Fitness Boot Camp: Day One

I got in from my first hour long session of “fitness boot camp” a couple of hours ago. Rather, what would have been an hour long if I didn’t get nauseous and start losing my vision half way in to the class. Apparently that kind of thing happens when you try to go from zero exercise ever to crazy intense hour long workouts in one go. Live and learn. To summarize my first efforts: Embarrassing, but that is to be expected.

I made the decision to go with a friend, which did help in some aspects, but just heightened the embarrassment when I had to quit because I was going blind.

Anyway, I don’t yet wish I was dead. I’ve only been resting for a couple of hours, so my muscles are still in that noodle-like stage where they just stop functioning if I ask too much of them. (Down the stairs? Those leg muscles might just abruptly stop catching you when you hit that next step.) BUT; they are not yet sore. I am actually feeling like I may not have to force myself to go to the next one. It is good for me, after all. (My mantra during this ordeal is “this is good for me.” We’ll see if it sticks.) If you asked me right now how I feel about going to another 11 of these sessions, I would say pretty good. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you ask me the same question tomorrow, I will break down and weep unreservedly.

It's Been a Hell of a Year

Wow.

Thinking back on 2011, it’s been a crazy ride. Went to Cuba. Started and gave up on a small business. Adopted a dog. Learned to hang glide. Bought a house. Went camping. Got engaged.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been challenges also, but looking back on the whole year, I’d say they are vastly dwarfed by the awesome things that went on. It seems to me that we went all of a sudden from a couple of no-longer-students to a couple of adults starting a life together. As much as that is kind of sappy, I really feel that way.

January 2011, we were still living in a flat in sketchy downtown Kitchener, living like students and not really doing much of anything. All of a sudden, things started happening like crazy, and now we’re verging on being real life adults. We have a house and a mortgage and a yard and a cat and a dog and a spare bedroom and … you know, everything. And this happened all in one year. I’m sure you can appreciate how that may be a little overwhelming.

So now, on to the next adventure, I suppose. The next arbitrarily assigned number begins, as the last one draws to a close. I’m not one to make resolutions, as I know that I always aim high and then give up early on. I won’t promise to run a marathon or lose a hundred pounds or write a novel. My plan is to do what I did the last year, and hope it turns out as well. A day at a time, one foot in front of the other.

So, happy new years to everyone, and I hope your year is always better than the last one.

Notch Versus Bethesda Throwdown!

Notch challenges Bethesda to a gaming competition in order to settle the lawsuit that they started over the name of Notch's new thing. Here is Notch's blog post about it.

I sincerely hope that this happens, since it will set an AMAZING precedent. I doubt that it will, since Bethesda is probably full of people who take themselves way too seriously and won’t back down on what the rest of the world thinks is a really stupid lawsuit.

Slacker Stir Fry

I found a single frozen chicken breast in my freezer today and decided to do some awesome slacker cooking. This is my favourite thrown-together meal, but that is because I really like Mr. Noodles. The idea was given to me by Ren over at Renegade Oboe back when we used to live together. (That’s right, we were roommates.) She did it a lot better than me though. (Mostly because she usually had more than one vegetable in the fridge.)

STEP ONE!

Fry up your protein of choice in some oil in small pieces. (If you are lucky enough to have cooked leftovers, just cut up one serving worth and throw it in a pan with oil.) I almost always use chicken because it’s easy. Ren uses tofu.

STEP TWO!

While your leftover meat is sizzling, start cooking the noodley part of your favourite single-serving ramen. (Noodle-san.)

STEP THREE!

Once your meat is cooked through, throw in bite-sized pieces of whatever vegetables you may have around. Really, pretty much anything works. This time I had nothing but red onion and snow peas. I also got really energetic and chopped up some peanuts for this one. (Honestly, this part is optional if you are a real slacker. I have had a bunch of these when my fridge was empty where my ‘stir-fry’ just amounted to meat and noodles with some sauce on them.) Stir the veggies around for a couple of minutes until their colour is a brighter version of what it was before.

STEP FOUR!

Strain your ramen and throw it in the pan with the veggies and meat. Mix it up a bit, then throw in a sauce of some kind. Whatever you like. I have made some pretty bizarre choices in the sauce department, but my best choice, (and one of the cheapest) was President’s Choice “Memories of Szechuan” spicy peanut sauce. Mix it up again.

Put it on a plate and eat it. Since I like to pretend that I am an adult, I chopped up some peanuts and put it on top of mine to make it look prettier. Looks like something that real people might eat, right?

[Tl;dr? Meat + vegetables + Mr. Noodles + sauce = stir-fry.]

Outdated!

Hello loyal readers! (By that I mean Fae and only Fae.)

As it turns out, as I have done a dozen times before, I got bored with Blogger and stopped posting. You may have noticed. After a while I got the urge to start oversharing on the internet again and, completely forgetting about my poor, ancient, neglected Blogger account, I started a Tumblr. As it turns out, I like Tumblr way better than Blogger, so I have kept up that one a little better than this one. (I said a little.) If I figure out a way to auto post to this from that I probably will, but until such time, you probably won't see any updates here!

Check out marbles24.tumblr.com instead. You'll find me there. (And I have yet to go into a long-winded description of a dream, so I am head and shoulders above the calibre of this blog already.)