Wednesdays are dress like a ninja day

I so desperately want to hang this on the door to my lab...

Last night J and I accidentally stayed up late on the interwebs looking up stuff for our summer trip that has sort of snuck up on us and expanded. We are going to my friend's wedding in the UK and taking 5 days in the middle of our time there to take the train up north and spend 3 days hiking on the Arran Island up in Scotland. I am beyond excited. I'm itching to get a new pair of hikers and break them in. I can't wait to see my friend and share in her wedding. I can't wait to spend the days hiking along coastal fields. Meep! I have an uber goal now - finish my thesis before we leave for this trip. Reading all about the island and train schedules and B&Bs and local distilleries with tasting tours (ahem) kept me up rather late so my 5:20 alarm hurt...but I came in. I did my thing. With style. :)

I dusted off my workout A + abfest from so very long ago and threw in 26 minutes on the elliptical at the endfor a solid workout. I've been trying some medicine ball twists lately...felt good. Theres' a girl in wicked shape who is always doing cool combination workouts and I want to ask her where she gets them from. They're kinda like bodyrock style workouts...looks like challenging with lots of variation but not ridiculously hard. I think they would be fun. I feel like I need a new workout or two to throw int he mix. The whole workout schedule changes in April and my tues/thurs spin and sculpt class may be gone so I'm looking at what I can find to fill the gap...

I must be off. I have a meeting today and I have to be all official and stuff and try and get things done for it. I still can't believe I get to do what I do some days.

Yay life :)

Have a great day everyone!

breakfast pudding

This morning was spin and sculpt. It was a good solid (and less sexy!) workout and I made chocolate chia overnight oats for breakfast after. Oh my...just added a bit of vanilla protein powder, cocoa and stevia to the usual recipe and it's like heavenly chocolate pudding, only really good for me and it's for breakfast. Not too sweet...and keeps me full all morning. Mmm. Yum.

Must dash. The world of science awaits! I am feeling pretty smug since I finished up my first hypothesis draft section last night. Time to step back from it and pick away at the other two. I feel like I may finish things someday. Yay!

here we go again

Well. This weekend was fun. I admit I got very little done on my thesis, but it was very relaxing. Saturday J and I went to see the a showing of The Thief of Baghdad, with live musicians form the local orchestra playing an accompaniment. It was fantastic. I am amazed over and over again at that film - considering it was made in 1926 - it is still incredible. The sets and costumes and special effects are amazing. Even flying carpets :)

Saturday evening we threw a little shindig to say thanks to all the people who helped out with our party on Dec 26. We threw it a a friends cozy old house, with good drinks and munchables. The weather was blizzardy so there wasn't much hanging out outside, but it was a nice relaxing time with friends. Got to goof around and just relax for once, mix up ridiculous drinks and laugh and have fun. A few buddies and I even brought some clothes we like but don't wear anymore and got to swap out too big/small stuff for other new things to love. I scored some good work sweaters and a swanky leather jacket. Meow.

Sunday was mostly napping and recovering from the whole saturday experience. I had every intention of doing thesis work, but I ended up leaving the Oscars on while I worked...and consequently didn't do a whole lot. I did get some chores done and I'm happy to report that my mead is already up at about 8% alcohol and soon can be racked into a secondary fermentor so it can clarify for a while...just a few more % left to ferment ...probably next weekend I think. He hee. It smells yummy...

This morning I came in to workout and wasn't sure what to do so I wandered into the spin class. Wow. What a workout. the instructor is really good at encouraging you and getting you to work hard without yelling or being aggressive, but it honestly sounds like some kind of erotic exchange when she's egging us on (things like: "yeah yeah, oh yeah. harder. yeah. come on. yes yes...") I admit I giggled a fair bit at first...and then I was breathing too hard and concentrating on not dying. She's good! Afterwards I did some abwork and I'm in for work.

Have a great day!

Friday at last

I was up late last night at a meeting, but in the end of a long day we got home and fell into bed. The day went well. I was healthy and happy, and even made a yummy healthy supper (butternut squash saag). Other than the homemade small cake donut a friend made for me (which I ate...even tho I didn't need to- I mean how often do you get to have a homemade from scratch chocolate cake donut? Not often enough!) I had a healthy day...but a long one.

