Day Thirty One

We had a blast at the roller derby bout tonight! It was an awesome first bout of the season for sure! The excitement was definitely non-stop and I am looking forward to when I can be out there as one of the team. One day :)

Ashley is interested in checking out derby now too and we are all going to go to Skate King Tuesday and get some skate time in.

Day Thirty

This morning I tried to cook something new with phillo dough. I have never cooked with phillo dough and really wasn't sure what to do with it. I put layers on the bottom and added a layer of spinach and then a layer of salmon and cheese with a little cayenne pepper and then some more spinach.

In theory it sounded great, but in reality it didn't turn out so good. All the flavors were there but the phillo was bland and boring. I need to figure out how to cook it. You must have to use some wet ingredients so it gets a little moist or something. Next time!


I also went to Skate King and skated for a while. There were tons of little kids there and it was fun dodging in and out between them. It was great obstacle practice. A couple people came up to me and asked me if I was a roller derby girl because I had my gear on. That was really cool!  I told them about PFM and suggested they check it out. :)

Tomorrow we are going to check out the first Rat City bout of the season!

Day Twenty Nine

On my way to work today as I pulled onto the MS campus I saw a tiny yellow single person car. I followed it but soon lost it in the maze known as the MS campus so I wasn't able to get a picture of it; but as I was walking up to my building I came across another car (in the picture). Who drives a ... ummmm ... dune buggy? race car?  to work?

Day Twenty Eight

Drea joined me at roller derby practice tonight and guess what? ... Tomorrow we are heading to Fast Girl Skates so she can buy some gear and start going to practice with me next week. She really enjoyed watching the practice and has been wanting to do it for a while, too. Woo hoo!

I also found out that one of the new girls that trains with me is six monthsolder then me! I don't feel nearly as old now knowing other people my age are doing it :) Next Thursday I am going to join the pack and skate with the more experienced skaters. I am looking forward to it :)

I am sore and hungry and feeling great!

Day Twenty Seven

Not feeling well today. Spent the WHOLE day sleeping. I am thinking I needed a good day of rest. Roller derby practice tomorrow; Drea wants to go with me and check it out. Should be fun. :)

Day Twenty Six

I had a fun night tonight! My friend Megan asked if I wanted to attend a mixer for the International Game Developers Association in Seattle. It was a casual fun get-together. Drea and a girl I hadn't met before named Katie went with us.

During the event Drea mentioned there was a social media meetup in Seattle tonight as well so we both wandered over there and hung out for a bit. The place was PACKED. There had to be a couple hundred people gathered together. I met some people I knew from Twitter and that was pretty cool.

I got along real good with Katie, she reminded me of my friend Nikol, the funny part was she is just two years older then Zach. The times are sure changing and age is definitely becoming a numnber that really doesn't mean anything. I have friends in their 20's, 30's, and 40's.

Day Twenty Five

Tonight I hung out with Zach and Ty on Xbox LIVE in party chat just chatting. It was really nice. It is cool that we have the technology to hang out with family and friends even from a distance.

Day Twenty Four

Another Roller Derby day and another painful but fun night! I am sure tomorrow I will be feeling it even more. We learned cross overs tonight and the chick I carpool with, Nicole (in the picture), was asked to join the core group tonight! I am sure in a month I will be too, I am doing surpringly good on skates. I really thought I would have forgot it all! I need to build core strength so I am going to have to take some yoga classes soon!

Day Twenty Three

After the wonderful sandwich I had at Martina's last week I decided to stop by Trader Joe's and pick up some stuff to make my own. I ended up getting all the Trader Joe brand stuff for sandwiches and picked up some Trader Joe coffee, and cookies, too! I don't think the bananas and Puffins cereal were Trader Joe brand, but who knows, they could have been!

I liked the store in Redmond better then I did the one in Bellevue. I think I might shop here more then at Whole Foods!

