I love this band

Last year I downloaded this song from some website -- the band was called The Decemberists and the song was Here I Dreamt I was an Architect.

Everytime the song started to play on my iPod, I would fall into a trance. I needed to know more ...

They've been around for a while -- since 2002, where have I been?? -- and so I'm making up for lost time gobbling up their songs. I feel like I need to turn into some alien from Dr. Who that absorbs people and music and feelings... I can't get enough of their music and the lead singer's voice that only an alien life form will suffice.

The worst bit was that they were at the College that is about 20 steps from my house on Halloween and did I go???? Of course not! I'm stupid and didn't put two and two together that this was the band that makes me go into a coma.

All right, I'm done salivating.

On their website you can download one of their new songs. And here, you can listen to some of the recent album.

Top Chef

I don't know if any of you are watching Top Chef on Bravo this season, but Jeff just got asked to pack his knives and now I have no more reason to watch the show ... my mom is equally sad. Hey, nothing's wrong with some talented eye candy!

This is my 3rd season of Top Chef and I have to say that last season's chefs (as a whole) seemed better. But isn't it weird to watch a show where, as the viewer, you can't taste anything... At least with Project Runway, I can see the clothes.

I guess I'll be the judge when I try to make some of their recipes -- mainly the soup ones since I love making soup and everything else is so complicated.

And as for the winner ... I think Jamie, Stephan, and Hosea will go to the finals. I think Stephan will win, but I hope Jamie wins.

Uma Yoga Uma Yoga

In recent postings, on both Rosey Cheeks and Cheap Rosie, I’ve talked about Yoga -- free yoga downloads, yoga before running, etc. Needless to say, I’ve been doing more yoga now than ever before, and I feel that it’s definitely contributed to my overall well-being.

So naturally, after reading this article I thought, “Of course it’s good for Uma to do yoga. While you’re cramped on an airplane you get stiff and some stretching can really alleviate tension…”

But my next reaction was more like … “Whoa, wait … on the plane? In the aisles?”

Unless you’re a Yogi (like a Jedi-Master of the Yoga world), you can go a few hours without sticking your leg behind your head. I understand the need to stretch on a plane – it’s imperative to do so – but you can do this by going to the bathroom or moving around your legs and such. I doubt Uma was in Coach, so she has plenty of leg room.

I mean, who has enough “gumption” (that’s not the word I wanted to use here) to get up and use the airplane aisle as your own personal sticky mat. Is it a fact that when you’re a Hollywood star, you feel that you can pretty much do whatever you want? Gumption or not, she obviously felt entitled to do something that is both rude and self-centered.

And that is something that Yoga is not all about.

Oh – and I love the bit about the smoking …

Memorial Day Madness: Week 3

Rosey:



Overall, Week 3 was good – not great. Unfortunately, the simple task of eating one piece of fruit every single day eludes me. I ate 1/2 an orange one day, and the other 1/2 the next day. I felt that this didn’t live up to the bargain, and as penalty I didn’t get to buy myself a game – and this pains me!

But I ran on the treadmill all three days that I was at work, and I saw an improvement. When I’m not watching the clock, I can definitely run more and my time shows. For instance, Week 2, I did 1.75 miles with a 14.17 pace; in Week 3, that same 1.75 miles had a 13.03 pace. I’m also doing a series of yoga before I run and I’ve noticed that this really helps. I feel more limber and I don’t have to stop and re-stretch like I’ve had to in the past.

One move that helps conquer shin splints is to sit on your knees (also called Lion’s Pose) while you are stretching your back, neck, arms, etc. Just remaining in that position stretches my leg muscles and eases shin splint pain while I’m running.

Also, I’m keeping a treadmill journal; this really helps me quantify this goal and as I see an improvement it helps me want to stay on target. Matt called me a NERD, but any bit helps – even nerdy spreadsheets.

As for weight … I remain the same as last week. No change.

Matt:


Matt’s simple goal of not drinking coffee lasted up until my mom tempted him with some Mexican coffee on Friday night. Then he had another cup on Saturday morning. I’ve come to the conclusion that Matt’s not a very goal-oriented person (unless money is involved).

And for another week, he hasn’t stepped foot on a treadmill or lifted a weight and still another pound has been shed. [Fist in the air] Manilow! (You gotta know the Colbert Report to get this one.)

Bathroom: More tile issues

The last time I wrote about the bathroom, we didn't have enough tile to finish the job because the marble we bought was such bad quality that any 90 degree cut damaged the tile. So we went back to the store and got 4 free boxes to finish the job.

Well, the boxes of marble came and ... they look exactly like the tiles we saw in the store! And they almost don't even match the stuff we've already installed.

Several phone calls later ... and we're getting all free boxes of tile so that when the existing tile we installed has major leak problems (because of the holes in the tile), we have backup to re-do the job.

Sigh.

And you know what's amazing? The transformation between grouted and ungrouted tile. We just grouted the floor today and it looks amazing. Here's the before and after:

Vermont here we come!