This morning, I was tired but I was up and in to the gym. I wasn't sure what to do and it was the yelly instructor teaching class that I don't like, so I did ZWOW #1, modifying the pistol squats into only half way down, plus same # one legged lunges (my knees won't do full pistol squats yet...but I'll get there...). Then I threw in 2 sets on the hip/butt machine, back raises, hanging crunches and side crunches at the end and a few minutes on the bike to cool down before a nice long hot shower. A good workout. Today is another busy day, but it's friday :)

Tomorrow we are going to see the old silent film the Thief of Baghdad with the soundtrack played by the local symphony chamber choir! I've been looking forward to it for a while now. AND Saturday evening we are getting together with friends, so it should be fun. Sunday is thesis day. With any luck I will roll through the weekend accomplishing much and napping here and there.

I have to bring the weirdest possible dessert I can think of to the gathering tomorrow...so after searches, I am going to attempt red bull confetti cupcakes. If I survive the taste test I'll let you know how they turn out. I also have to check on my mead on the weekend to make sure it's fermenting OK. With any luck it is and I can rack it next week into the secondary and then ignore it a few months...

Whew...that looks exhausting to write all that out. It will be fun though! We're starting to plan our summer...it's going to be exciting!!! By the end of the weekend we should have it all worked out. I'll keep you all posted :)

Never a dull moment around here!

Have a great weekend!

here we go again

Made it in this morning for spin and sculpt class. The regular instructor was away and the replacement kicked out butts. :) Good workout, and now a long day: work meeting work meeting thesis sleep...oh so far from now!

Just popped in to log. Have a great day!

I wish to have this kind of time

La la la la laaaaaaah!

I am in a rediculously good mood for absolutely no reason at all :)

Woke up this way. Love it when this happens!

Last night I really got down with my thesis. I sat down for a bit to plan out how to discuss my three hypothesis and ended up spending 3 hours hammering out an outline plan for discussion of all of them. With THAT I can get down to writing them. This is the easy stuff - stuff I've DONE. I can talk about it. Already have the tables and figures. Finally feel like I'm onto something. Tonight J works all night so I'm going to head home after work and attack the first hypothesis while I feel all funkilicious about it.

Also - on the mead front - things are burbling. I was a bit worried at first, because it's not a crazy explosive krausen like the last batch of strawberry beer I made that actually fermented so much it blew the lid off the primary fermenter, but if you put your ear beside the pail you can hear it fizzling away...sounds like bubbles popping or the fizz in a glass of soda. It's alive! ALIVE! In a week I'll check the specific gravity. If it's going down, then everything is just peachy and the yeasties are making booze...

This morning I got up to work out and class was cancelled (it's spring break so a lot of stuff isn't on this week) so I made up a workout and I'm pretty proud of it. Good overall workout. Here is what I got up to:

Loop 1:

20 deadlifts

12 T-arm raises sides (8 Lb)

12 T- arm raises front (8 Lb)

12 Leg extensions (40 Lb)

12 standing shoulder presses (8 Lb)

Done 3 times

Loop 2:

20 back extensions

20 suspended crunches

20 standing side weight crunches/extensiony things with 20 Lb (each side)

Done twice

Loop 3:

10 side lunges (each side)

10 walking lunges (both sides)

10 reverse lunges into a front kick (both sides)

Done twice

Loop 4: variation of Josie's Planking circuit (just no standing up at the end between reps)

planked leg reverse lifts (one each leg)

mountain climber knee in crunches (one each leg)

planked knee into opposite elbow crunches (one each leg)

Do twenty times

Then 25 minutes on the elliptical. I feel AWESOME :) Muahahaha!

And on a separate nifty note, my favourite electronic/ambient/dub artist Ott has put out an album, which I finally got around to buying. It's so happy and loungy and lovely. Here's a track from it to make a happy few minutes for your ears...


Have a fantastic day :)

Battery recharge

AH. Nice long weekend. Yesterday was a holiday for some of us (I had it, but J didn't) so it was an extra day of relaxing. I got the first 2 (of 6) sections of my thesis done, right down to the formatting and am handing it off to my supervisor for them to go over...then it's on to the next 3 sections. Feels good to have it done. Wish I could have done more, but it's slow slogging some days.