Day Twenty Two

Very sore today.  Didn't do much except sit, stretch, take a hot bath, sit some more, stretch some more, and then played 1 vs 100 with my mom and Zach on Xbox LIVE! It was fun to see how much smarter I am then them.  hahahahahaha! :) Hoping to get up early and not be in too much pain tomorrow and attend a pilates class. We shall see....

Day Twenty One

I had an AWESOME time tonight! I went to my very first Roller Derby practice! There were about five of us new chicks, I was the newest, and one of the more experienced roller girls showed us how to stop and how to fall many different ways.

Everyone else was doing the regular practice, skating and blocking and a bunch of other stuff that I will be participating in next week. I am so sore and tired and excited! I am looking forward to Sunday when I go to another practice!

Day Twenty

Today I went to visit my friend Christa and her family. We watched Paranormal Activity and had spaghetti with garlic bread. Yum! I really liked the movie, it was crazy! Indy can now sit up by herself, roll over, and makes tons of sounds. I was trying to teach her to say Kiki but she just kept giggling everytime I did it!


Christa's son, Scott, got a record player for Christmas and when I got there Callie was listening to an album her grandfather had made (that's him on the album cover in the picture). It was groovy. It was a great night and we plan to make it a regular thing every Wednesday; movie and dinner. I am looking forward to it!

Day Nineteen

Today I went by Martina's house to go over some work stuff and to have lunch. While eating soup and a wonderful sandwich made entirely from Trader Joe items (she's a big fan) and snacking on veges and hummus, I realized I needed to take a pic for my blog. When I said this, Martina quickly rearranged the veggies and added some fruit because she said she didn't want her lunch embarrassed by my wonderful meals I blog about. She is so silly!

Day Eighteen

I got a new pair of running shoes today! I went to a place in Seattle where they have you run on a treadmill and they film it to check out your gait (Thanks to mum and Zach for the idea to find a place that does that!). It was pretty cool to see the results and listen to them explain the results afterward. The guy helping me was really helpful and spent a lot of time discussing the shoes with me.

I ended up getting the Puma's. It turns out I have a pretty normal gait and just need lots of padding to make it more cushiony. The shoes are guys shoes, but I liked the orange better then the purple! I really like how these Puma's give me toes lots of room to move around. My foot doesn't feel like a sausage! Tomorrow I start over Week 2 of the C25K.

Hopefully the new shoes help with the pain in the sides of my calves so I can finsh the week without crying and move on to Week 3!

Day Seventeen

I got up bright and early this morning to go on another hike with the PNW Hikers group. Bright and early means I rolled out of bed at 8AM. Which is what I literally did, rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and hiking boots, grabbed Riley and her leash and left. It was a nice relaxing hike today and not that many people showed up, but it was still good and I got to chat and learn more about Alecia, the women who organizes all the hikes, and her family.

Ashley, whom I met on the hike last weekend, caught me on Facebook today and after chatting a bit we decided to go and watch the local Roller Derby team which starts its season next month. That should be cool to check out!

The rest of the day was just me and Riley being lazy. I did make an awesome dinner; whole wheat pasta, chicken, veggies (yellow peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and fresh garlic) with red sauce. It was really good!  In the picture with its head cut off is the 'angel of the kitchen' my mom included in my b-day package she sent. Look at the cute teapot it is holding!

Day Sixteen

Riley and I went for an early morning walk on the Burke Gilman trail along Lake Sammamish today and it was beautiful outside. It was very foggy and surreal looking. I love it! I am still missing not having snow this year, but hopefully next year I will be living near snow again :)



After the gym I picked up some fresh veggies and fruit, chicken breast, and a round of sourdough bread. After much consideration I decided to have warm sourdough bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dinner.  And maybe I will chop up some mango and mix it with berries for desert! Tomorrow I will make the chicken with veggies and pasta for lunch or dinner.

