Yummy Food for the Soul

So after today's difficult workout, I've stopped crying which is a good thing, I am regenerating with some yummy foods.
I started out with good and hearty Irish oatmeal this morning at 7 am with a teaspoon of natural honey and a handful of raspberries and blueberries. After my workout I made a delicious 4 eggwhite scramble with feta cheese and green peppers with a slice of Irish brown bread and Kerrygold Irish butter and a banana. I'm already feeling better and am almost ready to start packing for Las Vegas.
After spending some quality time in Ireland over the last 2 years I am completely addicted to a few Irish food items and a shipment of my favorites arrived at my home yesterday. Every day I have 2-3 cups of Lyon's Tea which I buy from the Food Ireland website here: http://www.foodireland.com/
I also enjoy good brown bread and Food Ireland has a delicious selection which they ship to you within 2 days.
I've always been an egg addict and love a good hard boiled egg soaked for days in a jar of leftover pickle juice. "Pickled eggs" are a Southern favorite and I grew up eating them along with pickled pigs feet in Florida (way before I went vegetarian). Near my family home in Gulfport Florida the local convenience store had large jars of pickling pigs feet and eggs on the deli counter and they were a cheap and delicious treat on a hot summer day. There is no way one of those feet would cross my lips now, but I still love pickled eggs. My healthier eating habits have me losing the yoke and enjoying the whites, but the taste remains the same.
I gotta go pack for Vegas, I'll be taking my own oatmeal and tea for the mornings and hopefully can find a healthy buffet for the mornings after our late nights.

Puppy Lullaby

I had to post this video, it absolutely made my day.
Make sure your volume is turned up to hear him sing the puppies to sleep. Amazing!

Back to the Grind

Well after having Friday and Monday off due to working Saturday and Sunday, I am back to the grind at work and eagerly awaiting my trip to Las Vegas in 3 days.
Trainer Troy is teaching me to box, which we worked on this morning and has me eating oatmeal EVERY MORNING! Apparently as a veggie, I am not getting enough protein and amino acids. So oatmeal and egg whites it is!
After getting the kid off to school this morning, he left the TV on to MTV and some show called The Hills was on. I couldn't look away, it was like a train wreck involving all the popular kids in high school. Fake jobs, fake problems, fake boobs, it just went on and on and because the episode was in Las Vegas I watched the entire episode. I was seriously dumber after watching but completely enjoyed picturing the stupid girl Heidi and the annoying girl Lauren's faces while hitting my trainers gloves. They did go to a cool looking nightclub I may have to check out this weekend though...

Friday Flash Back #14

I gotta cut back on the water, I think I am floating my brain because this morning in my dream Wonder Woman showed up to hang out and give me fashion advice.
So thanks WW, I love the large metal bullet reflecting bracelets, wearing a whip as an accessory, large earrings are totally back in vogue and I will never underestimate the miracle of a great push up bra while performing gymnastics to save myself from a giant killer laser.
Enjoy a clip of one of the coolest shows from the 1970's.

P.S. I hope my new trainer Troy makes my ass look like yours in those huge blue panties!

Losing my mind and...

hopefully my "wobbly bits" (in the words of Bridget Jones).
This morning I signed up to work with a personal trainer 2x a week starting next week. Over the last 3 years I have completed a 6 month boot camp class, worked with a female personal trainer for a few months in 2006 and tried various yoga and pilates studios, but I still haven't built up my cardio. Until I met Troy today. Troy is my fitness Master for the next 6 weeks. Not needing to lose weight my trainer will instead teach me how to increase my endurance, flexibility and strength and to maintain my fitness goals. My biggest goal is to enter my first mini triathlon next summer (1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run).
Each day I have to write down everything I eat and drink and try to finish 4 liters of water a day! I will have to live vicariously through my Bridget Jones' DVDs for awhile.

Mark Darcy: (Bridget gets out of bed covered in a sheet and begins to fumble around) "What on Earth are you doing?"
Bridget Jones: "Getting dressed."
Mark Darcy: "Why're you dancing around in that tent business?"
Bridget Jones: "Because I don't want you to see any of my wobbly bits."
Mark Darcy: "Well now that's a bit pointless isn't it. As I happen to have a very high regard for your wobbly bits. In all circumstances."
Bridget Jones: (Bridget's head emerges from the sheet) "Really?"
Mark Darcy: "Absolutely. I think it's high time we had another look."
(Bridget drops the sheet on the floor)

Kurt Russell is King

In the lapse of anything decent to watch on tv I am introducing my son to the man who made movies worth watching in the 1980's. KURT RUSSELL. Russell is my King of the ridiculous but classic cult films and absolutely my favorite 80's actor. We started with the cherry on the sundae of Russell's 80's films, Escape from New York. My son was very skeptical at first but Snake Plissken is now one of our favorite movie references. We then moved on to the campy combination of Asian street gangs, monsters, 200 year old horny ghosts, Chinese girls with green eyes, truckers (my heroes), Kim Cattrall, and a floating head with dozens of eyes, the excellent Big Trouble in Little China. Really I don't think there is a better campy director than the brilliant John Carpenter who directs Russell in both. Next on the film review list are Overboard with Russell and real life love Goldie Hawn and one of my favorite romances EVER Tequila Sunrise. We will then work our way into Russell's 90's films including the absolutely excellent Tombstone and the sequel to Escape from New York, Escape from LA.
Looking for something to watch? Netflix a Russell/Carpenter film and relive the days when there were no rules in film making and actors still said quotable lines.

From Escape from New York
Hauk: "Plissken? Plissken, what are you doing?"
Snake Plissken: "Playing with myself! I'm going in."

From Big Trouble in Little China
Jack Burton: "When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

Guardian Angels

After a lovely girls night on Friday I loaded the beagle in the car on Saturday morning and headed to Michigan for the long weekend. While on the Indiana Toll Road I hit some metal debris and my right rear tire was history. As I tried to find a safe spot on the side of the road I passed about half a dozen stranded cars who had also hit the debris and finally pulled in front of a huge semi tractor who had his emergency cones out. After a wasted call to Triple A I was going to attempt to change my own tire when the truck driver behind me walked up and asked me if I had a spare. When I showed him my jack and spare he changed my tire and gave me directions to the nearest TA truck stop to have it fixed. Daniel, the trucker from Nebraska, thank you. Not a lot of people would have helped me, I hope your lunch was good and the beer was cold.

That is the 2nd time a trucker has saved me from what could have been a disastrous situation. At 19 I was driving around Ohio looking at colleges when my engine started on fire late at night while driving in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm. I left the car on the side of the road and started hitchhiking because all I was thinking was to get to a public place. A trucker driving an empty car transporter pulled over and offered me a ride. There was no front passenger seat so he threw down a suitcase and gave me a towel to dry off. He took me to the nearest truck stop with a "Good luck little lady" and he was off. So to both my trucker Guardian Angels, thank you for being in the right place at the right time.