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Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year's Eve!

Last CrossFit workout of 2015, yay!

Partner A: 3 rounds of the following… 10 Clean and jerks (50 lbs) 5 Pull-ups (with bands) 10 Push-ups 15 Air squats 20 Burpees

Partner B: While A is doing their workout, B is doing an AMRAP of 200m run and 25 sit-ups.

I did the A workout first, while my sister did B and then we switched. It was a good way to cap off the year and we’ll be back at the gym at 10 AM tomorrow to start 2016 on the right foot.

Suzie sent my parents a Christmas card. “Don’t worry. Tina will take care of all your leftovers while you’re gone.” Har har. Off to Alexandria to hang out with a friend for NYE.

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable evening! Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Thruster Work, Card and Dumpling Making

Today was a busy day!
  • Ran errands in the morning.
  • Made some dumplings to take with me to Robyn's place tomorrow for New Year's Eve.
  • Made some cards using some white embossing powder, Lifestyle Crafts label dies, background stamps and Tim Holtz Distress Ink.
  • I was feeling kinda sore from yesterday's workout, so instead of going to the morning session, I went to the 4:30 PM one. I worked on my thrusters…5x5 at 70 lbs. The WOD was the following: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Hang Squat Cleans (55 lbs) and 40 single unders after each set

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Front Squat Work and Baking Banana Bread

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! I worked on my front squats. The WOD was 4 rounds: 15 push presses, 25 kettlebell swings, 35 lateral jumps. The goal was sub 12:00. I did it in 14:27. Whew…

I fell asleep when I got home, which actually turned out to be a terrible idea because I had some weird bad dreams. It put me in an off mood for most of the day.

BUT I turned it around by:
  • Working on my cross-stitch project (I filled in the pages of the book. It’s tough to tell since it’s white thread against white cloth)
  • Some shopping for friends and dumpling supplies (yes, again…)
  • Making chocolate chip banana bread. I didn’t want my spotty bananas to go to waste, ya know?  Half will go to my sister when I see her tomorrow morning at CrossFit…because I’m nice like that.
Pitch Perfect is on tv! Please hold.

Monday, December 28, 2015

CrossFit, New Jacket and Valentine's Day Cards

My two goals of the day were go to 6:30 AM CrossFit and shop for a new jacket (warmer than my fleece but not as fancy as my peacoat). Bonus points for going to spin class too. All items were checked off today.

At CrossFit, I chose to work on my push presses and I worked up to 75 lbs. The WOD was 8:00 AMRAP: 8 wall balls and 8 burpees and then a 2 minute hollow hold after the 8 minutes were over. Ugh, that hollow hold was so hard. Doing it for 20 seconds is already difficult, but 2 minutes?! Maybe that should be another 2016 CrossFit goal (my first on was a 100 lb bench press).

My sister reported that she dropped Mom and Dad off at the airport successfully this morning. “They were like, bye! And zipped over to ticketing without looking back.” Hah. I don’t blame them though. They’ve been looking forward to their 3-week vacation to Taiwan to see friends and family.

I went to the mall to shop for a jacket, but stopped by Target first (even though I went to another location yesterday, hah). I'm very pleased with the jacket that I got...Columbia brand, 3-in-1, 60% off. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to use it since it's been so "warm" where I'm at, but I'm sure that it'll start to get colder when January and February come around.

I rolled my eyes when I saw that Target was already setting up for Valentine’s Day, but then I realized that I need to do the same for my card shop. I cranked out a few this afternoon when I got home.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Target Holiday Clearance, Taco Salad and Harry Potter Movie Marathon

Sunday Funday!
  • 8:30 AM spin class, check!
  • Went to Target to see what Christmas goodies were on clearance and came out with some cute fox wrapping paper, chocolate and white chocolate peppermint Boom Chicka Pop.
  • Went grocery shopping and got stuff for taco salads.
And then my productivity took a nose dive with some major deep couch sitting because a Harry Potter movie marathon was on tv.

Well, I should give myself more credit. I did make some progress on this counted cross-stitch project. I had started it once already about 10 years ago, but spilled ink on it and had to trash it. Frustrated with myself, I put the pattern away and have only recently decided to restart the project. I could have made more progress tonight, but I noticed that was using 2 strands of thread this session when it should have been 3 (ugh!), so I had to backtrack. The last time I picked it up with Halloween, but with no work this upcoming week, I'm hoping I can put a dent in it!

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Partner Workout at CrossFit

My cousin sent a text this morning to let me know her brother delivered the Christmas presents we sent with him to Taiwan. Gummy bears and a fighter pilot Lego kit (she is a commercial pilot).

9:30 AM CrossFit, check!

Partner WOD
As a team complete:
50 Clean and Jerks (45 lbs)
60 Pull-ups (with bands)
70 Wall Balls (8 lb ball)
Partner A: Works through reps
Partner B: Accumulate MAX burpees

My sister and I did it in 15:15 with 129 burpees, whew! Our homework was to write a 2016 goal on the whiteboard. “I want to be like Mike” and “Portion control” were the ones that especially made me smile.