Day Fifteen

I went into work today, since I had a meeting, and met two of my co-workers/friends for lunch. We had a great time as always gossiping and chatting. When Zach was out visiting we went over for brunch at Martina's with Paloma and Marica as well and Zach said that out of all the friends of mine he has met he liked them the best. I think it is because they actually listened when he talked, or maybe it was thier accents. Anyway, I think he has great taste, they are definitely cool cats in my book!


Later I went home and watched "Whip It". Yep, it hasn't come out on DVD yet, but we get advanced copies of movies at work, one of the perks :) After watching it I got the urge to roller skate. I would also LOVE to roller derby! How cool would that be! I really, really want some some skates; real skates, not rollerblades! I will put them on my list of things to save up for :)

Day Fourteen

I started the day with a beautiful looking breakfast; eggs, sausages, and fresh berries with kiwi! Luckily for me it tasted as good as it looked! And luckily for my health it was healthy too! Yummy!


Today was a prety boring day, so I also ended it with a beautiful meal. Salmon with a mango and avocado chutney, with a side of sauteed spinach and tomatoes. I got the idea for the dinner from that cookbook I got yesterday and it was reall good and I made it all myself. :)

Day Thirteen

I thought today was going to be a boring "stayed at home and worked" day, but it ended up being more. Not much more. Nothing exciting happened, it's just that when I thought of having another post that didn't say much it worried me. So I stopped working around 2PM and headed to the gym.

After another awesome workout and tons of time to think while on the treadmill, I decided to go to the library and get a cookbook. First thing I noticed when walking into the library was another one of the stones that had an awesome message, "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you though times of no libraries". How true that was! I was going to the library to get a cookbook rather then the bookstore to buy one.

One of the only good things about having to take a job that paid a lot less is that I am learning to be a tiny bit more frugal. The library and I have become really good friends lately. After looking through a ton of cookbooks I found one that I think I will like. It is called "The Essential Best Foods Cookbook". It claims to have recipes that use foods that matter most to our health like salmon, pomegranates, avocados, berries, chili peppers, quinoa, and more. This is what I was looking for; good, healthy, nutritious food. Not boring, tasteless, diet food. I also stopped at Whole Foods and got some pink Himalayan salt and fresh mint. I plan to make some cookies using both, it should be interesting!

Day Twelve

Remember at the very beginning of this blog when I said I may have days where nothing really happens, just the same ol' same ol'.  Well that day has come. It was the same ol' stuff today, work and then the gym. I was really proud of myself about the gym because it was rainy and miserable out and I really didn't feeling like going out and going to the gym, I just wanted to be lazy. But I did it!  I got off my bum and went to the gym. Yay!

Research has shown that it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. That's not too bad, two months and going to the gym will be routine as going to sleep each night, right?

Speaking of sleep, I came across this nifty little product called a Fitbit. At first it just looks like another step counter, but after reading some more, what really caught my attention is it monitors your sleep. It helps you see how good a nights sleep you are getting.  I love it! I think I am going to save up and get it!

Day Eleven

O.M.G!  I am so worn out! I went to the gym today and walked out of there feeling nauseated and weak! I did Week 2 Day 1 of the C25K program and it kicked my bum, and then I upped all my weights by 10 to 30 lbs and it was hard work! I have a feeling I am going to wake up tomorrow morning really sore, but that's a good thing!

On the way home I stopped at the library to drop off some books and remembered the tiles on the ground that Zach noticed when he was out here. I snapped a couple of pics of them. I don't know how many places could get away with these tiles, especially near a government building. Click on the pic to see them up close, it's pretty cool! The ones I grabbed snapshots of are in regard to God and religion and state things like, "No God! No Jesus! No Problem!", "The bible teaches people to hate", and "Sexism, the original sin".

Day Ten

Today was cleaning day. I got through a lot of laundry I was saving up and a lot of dirty dishes. Since I don't have a dishwasher and have to do the dishes by hand, I try to do them as I use them; but sometimes I get lazy and just toss them in the sink where the mess builds up.