J and I got a lot of relaxing in. Went to the farmer's market, went for snowy walks, watched a movie or two at home snuggled up with the cats. AND (meep) I finally started up my very first batch of mead. I juiced (oh dear god it took forever...) 17 Lb of apples and boiled up 4Kg of honey (mostly gifted to me) in water and tossed in some cinnamon and cloves. After an overnight setup J and I went for a long snowy walk and after I pitched the yeast in it last night. I got to use my hydrometer...he hee...home science. Behold the hydrometer...please to excuse the mead making messy kitchen :)

After the elaborate stuff I do in my lab this seems like monkey science and the sanitation is laughable compared to the lab, but with any luck in a few weeks I can rack some golden goo off into a secondary fermentor and ignore it for a few months. I was so excited to do it I still had my hat on from outside :) With any luck in about 8 months I'll have some tasty stuff. I'm hoping things don't get contaminated...we shall see I suppose. I'm not sure if I have the patience for wine and mead making. I'm used to making beer - make it, bottle it and drink it within about 2 months. I see why my dad always has a batch of wine going. This will likely be at least 7 months before I even bother to try it, likely christmas when it's good and ready for drinking. But oh, what a delicious christmas it might be. Crossing my fingers that this midwinter mead is good :)

This morning I came in for spin and sculpt and really pushed myself. It was hard, but good for me. Didn't do much over the weekend other than nap and go for a few walks, but I feel recharged. It's a good feeling to send off a few chunks of my thesis and have a new section to tackle. I feel like I might actually finish this decade :)

Have a great day everyone. Hope you weekend was a good one!

Froggy frosty morning

Boooooyah! booyaaaaah!

This morning I wasn't sure what to do, so I crawled out of bed and wandered through a winter wonderland of hoar frost and fog and fresh snow to the bus to the gym to see what I'd come up with.

And I decided it was a ZWOW kinda day. So, I did ZWOW4:

One circuit was: 50 pendulum kicks, 20 burpees, 20 medicine ball swings (supposed to be kettleball but our gym doesn't have any), 10 push ups with turn around toe touch, 6 deep squats with medicine ball above head (supposed to be a broom...but I had none) and 2 minutes jumping rope. Used a 10Lb medicine ball, and the inprovization worked rather well I think. I was worried I'd toss it into the mirrored wall if it was much heavier than that...:) The gym just started putting out skip ropes with their gear so I could actually skip...and boy am I not the skipper I was as a kid...I can't do high knee skipping cuz of my knee, but it still gets your heart rate up even with whacking yourself with the rope every 20 seconds or so...or is that just me? :)

I did this FOUR times through cuz I'm badass like that...and I can't read my own notes , he heh. It was supposed to be 3 times thru and I read it as do 3 more times! But this was no bad thing I think. Whooped me. My bum is stiff in amusing ways and I feel fantastic :) I had time for some side crunches and then a long hot shower before walking across a snowy gorgeous campus to get to work just on time.

I was borderline late for work trying to take a few photos of the gorgeous hoar frost this morning. It snowed heavily with fog overnight and everything is coated with a cm of frost...it's gorgous in the starlight. Come sunrise it'll melt away if the temperature gets warm enough...things like that are a reward for being up at stupid o'clock. Fantastic way to start the day.

Have a wonderful day and most excellent weekend everyone :)

Oh hello tiredness, what kept you?

This morning I am tired.

I got up and came in for spin and sculpt and it should be a good day...just tired. SO tired.

Last night I really could have gotten more done on my thesis. Lots of procrastinating and feeling tired made for only about 1 good hour of work. I'd almost fogotten what tired was like...ah the memories...

I am hoping, since monday is a holiday, that I can really get some serious work done this weekend on the thesis. I am not looking forward to it, but it will get done, bit by bit.That and a nap or two or three

Have a great day! I'm off to find some coffee to keep me going...

image

And people say I'm not romantic...

This morning I was up and in to workout. I have a lunch out today as farewell for someone so my usual lunch plan won't work - did a spin class instead with a bit of ab stuff. It felt great :)

This was our supper last night for love day. No I'm not helping my christmas 5 Lb go away with this, but it was delish, followed by a snuggly watching of Across the Universe (love that movie). I will keep trying to be healthier...it'll come I'm sure...heh...

Hope you all had a nice Luv day.