Spring Fling Festival is this Saturday and I am nervous. Don't wanna talk about it any more. :P

three cheers for the SUN!

Today started with my spilling 5 gallons of white paint in the trunk of my car. 2 very hot and sweaty hours later, I have salvaged what I could from the trunk (so long first aid kit..) and the painted carmat is drying out on the lawn.

It must be because I actually got enough sleep last night that I was laughing to myself the whole time.

Or, it could be because it's incredibly, ridiculously, wonderfully hot outside and I love this weather. I am so tired of feeling cold. I am so happy to be feeling sunshine all the way down to my bones.

Today I have a marvelous afternoon/evening planned. As soon as work is done, Emily, work-Rosie and I will be heading to the beach to exercise. Then I plan on reading Tamora Pierce books while eating strawberries whilst laying in my bathing suit on the sand. When I tire of my leisure, I will pick my sunsoaked self up and go to Mother's Market, where I will buy tofu shirataki. Once home, I will play with the doggies, make Adam's lunch, do the dishes, and make shirataki alfredo a la Hungry Girl for my dinner/lunch tomorrow. Then I will proceed to do my new beginners yoga dvd that makes me feel so happy at the end of it.

I am going to enjoy the heck out of this day of sunshine and wellness. There's a 5k run at Disneyland in September, I'd like to train to run in that. This is new, big, exciting - but in the summer, everything is possible.

gray day

To be happy. Today I will.

Go to the library. Get books. Read books. Get books on tape/cd. Listen to them while I cross stitch.

Play with my puppy.

.....what else?

Last night was bad. I'd like today to be better. I don't know how. I was so happy yesterday when I got off work and went running. Then I got home and WHAM everything hit at once, but I can't even figure out WHAT was so bad, all I know is that I got totally overwhelmed and frustrated and exploded.

I'm very tired today. Maybe a nap is in order also.

looking forward to a domestic night tonight. First, running on the river trail, then picking up dry cleaning, then grocery shopping, then home for laundry, playing with dogs, feeding fish, doing dishes, making dinner, making lunches, doing strength exercises, and cross stitching! sounds good to me. I like those days every once in a while. My friend Rebecca calls it "nesting" - when you want to stay close to home and putter and put things right.

I bought workout pants that make me feel really cute, which is the main force behind getting me to go run these days. It's great!

Tomorrow I plan on going to a running store and researching new shoes. The shoes I run in now my dad bought me when I was 18 years old. 6 years later... time to get new shoes.

Today I've felt pretty good. Happy, productive, peaceful, glad. I feel the way an icelandic poppy looks. I love the sunshine. I am so happy that it's spring. I am ignoring the fact that it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow - gray and gloominess right in the midst of sunshine tends to put me in a bad mood, but instead I will revel in the fact that the rain will water my freesia bulbs that I keep forgetting to water, and then I won't have to wash my car. Then it will be sunshine again!

a long hollywood weekend

This weekend I took a group of 20 adults with developmental disabilities and 3 volunteers to Hollywood. We went to Griffith Observatory, the Wax Museum, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, stayed at the Ramada, and then got up in the morning and went on a Hollywood Stars tour, and then went to Universal Studios all day! It was fun and exhausting, as all A2A trips are. I was sick the whole time, and lost my voice by the end of the 2nd day. I left my house at 7:30am Saturday morning and got home at 10:00pm Sunday night.

I got home to a sparklingly clean house, thanks to my amazing boyfriend. It was so nice not to have to deal with the pile of dishes and dirty stove that I had left!!! Man, it's nice when someone else cleans for you. One day I will splurge and have a housekeeper come every so often and keep only the fun chores for myself (yes, I like some of them. I like cleaning the bathtub, for example. And the mirrors. I always liked cleaning the bathroom because there was a precise list of things to do, and it was a contained space that had a *finish* to the job. Unlike the living room or dining room which never ever seems totally clean).

I am soooo close to being done with my Moose at Sunset crosssitch - but I ran out of the last color I need, so I have to go to Joanne's before I can finish. So close!

Yesterday I walked to the store and bought dumbbells and created a new little fitness routine for myself, and today my legs are actually sore. It's a good feeling. I've been sick for so long I really need to get back into exercising regularly.

I have a bread machine and I've been baking bread pretty steadily. I need to find a weight watchers bread machine recipe though, because I keep baking this amazing french bread and eat loooaaavves of it by myself. Not too conducive with the whole weight loss thing.

Juno is amazing and wonderful and I love my crazy puppy so much. She makes me want to have kids. That maternal yearning which seems to start somewhere deep and seep into every pore has begun again. Watch out small children, Roya wants to take you home...

Also - I watched Twilight and it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I am not ashamed to say it. Last night I also watched Speed and it wasn't nearly as horrible as I'd been led to believe either!! I liked it! I stayed awake for the whole damn thing! I cared what happened to those people! I predicted everything and still gasped when exciting things happened!

Tonight I am going to see Avenue Q with Swasthi, Chrispy and Larry. YAYYYYY.

sinus owch

I have a head-stuffed-up-like-crazy cold and all I want to do is go home and put on some silly little kid movies and curl up under the covers with tangerines. I've been crocheting dishcloths in order to sell them with the handmade soap Amber and I will one day make, and they are pretty and instant-gratification and the yarn is satisfying (yay cotton) and maybe if I feel up to it I'll do more of those. I'm at work right now, but everything is being difficult and I just need to go home and be sick, I think. I have an A2A event all weekend, and I can't even imagine how that will work if I am still feeling like this.

So. I will stop at the store and buy tangerines and then I will go home, and maybe even have a little bit of extra energy to put the clothes in the dryer and to start a loaf of bread, and then.... Lilo and Stitch, here I come.

I started an actual paper journal again. I got out my water colors yesterday - I did feel like I was 14 again, but mostly in a good way. I hope it helps. I want to make sure that as an adult I am journaling with a purpose - it's good for venting, but I also want to use it as my on-paper dialogue with myself, not just "grr I'm angry and frustrated and so and so pisses me off" but, "this is why I am angry and frustrated and maybe this is how I can change my perspective so I am not as much" that's what I need. I keep making stupid little mistakes lately that ruin the atmosphere of the evening, and if I'd just stopped for a breath, it wouldn't have happened.

Tangerines! It's time.