I also cleaned the kitchen counters and floors and reorganized a few things. I went through a bunch of bathroom stuff, throwing away tons of things I don't use anymore or that was just old and icky! It's very satisfying cleaning up, it is just a pain in the ass to get started sometimes!

Back to the gym tomorrow! I am looking forward to going and plan to up my weights on the machines as well as the incline on the treadmill and elliptical!

See ya!

Day Nine

Well I did it! I met up with the meetup.com group, PNW Leisure Hikers, and had a blast! We went on a real light hike and then a little bit tougher hike; at least tough for out of shape me! I met a lot of great people and am really glad I did this. We gave each other a lot of encouragement and support to make it up the tough parts of the hike. I am looking forward to more hikes with this group!

I also met two really cool chicks, Jamie and Ashley, and we exchanged Facebook info.

Riley did good too. She was pretty excited to be around a bunch of people and there were a couple small dogs that came along as well. I wish there would have been a couple more bigger dogs, and I really wish it could have been an off leash hike! 

We hiked past two waterfalls and the little person in the waterfall picture is Isabell (12 years old next month). She decided she was going to be mine and Riley's hiking buddy and never left our side. We took turns holding Riley's leash and she was thrilled to learn that I believed in fairies and watched Dr. Who. She also was really polite and asked if we would be on future hikes, and she also talked my ear off!

And lastly, I received a real nice holiday postcard from one of my Twitter friends, Steph. I thought that was really sweet! I need to send random cards to people I know!

Day Eight

I spent the day working and then getting my backpack ready for the big hike tomorrow. Well, not that big; it's maybe three miles total, but I am really looking forward to meeting a new group of people I am going to meet via http://www.meetup.com/. More on the hike and the group tomorrow!

Day Seven

I went into work today to actually work from work and... nothing worked! I couldn't acces the sites I needed to actually get my job done. Support spent the morning trying to get things to work for me, and when I got tired of waiting around I left and went to the gym.

Good workout today! I walked/jogged the treadmill today (walked at 3.0 for 5 minutes and then 6.0 for 1 minute, alternated that as many times to hit 30 minutes). I used the machines for my lower body and then did the elliptical HARDCORE for 10 minutes. The gym is deserted at 2pm, so that was awesome.  I found a site to design and track a workout that I can upload/download to my iPod touch and it is working awesome. I can track tons of details about my workout and keep track of it. It is at fitsync.com.

That's it for today.. see ya tomorrow!

Day Six

In my backyard there runs a stream. It's really shallow and surrounded by a lot of overgrowth, but there is a little path that leads back there and the growth is short enough that Riley can run up and down it. There are so many cool things I would do to this property if I owned it! But for now I can just enjoy what I rent. :)


I hit the gym again today and worked out for almost two hours with some cardio and with an upper body machine workout! After this awesome workout I made a stop at the British Pantry and picked up some stuff to put back on all the calories I just burned. I grabbed some PG Tips, chocolate digestives, a steak and mushroom pie, a pack of sausages, and some crumpets! Yum!

Day Five

I snuck out of work during the middle of the day to play hooky and take Riley to the dog park. Yes, I do consider it sneaking out of work even if I am working from home! It was overcast and drizzle and foggy out and I thought the weather was wonderful! I was actually surprised at how many people there were at the dog park.

Riley quickly found a group of dogs around her age to hang out with and they had a blast. We joked around that the dogs were acting like they were in a gang since they ran around with each other playing around and then would gang up on any dog that tried to join them. I thought they needed matching bandannas or something. They were being such brats!

It turned out to be a nice break for the middle of the day and I plan to do it lots more!

Day Four

Today was a more mellow day. I worked from home today, snuck in a couple episodes of Supernatural, and then I went to the gym. I did good today at the gym! I decided to go ahead and start the C25K program;, I just kept the jogging part real light so my heartbeat didn't go to high. So that means C25K D1W1 is complete!