Afterwards I went to pick up my mail at the post office. I'm really disappointed that the post office hasn't installed a new mailbox for my townhome complex. The post office having to hold our mail and me having to go to the post office to pick it up is an inconvenience for everyone. Their service is so slow. I had to wait 15 minutes for someone to get my mail, only to have her tell me she couldn't find it. WHAT?! I haven't been here in a week and you're telling me you can't find my mail. Where else could it be? I know have some. Finally, another post office employee was able to find it. Yay for Christmas cards! Boo for a “You got zapped” notice from the county police speed camera!

Earlier this evening, I went to my parents' house to eat Five Guys burgers with Julie and say bye to Mom and Dad before they go on their 3-week vacation to Taiwan. I had a free Redbox code and while I would have liked to have spent it on Ant-Man, it wasn't available at a nearby location. I went with Avengers: Age of Ultron. I had seen it in the movie theater, but wasn't as in awe of it as I was when I saw the first one. I thought maybe a second look would change my mind, but it didn't. Too long. Unnecessary character death at the end. I didn't really understand the Black Widow/Hulk romance. Blahhh.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas!

I spent most of Christmas Eve with my family, so it was nice to enjoy some me time today. While it was off to a slow start, I did have a spike in productivity with doing a load of laundry and basically resetting the house to pre-holiday condition this morning. I also hung up the toucan my sister got me from her trip to Nicaragua.

I opened my last present this morning, a book that Suzie sent me. She had given me a book by the same author years ago. And I had to smile because I feel like I’ve made a million dumplings these past 2 weeks.

I also Facetimed with Page (and her brother) and saw her open the care package that I sent her (colored pencils, adult coloring book and "The Longest Ride" Blu-Ray). "You must have known that I've been stressed. Brightman got me something on meditation." (Sigh). It gave me a lot of joy to see her face light up because I know she’s been having a difficult time lately with her mom passing away a few months ago.

I just finished watching Elf (second time this holiday season) and am currently watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I feel like my Christmas holiday is complete!

Hope everyone is having (or had) a nice and peaceful holiday!

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas Eve!

My sister and I went to 9:30 AM CrossFit for a special 12 Days of Christmas workout.

1 Thruster (45 lbs…whatever weight you did, you kept it for all the barbell moves)
 2 Push-ups
3 Over the box Jumps (20 inches)
4 Power cleans
5 Lateral burpees
6 Push press
7 Lunges each leg
8 Wall balls (8 lb ball)
9 V-ups (I did sit ups)
10 Pullups (with a green and red band)
11 Front squats
12 Barbell step ups

You had to do the workout like the song: 1 thruster, then 2 push ups + 1 thruster, etc. My sister and I shared a barbell since there was a crowd, but I think that worked to my advantage because I needed the extra rest times while waiting for her to do her weightlifting movements with the barbell. I think I clocked in at 41 minutes or something. I was the last to finish the workout, but hey, someone has to and everyone cheered when I did my last thruster. I definitely earned my dinner tonight!

The whiteboard at CrossFit has everyone's 2016 goals on it.  I put down 1 RM 100 lbs bench press.  I'm currently at a 1 RM of 80 lbs, so we'll see how things progress when this time next year rolls around.
I went to Target to get some sparkling grape juice for the dinner tonight and yikes, what a mad house! I should have known considering it's Christmas Eve. I rushed home and boiled the frozen dumplings I made last weekend so that I could take them to my parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner. It was nice to have one last big get-together before my cousin heads off to Taiwan tomorrow and my parents head there on Sunday.

This year, my sister, cousins, and cousin's girlfriend decided to do a white elephant exchange instead of secret Santas. The gift that I ended up with, which I'm totally in love with, was a Snoopy mug.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Last Day of Work for 2015

The Executive Director asked the senior directors to write up a quick 1-2 page summary of their respective department's work, so my boss sent me what she wrote and I edited it for brevity and punctuation.

And then came a sense of relief!  That was my last work deliverable for 2015!  No work until Monday, January 4 (the Executive Director is giving us these days off without it going against our earned vacation hours) and even then, my boss is on vacation until January 10, so I can ease into getting back into the swing of things. Until then, I want to read these two books that have been sitting on my nightstand and work on this counted cross-stitch of my alma mater so I can hang it up at some point.

Julie came by with food and we watched most of Lilo and Stitch and Mean Girls on Netflix. Let vacation begin!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Telework Day

Thank goodness for technology! Hooray for another telework day! I was able to finish the office card order last night, so I took a break from my computer and went to the office to drop it off with Human Resources. I also conveniently placed an order for pick up at an Indian restaurant close to the office. Heh. I found it amusing they gave me 2 sets of utensils and paper plates. Uh, no. This food is all for ME! :)

I finally caved and got some cold medicine from Safeway. I CANNOT be sick on Christmas Eve/Day. There is too much fun to be had!
Torn between cuddle time and report writing time.
The Christmas tree in my office building's lobby. So pretty!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Udon with RJ and Office Card Order

I didn't wake up feeling 100%, so I decided against going to spin class this morning and instead went to get Christmas gifts for my parents instead.  I also worked on my office card order while listening to “The Chronicles of Narnia” music. 20 down, 20 more to go
Because everyone likes to eat with an audience :)

Saturday, December 19, 2015

CrossFit, Sushi and Mission Impossible

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! I increased my ring rows to 21. I was at 13 prior to Thanksgiving, so I’ll take it! The WOD was 3 rounds of the following for time: 25 burpees and 10 power cleans. I did mine at 65 lbs. I'm so glad that we went to the early session because the 10:15 one had over 10 people. There didn't seem to be a lot of room for them to move around!

