I Survive a Spartan!

But actually, Dean and Drew went first, and did the Spartan Beast (14+ miles and 30+ obstacles) outside of Fort Worth, TX, on Saturday. Drew appears contemplative after slogging through a lake with fish dying from all the mud being stirred up by thousands of participants. Sad situation.

But he was happy to finish in one piece, 7 hours later. Yes, let me say that again - 7 hours of obstacles and hauling sandbags and buckets of rocks up and down the only mountain in Texas, apparently.

They got back to the hotel at 8 PM, we had a carbalicious dinner, and got up at 6:30 to do it again. Well, Drew caught a plane back to Auburn, but Dean did it again with me in the Spartan Sprint, which was about 4.5 miles and 20+ obstacles. And this would be the only picture they caught of me, in the barbed wire crawl (roll). They did not catch my final leap over the fire at 2 hours and 7 minutes, making me #19 of 48 women in my age group....or as my friend called it, the Top Twenty!

But it's okay they didn't get more pictures, because we took a selfie:

Yeah, just trust me, you're destined to see more bruises and scrapes as they appear. I even have fingerprints on my left forearm where some dude helped haul me over the final edge, after I rope-climbed up the 45-degree wall. So then we came back to Halloween, and I had the creepy mummy lit up in the window again - love this thing!

And my resident and medical student dressed up with the rest of the office....and yes, I forgot my yellow duckbill quacker.

We're all Disney characters, but there wasn't really a theme this year. (Star Wars is Disney, now, right? And the one in the middle is Tinkerbell.)

And now to leave you with my Mardi Gras dress fabric - stretch velvet in Royal Blue from fabric.com - LOVE! Look how rich!

Compare it with the $1 swatch of the stretch velvet from Mood - I'm so happy with the actual fabric being darker and richer, which is a good thing, since I bought 4 yards of it based on the reviews!

So the 4th annual GCGS&KW is set for December 17th, and I hope to have a modifed pattern for this stretch velvet by then. In the meantime, I'm off to Las Vegas for a work meeting - any suggestions for shopping? Las Vegas doesn't strike me as the mecca for home sewers and knitters, honestly, so I'm taking my split-neck sweater to work on. I did get it re-needled, but am working on the marker placement before starting up again - bleh! I need to go get another private sock lesson so I can finish the ones I started...What have you accomplished lately that made you feel great?

Belly Dancing Gift

I forgot to show you something my sister gave me - it's some sort of belly-dancing skirt. Here's a close-up...

And now it will be demonstrated by my sister - too bad there's no sound so you can hear how pretty it is...and how out of breath she gets!

Pure Homemade Barre

Just a quick gloat before I head to Pure Barre then work on the dress. I wore this to PB Friday - my homemade shirt, leggings, and my knitted shrug. When I walked in, the receptionist (same one who liked my shrug a few months ago) said, "Whoa - cool leggings! Where'd you get those?" I said, "Oh, thank you! I made them." She said, "You did NOT. How would you MAKE cool leggings like that?" I said, "Well, you buy cool fabric at Hancock's, then you sew them up." She said, "Oh, so you used a sewing machine? Cool!"

I'm not sure how else I would've made them...maybe people think sewing machines are only for making homemade dresses and stuff. And speaking of homemade dresses, I've checked the fit of the bodice pattern with my muslin, which is a geometric print, and it doesn't look bad, so I'm going ahead with the real stuff once I check the skirt fit. Have a great Sunday!

Happy New Year!

Hope everybody's off to a great start so far. We had a quiet New Year's Eve at home with Drew (who finally found a job - hooray!), and Lucas spent the night with a friend. He was so excited since he hasn't done a lot of spend-the-nights, but he was sweating some small stuff. He asked me if he should clean his plate up then come back to the table at dinner if other people were still eating, and if his friend left the table, should he follow him or stay at the table till everyone was done. Funny kid. I remember being scared of my friends' dads, but I always spilled my milk at my best friend's house. Her parents never got mad, but I was really embarrassed the time I came over and there was no table cloth on the table - they were prepared.

So this is what I'm working on now - a sweater from the book I mentioned yesterday with some brown yarn from The Yarn Cottage. It's supposed to look like a suede jacket sort of, and it's knit in the round, so we'll see how that goes...

And here's the beige sweater so far - almost ready to shape armholes, then sleeves are next I guess...

And just my favorite thing so far, the white dishrag again. I'm going to try Gwen's idea of experimenting with different patterns with this yarn and make some more dishrags. I really need to ratchet up my game with some cables or something...

Also, I started the day off with Pure Barre, so I'm proud that I've stuck with something for 5 months now, and can laugh about my silly attempts in the past at treadmill dancing and those Flirty Girl Fitness CD's I tried. Good luck to everybody else whose sticking with a fitness plan!

Christmas Eve Pure Barre!

Can't show all the knitting yet, but I've got a white cotton washcloth about halfway done in the meantime. And today my 2 SIL's and my sister graciously agreed to join me at Pure Barre to see what it's all about.

I hope to have a plethora of knitted gifts to show you in the next couple of days. Now to go eat some buckeye balls and thumbprint cookies - have a Merry Christmas!

Flirty Girl is BACK!

Update - a 2nd installment of Flirty Girl fitness props came in the mail. This time it was 2 pink rubber balls filled with sand - 2.5 lbs. each I guess. (Much too large to sit comfortably in my bra, sadly.) One CD was more chair dance toning, but the other was upper body workout. (Ohhhh - THAT's what the pink balls are for!) So I gave it a spin last night - only for about 10 minutes, mind you. I did some biceps/triceps curls and something where you bend sideways and PULL yourself back up. Didn't feel too much at the time, but REVELATION - my WAIST is sore tonight!