After the C25K I used the weight machines and worked on my arms and then I used the elliptical for 15 minutes! See.. good workout! What I plan to do is create a workout plan so I know which muscles to work on which days.

See ya tomorrow!

Day Three

I was chatting with my friend Daniel last night and we decided, on the spur of the moment, to go on a road trip the next day. That day is today! He hasn't seen the Hoh Rain forest yet, so we decided to head over to the western side of the Olympic Peninsula and check it out.

First things first, grab some coffee! We went to one of the many, many coffee stands in the area and I grabbed a triple sugar-free vanilla soy latte!

Next step was the ferry. As with a lot of places in Washington the ferry was dog friendly when you are on the top level. Riley and I quickly made our way up there to enjoy the view. It was pretty cold up there.. but we snuggled to keep warm.

On to the town of Forks! Forks has been made famous in the last few years because of the discovery of glittery vampires. So in honor of the latest craze, we decided to grab a pamphlet and do a quick tour of the town looking for all the Twilight highlights. Neither one of us is big fans, but we had a blast finding all the hot spots!


First up...the high school where everyone, including the sparkly vampires, attend.  Go Spartans! The school was pretty plain (from the outside) and there wasn't really anything exciting about it that we could see, but we grabbed a quick shot of the school sign.


Next up was the hospital where Dr. Cullen works. To our delight we found that Dr Cullen has his very own parking spot! Check out my super sneaky vampire pose.

And the last stop on the Twilight tour was the sheriffs office where Bella's dad works. You have to wonder what the people in the sheriffs office think of all these crazy people taking pictures of their signs!

After that whirlwind tour of the town of Forks, we wandered a bit further out of the bustling town of Forks (population just over 3000) and stopped at Ruby Beach. It's a real pretty beach with a nice walk down a forest path to a beach covered with driftwood. There was also a large stream running from a lake to join with the ocean running down the middle of the beach. Riley jumped in it and got caught up in the current, but luckily she was able to paddle her way back with tons of encouragement from me! That was scary!

After the beach we finally made it to the rain forest. It is really beautiful and I plan to put my camping gear to use and spend a weekend there sometime soon!

And the final stop in our journey was at a road side stand that was selling chainsaw carvings. This handsome dude caught my eye! Overall it was a great day.. but a really long one! I think we were gone about 12 hours!

I am looking forward to tomorrow since even though I am really sore from the gym yesterday, I am hitting it again tomorrow!

See ya :)

Day Two

I hit another one of my goals today and joined a gym. I am now a proud member of the RAC! It actually is Redmond Athletic Club, but the RAC just sounds cool. I was going to start the C25K (couch to 5k) program today, but after doing the warm up on the treadmill and checking my pulse, I think I will just do some walking/fast walking until my heartbeat gets a little lower. I also used the weight machines and worked on my upper body. It felt good to go to the gym, as it always does, now I just need to make sure I keep this up!


I also stopped at the library to pick up some books and one book on CD that I had on hold. The book I got isn't a classic, but is a re-telling of a fairytale classic. It is called Beauty, by Robin McKinley, and is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I am looking forward to reading it! I have read another book by Robin McKinley and really like their writing. The book on CD is for when I go on a road-trip coming up. I prefer to listen to books when I go on long drives, and I also listen to books when I workout. I would say I do a lot of reading, be it with my eyes or ears!

Rather then cook something new today, I went a little retro and cooked something I remember from growing up. After seeing someone on TV with this I got an urge that wouldn't go away so I stopped at the store and grabbed some Jiffy Pop. This is the Jiffy Pop that is already in its own little pan that you cook on the stove. It was fun to make and brings back some memories! I also picked up some Pecan Sandie's which also remind me of growing up and fighting with my dad over who got the last one in the cookie jar!