Hike & A Holiday

Memorial Day: A day to give thanks to the people who fought for the things we have. To all the veterans out there...

THANK YOU!

So... it was a much needed 3 day weekend. I was able to enjoy a weekend, then have a day to catch up on everything else.

Sunday morning J, Greta, and I went on a hike in Griffith Park. It was hot, steep, and fun. So wonderful to get out and enjoy nature. Round trip it was about 6 miles, I have no idea what the inclines were like. What I do know is how wonderfully sore I was today, you know the kind of sore where you're happy... I love that type of sore. It puts a smile on my face whenever I feel the pain (ya, I'm well aware of how odd I am).

Here are some pictures I took:

Greta taking a breather in the shade... This was right before a huge swarm of bees came over the top of the hill!

From the top:

The Hollywood sign:

I spent my day off catching up on laundry and cleaning around the house. Now, I won't have to do laundry during the week :)

All in all, I'd say it was a good weekend.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Motivation

We here in sunny California have been having some very peculiar weather lately. One day it's 80º, the next it's 50º. Today, is was drizzling. It's May, and typically in the 80s at least by now, and it was cold and wet outside. I was hoping to walk to get food for lunch today, but to my surprise when I got outside it was too wet to walk anywhere. Here's the deal, I work in a grey box: grey cubicle walls, grey desk, grey carpet, grey ceiling tiles... it's all grey. The closest window is about 100 feet away from my desk. Walking to the door to get out is closer than peeking out the window to see what the weather is like. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the grey shades... but everyday, not so much.

Weather tends to take an effect on me. When it's gloomy outside it's really hard to get out of bed in the morning. It also tends to leave me demotivated to do anything but cozy up in bed with a book, let alone be productive or exercise.

Fortunately for me, my sister was feeling quite guilty about everything she ate today and talked me into joining her at the gym. I haven't ran since Monday evening, and that run didn't go so well. Being at the gym was exactly what I needed. I did low impact on the elliptical machine, and did all the weight machines. I haven't done weights in months. And I've been feeling quite inadequate about my arm strength most recently. So this is a huge confidence boost currently. I'm sure I'll be regretting it tomorrow. But for now it was completely worth it!

On a side note, I'm going to make a better point at being more healthy with my eating habits. Not that I eat tons of junk food, but I do indulge in sweets every now and then. I've stopped drinking soda, it's been almost a week but I feel great about it. I never realized how the carbonation made me feel icky (not to mention all those chemicals). I replaced soda with tea, lots of tea. I take a mason jar, fill it up with water, put 4 lipton tea bags in, close it up... and let it steep all night. I take my mason jar to work with me and crack it open at lunch time. It's perfect, and a good change up from water :)

Testing

Artichokes

I love love love artichokes. I grew up eating them. I've learned that not everyone knows what exactly to do with them. There's many ways to cook them... and the biggest part, how do you eat them? Here's tutorial #1 for the artichoke newbies out there. This is my most basic way to eat artichokes.

What you need:

• Large enough pot to make artichoke(s) float with lid
• Water
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• Garlic clove, pealed and cut into quarters
• 1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
• Artichoke
• Tongs

Directions:

• Fill pot with enough water to make artichokes float, typically fill 2.5 to 3 inches from the top of the pot... do not put artichokes in yet
• Add lemon juice, garlic, and oil to water. Cover and bring to a boil.

• Prepping the artichoke: cut stem so that it's about 1.5 to 2 inches in length. Tear off any leaves off the stem, and the first row of leaves around the base.

• Once the water is boiling, put the artichokes in the water and bring to a boil and cover
• After about 30 minutes check artichoke by trying to pull a leaf from the middle of the globe with the tongs. If it comes out easy then, the artichoke is ready. If not, boil for another 10-15 minutes covered, and do the test again.
• Use the tongs to remove the artichoke from the water, and place stem facing up in a plate or bowl to let the water come out of the globe.
• Let cool for a few minutes.

How to eat:

• WikiHow this is completes with some cooking/prepping instructions... I don't bother cutting the sharp leaf tips off, it's more time consuming and they get softened from boiling anyways.
• YouTube video:

Mobile photo test 

This is a mobile posting test... This is only a test. I this were a realy post, there'd be useful information here. Again this is only a test.

Here goes...

At the end of March, while on spring break, I started the Couch to 5K program. It's essentially an interval training program. Five mins of warmup and cooldown (brisk walk), then intervals that help build endurance for long runs. I bought an application for my iPhone, that keeps time of each interval with a notification of when to run or walk. It tells me when I'm halfway done with my workout. The best thing about this app, is that I can listen to whatever music I have on my phone. It's perfect for me.

So, I started at the end of March. I basically got through 2 weeks, in 1 week. Which you're not supposed to do. But for the sake of time, I wanted to see if I could muster through running everyday for 6 days straight. I averaged about 2 miles a run... and figured I could maintain running 3 days a week like the program suggest once my break from school was over. Well, i started getting caught up in school work, and didn't run for a long time. Last week I decided to start where I left off. Ummm... ya, probably not the best idea...

Today, I'm going to start from the beginning. I'll log my running, route, and other stats into Traxee, a wonderful online community for women runners, and the generic info will show up in Traxee spot to the right.

I really want to enjoy running, and I probably like it more now than I ever have. I have a little running companion, Greta... She's gone on every run with me, and don't be fooled by her size... she can run faster and longer than I ever could.

She's most likely the reason I'm starting to like running. Seeing Greta get all excited when I go to put my running shoes on is a little more motivation for me. Because I care more about my dog's happiness than my own... makes sense right?

The official 1st post...

So, what the goal for this will be:

1. Post my adventures of learning the art of sewing
2. Yummy recipes that I attempt to make
3. Share things I find interesting (while shamelessly plugging my friends)
4. Occasional rants and raves on random topics (most likely school and exercising)

I like pictures, so I'll be sure to include many :o)

Eventually I hope I'll figure out a method to my own personal madness.