We finally did it; we made plans to go to Vermont. I don’t know why the northeast interests me so much (first Maine, now Vermont), but it does. I keep telling Matt that I want to rent out the house and move to Vermont for one year. We can learn to make cheese and wear long johns most of the year, what’s not to love?!

But before we make any rash decisions, we decided we needed to do a little vacation … in February. If you can make it in February, the rest of the year will feel like a picnic.

So we’re off to Waitsfield, Vermont (about an hour southeast of Burlington) for 5 days, where we plan on doing the following: snowshoe, ski (downhill and/or cross country), eat some good local food, see some cheese-making (in February? I dunno), see Burlington, Middlebury and small towns in between, catch some beautiful views, and try and stay warm…

We started practicing getting used to the snow by going to the Arboretum this weekend (click for photos).

Okay.. but before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about skiing…

Let me state here that I have gone skiing once, in Wisconsin when I was 17, and I never left the Super Turtle Hill. My legs just didn’t get it. So if we do ski, this will be another moment for me to un-shine as I fall into the snow or break a leg. I looked at the 2 places to ski (Sugarbush and Mad River Glen) and I’m now officially scared. These are real places, not like Wilmot or Villa Olivia; these are real mountains with lifts, not towropes. I don’t even know what to wear?! I’m clueless. Super clueless. Please help.

And what if we decide to cross-country ski instead? I’m not as scared of breaking a leg, but not bringing the right equipment. The pictures I’m seeing have people with shorty jackets and like leggings. Should I bring a short jacket in addition to my longer puffy coat? Do I have to go to a ski store to buy funky legging things? Where will I pack all this?

I've never been so confused over vacation apparel - I usually just throw clothes in a suitcase and go. But this time it's big clothes and too many what ifs.

Bathroom stuff for sale!

Can I interest anyone in ... a medicine cabinet, toilet, and/or pedestal sink?

Get these priceless items while they're available otherwise they are going on Craigslist.

Anyone?

Bathroom Idea: Shower Hooks

If you've been reading this you know we've been A) re-doing the bathroom and B) chose a cool pebble tile as our bathroom floor.

So knowing all that, aren't these hooks pretty cool? And wouldn't they look pretty kick-$@* in the bathroom?Now the bad part, they are $42 ... each. For that kind of money I am challenging Matt to go spelunking for rocks and see if he can channel his inner handyman!

How cold can you go?

Right now, instead of freezing my $#@& off in Chicago, I could have been in Ixtapa enjoying 80 degree weather with my mom and other family.

They made plans to go to Mexico when my job was on the line so we waited to book the trip and then was told the flight was sold out. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but when there's a 90 degree difference in the weather, it's a big deal.

90 degree difference, yes that's right.

Memorial Day Madness: Week 1

Rosey:


Technically I lose 1.5 lbs, but this only tracks full lbs.

Week 1 was good; no goal, I just thought about what I eat and made sure to get some exercise every day. I did yoga almost every day and walked/ran on treadmill 1 day.


Matt:


Matt has nothing to report... only that this has happened before (remember biggest loser?)

2009 Goals

Who doesn’t love breaking New Year’s resolutions? I know I do.

I look forward to this time of year, when I can sum up all of my problems and neatly put them in a list of things to do or not to do, how and what I am going to change; I lovingly pour over each and every idea, until finally the list is made… and then promptly broken.

This year, I have a new list of resolutions to break.

1. Run a 5k race – more specifically the Cosely Animal Run in June that takes place every year not too far from my house.
2. Read 30 books – I only read 21 last year. I want to beat that!
3. Try out for a local orchestra – I am trying to find a teacher now, which is the first step since I need to ready myself and this is the only way. I’m anticipating at least 9 mos of lessons… minimum.
4. Lose 10 lbs and keep it off – hence the reason for the Memorial Day Madness
5. Save $10,000 - I think this is a nice round number, and I’d like to see if I can save it.

That’s it. 5 seems like a good number.

Let’s talk about #4. In order to train for #1 (the 5k in June), I thought I might lose 10 lbs in the process. I was 3 lbs away from this number last year and then I gained it all back by simply not exercising. Oh and by eating bagels and cream cheese.

Matt wants to lose 18 lbs, so he’s my buddy in our 20-week challenge called the Memorial Day Madness (or MDM for short).

Do you remember Matt’s biggest loser weight loss 3 years ago? Well he lost a ton of weight (he was almost too skinny). So he knows he can do it, but the winner got $600 (he was 2nd place).What’s the goal now? If there is none, it makes this less easy.

The solution: we’ve decided to give ourselves weekly incentives. Each week is different and if you miss a week, you don’t get that incentive. Such as: a dinner out, a new purse, a Wii game, etc. It has to be something we want and that we’re not able to get unless we reach our goal (which is to lose lbs, workout X times, eat a piece of fruit every day, refrain from chocolate, etc).

Monday the 12th is our first weigh-in. As soon as I get our incentive chart done, I’ll post that.

Onward!