Now has your WAIST ever been sore? Mine has not, and I did Pilates for a while several years ago. Picture twisting to look around, or just bending over a little bit, and it absolutely bites on your side right above your hipbone. HOORAY! Now I can believe those testimonials that women lost pounds and inches - if this happened after a mere 10 minutes, imagine what 30 minutes a day for a month could accomplish!

And I do mean imagine, because you know how consistent I was with the treadmill, right?

Old Ladies Doing Yoga - Watch Out Now!

This was going to be a response to Lisa's comment below, but it was too long so now it's a post. I took a yoga class a few years ago at the Senior Center near my office and I was the youngest of about 10 women. They had various complaints - knee problems, obesity, back issues, and the instructor was in her 60's and took it VERY EASY. That was my first yoga class so I thought, "how relaxing!" It was all about the breathing and moving extremely slowly. How peaceful! Then one day a substitute came in who was MY age and ramped things up a bit. (By "a bit," I mean we supported our shoulders with blankets and had our lower backs and legs up on the wall.) You should've heard the complaints: I can't do that with my back! That hurts my knee! This isn't how Ethel (not her real name) does it! Then somebody farted. Yep, push old ladies and they're gonna fart. I'm not blaming - I fully understand it comes with age, so my time is coming. I just hope you're not in yoga class with me when it does.

Oh, and imagine my horror when I show up one day and the news channel is there to do a special on exercise and the elderly!

Flirtatious disappointment

Well, the Flirty Girl disappoints just a bit. The Chair Dance was a very nice routine with a chair. I didn't see how it was "exercise" except when you lie all the way back and then have to hike yourself back up to sitting. And maybe you're working on flexibility when you throw a leg over the chair back. And possibly when you stand up from the chair, leading with the pelvis. And definitely when you lift yourself sideways with your hand on the seat and your legs pointed out to the side - picture a tripod or something - and you sort of walk your feet back and forth while twisting at the hips. Are you gettin' this?

Dean just looked very surprised and dismayed (mostly dismayed) when I demonstrated it after one run-through. My 2 coworkers commented that it didn't really look like a workout, but I certainly was breathing hard afterwards....maybe because the chair at work is a ROLLING chair and nearly took my arms out of the sockets during the tripod maneuver.

And I did most of the Booty Beat video tonight. My conclusion is that these really are strippers trying to make a little extra money, because I can now do a corny version of a sexy striptease, but nothing was really feeling the burn like with Buns of Steel. I think the guy on that video may have been a stripper too; maybe I'll have to break out the legwarmers and go back to him. Ready, Tracey?

Flirty Girl, here I come!

Okay, so the treadmill didn't work out. I did it for about 3 weeks or so, and just haven't had the will to get back on. I need really fast results on these hips and belly and the treadmill's gonna take SO LONG. (P.S. if you're a male, just keep movin' on to your next website....show's over....nothin' to see here.)

So last night during SNL a commercial came on for Flirty Girl Fitness. That's where I'm headed. It's ho-dancin' down low so of course you get fast results right where I need it. You can even order a real pole to install - you thought I was kidding with the "ho" bit? It's only $1 according to the ad. Of course, the small print on the website mentions that shipping and handling is $19.23 and then there are 3 more easy payments of $29 or something like that. Damned expensive pole! That price does NOT include the handyman to put it up.

I'll keep you updated as to my progress - once I get the DVD's in 2-3 weeks. Oh, and they DO come with a pink feather boa to get you motivated! We shall see.....

Treadhoods Yo

We run a tight ship at Dr. Fun's Penitentiary (see blog entry 11/29/08), and we highly encourage physical fitness. The bros can put on a hoodie or go shirtless to show off their ink while workin' it out on the tread. I doubt they'll get an early release for good behavior....but good dancin' might get 'em probation!

Watch Out Tamilee! For Me, I Mean...

So this doesn't look like strenuous exercise at all, but I'm actually going 4 mph, which is pretty decent. I think it's that my legs are so long and I'm apparently quite Marfanoid, so it doesn't look like it's fast. What you can't tell is that I ended up sweating rather heavily after a couple of takes. (That just proves that I'm out of shape, not that this is great cardio...which it really is.)

I don't think Tamilee has anything to worry about. Even if I did have big muscles like she does, I certainly don't have the wardrobe or cleavage to pose a problem.

This is not how I look in my head.

Again, when I'm on the treadmill with earphones in, I am SO SEXY during this song! Somehow that all gets lost in video. I like it better in my head - maybe it should've stayed there! This is also about 4 mph, but if you'd rather run, crank it up! Just be careful or you'll fall off the treadmill like I nearly did.

Now for a cool-down, I like that Decemberadio song "For Your Glory" that I linked a few weeks ago. You just have to remember that it's a cool down, so no "testifying" or you'll get your heart rate back up!

Still Going!

Uh-oh - January 6th and I'm still exercising! What's happening???? I did 30 minutes on the treadmill tonight after Scout meetings - go girl! I have a new idea for a brief video...stay tuned. It'll be inspirational for anyone bored on the treadmill, complete with song recommendations (hint: Disturbia by Rhianna and Let It Rock by Jeff Somebody with Lil Wayne - who coulda thunk it?) and speeds to maximize your cardio. Gotta work on the sound aspect - let me think about this. Anybody else sticking with a resolution? Also one glass of wine a night is holding strong. (Holding it down to one glass, that is!)

Oh, see there - I made another joke that will appall my mother or my sister one - loosen up girls!