The perils of bathroom renovations

No home renovation is without its pitfalls and perils, problems and post remodelers angst. This bathroom is no exception. How a space that’s only 6’ x 6’ could cause so many problems is beyond me, but to quote my dad, “This is the hardest job I’ve ever done.”

The biggest problem right now is the tile.

We just got back from the tile store where we had to request free boxes of tile, and it won’t come in for at least 2 more weeks. The marble we purchased is horrible. It looks nice – although the sample in the store and what we received looks like 2 different types of tile – but the quality is sub-par.

The first thing my dad noticed was that through the marbleized marks there were holes going through to the back. “This can’t go in a shower because of water damage,” he told us. The he noticed the mesh backing. “Marble shouldn’t have mesh backing because it’s solid. A mesh back means pieces are put together. This is bad.”

We were going to bring it back but my dad said he would try and do what he can – and the shower he built us is like a water barrier fortress so he wasn’t too worried. But when he started cutting tiles, they were breaking on odd fault lines. He was so pissed off and so were we.

By this time, he had done the floor and some of the shower so we couldn’t turn back. But the odds were not in our favor of having enough tiles to finish the job. For every tile that broke, I was out money and I was getting madder with each CRACK. So we went to the tile store, with my dad in tow, and we brought pieces to show them and told them how this was a horrible product and that they owe us. So we ended up getting free boxes of tile so that we can finish the job.

Lesson learned: Ask where the tile comes from, how it’s made. When it came in and my dad was unhappy, we should have brought it back immediately. Know that marble should not have mesh, should not have holes, and should not break.

But I also had a setback with the toilet.

I ordered the toilet from an on-line plumbing store where I bought the shower components. Three weeks into the order, we still didn’t get the toilet. I went on-line to check and the site said, “Store Out of Business.” What?! I started to panic, but received an email from them at the same time telling me that the economy has impacted the company and it’s closed effective immediately. I managed to get credited for the toilet on my credit card, but now I was back to the drawing board.

The good news is that I found it somewhere else for cheaper … except I accidentally ordered the toilet seat in the wrong color. Drat!!

Finally, and maybe this made me the most mad, my dad goofed up on the tile.

We were supposed to have a border going around the shower in the pebbles (hence following the design rule of repeating patterns). And my dad did the shower when I was at work last week and he forgot to add them – even though we talked about it a few days ahead of time.
He says he forgot, but if you know my dad he’s the type to make a calculated move like that when he doesn’t want to do something.

I can’t wait for this thing to be finished.

Flickr is starting to annoy me.

I used to have an unlimited storage account because I’m an AT&T internet user, but that agreement has ended.

Then I found out that my family who wanted to download photos from flickr couldn’t unless they wanted to view a 1 inch photo. And they couldn’t print/buy the photos very easily either.

I need a new online hosting site for my photos. I don’t upload that many photos anyway, but I want to be able to upload ones to share with my family that they can either download to their computer or buy prints. I wanted something that I can link to via my blogger weblogs – mainly my garden photos for rosemariegarden.blogspot.com – that the public could view without being invited. And I wanted something free.

This NY Times article did more than I could ever hope for, detailing the online photo hosting sites clean and simple.

The verdict… I am migrating over the Picasa. My viewers can download full resolution photos that they can keep and print. It works the best with blogger. And I can upload photos from Mac’s iPhotos.

I hope this works well, I’ll keep you posted on when it too starts to annoy me.

Ringing in the New Year and looking back on 2008

The holiday extravaganza, which begins with Thanksgiving and ends with New Years, is over.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year at our humble abode surrounded by family and a plethora of breakfast goodies. At the 11th hour, I changed my menu (already bought, mind you) from soup and stew to the breakfast of champions: waffles, sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns. Some training as a short order cook would have served me and Matt well.

The consensus was that 2008 could take a hike, we were ready for a new year and a new start. Looking back on the year that saw our retirement portfolios sink faster than the Titanic, we can say we survived it.

Puerto Vallarta, Fort Meyers Beach Florida, Door County Wisconsin, Nashville Tennessee... those were some of the places we visited this year and each one was special. But the most special was Door County. Matt and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in the place where we got engaged and it still holds fond memories and happiness for us.

While my work life rode an endless series of roller coaster turns and loops, I haven't yet fallen out of my seat. My company merged with a competitor, consolidated divisions, and had 3 series of layoffs. I saw my old department be eliminated entirely, while I held on. My role in the organization changed three times this year, a personal work relationship crumbled, and for the better I was able to start anew in a new department, but that again, has now changed and I'm holding on to the bar very tightly anticipating the next curve or dip.

Our house got a chance to be enjoyed rather than torn apart -- at least for most of the year. Last year was one project after the next, but in 2008 we just sat and relaxed, enjoying the new living room and dining room. Only at the end of October did we start the lower level bathroom renovation after the mold seeping from the shower couldn't be ignore one minute longer. But this won't get done until 2009... February maybe?

We didn't go out as much as we wanted, or connect with friends as often as we wanted. I hope that 2009 lets us make up for that.

Onward 2009!