For the rest of the afternoon I was able to do the following...
  • Crank out ~50 dumplings for the family Christmas Eve dinner. The hard part will be not to eat them myself between now and then.
  • Take a nap. Only to be woken up by the cat to feed him dinner.
  • Go to pick up a movie and a soda on the way to my parents’ house for dinner. It’s their 34th wedding anniversary, and we got sushi. There was a “Someone Nice” Coke Zero which is more accurate, but “Someone Naughty” is much more amusing.
  • Watch Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation with my sister and mom while waiting for the volunteer fire department Santa to drive through the neighborhood (a tradition for the town I’m in). I still get excited when I hear the sirens. It will never get old!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

New Liquid Lipstick and Split Jerk PR

My boss is flying home today, and I didn't have anything major on my work calendar today, so here's what I did on my dreary day off:
  • Went to the post office to mail a holiday care package to my cousin who is currently in dental school. Funny enough, most of the care package was candy. I’m sure there is no shortage of toothbrushes where he’s at. We included one just in case, hah.
  • Purchased Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards that my sister and I want to give to the CrossFit coaches to say thank you and Happy Holidays.
  • Bought a pair of cobalt-colored heels I’ve been thinking about for the past month. The coupon I had sealed the deal.
  • Played with makeup I would otherwise only wear out of the house on Halloween. Check out the photobomber. I bought this NYX Liquid Suede product in Stone Fox at Ulta yesterday. It's a unique color, and I had been thinking about getting it since the product launch months ago. I had a coupon, so of course, I didn't want it to go to waste.

5:15 PM CrossFit, check! We tested on our 1 RM split jerks and I PR'ed at 100 lbs. Eee, so excited! I'm finally able to lift triple digits over my head. Then we did 100 wall balls (I’m in red). I should have done 150 (Karen workout) since I had time left in the 10 min cap, but I just got tired!

Then I went to spin class, and then I went to my parents' house where my sister made me eggs and I talked about the workout and she told me about her office happy hour. The end. :)

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Deadlift PR and Goodies at the Office

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! We tested our 1 RM regular deadlift and I maxed out at 170 lbs, which is 5 lbs short of my 1 RM for sumo deadlift. I probably could have done more, but I simply ran out of time. Maybe I’ll try again on Saturday. (I feel like I took most of the 5 lb weights, heh).

The WOD was 9:00 AMRAP: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 kettlebell swings.
My new scarf, a gift from my boss!
Shortbread cookies with chocolate from Michelle and Lindt truffles from Jennifer.
I saved 2 of the cookies for Julie because I'm nice like that!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Thruster PR and Thank You Art

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! I PRed on thrusters at 85 lbs. Another gold star for my profile. The WOD was 500 m row, and then push presses (55 lbs) and lateral jumps.

I got to the office to find some nice artwork at my desk. Yesterday, I gave my coworker some of the dumplings that I made over the weekend and attached a note for her daughter (my banana pudding sous chef), and the kids made me thank you art. So stinkin’ cute!

And my boss and I exchanged Christmas gifts. One of the things she gave me was a nice scarf from when she went to Nova Scotia. It’s has pockets at the ends!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Bench Press PR and Performance Review Presentation

Test week at CrossFit! Today we did bench press. I was able to do a 1 rep max at 80 lbs. It took me 4-5 times to hit it, but I was determined. I kept trying until time ran out and we had to do the workout, which included jump rope and burpees. Yay, gold star for me! Hopefully the first of many this week.

One of the field staff that was in the office today complimented me on my current Facebook photo. "You look so glam!"  Hah, who would have ever thought that the dramatic out-there look would get such good reviews!

After lunch today, my boss and I had a program review presentation to do in front of 2 federal project officers, the Executive Director and any staff that want to attend. I needed to remember to talk slower so it’s not obvious that I wanted to get to the end. Everything went well! Even though it was about my work (and not a pop quiz!), it’s a little nerve-racking to have the spotlight. They even had us use a microphone so everyone could hear. But it’s done and I promptly got a sandwich from Potbelly and inhaled it afterwards because I was too antsy before. Now it's smooth sailing until things ramp up again in January.

I went to 6:00 PM spin class, yay! The girl with the bike in front of me asked me about my CrossFit gym, so of course, I launched into my promotional shpeal.

And then my sister gave me a strawberry milkshake to commemorate this morning’s bench press PR. Yum! She also got a bonus at work today from her bosses for all the hard work she's done this year. It must have been a shock to be called into the conference room and see all your bosses there, but good thing it's good news they had to deliver.

The End.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Shopping with Julie and Baking Cookies

Sunday Funday!
  • Survived holiday shopping at the mall with my sister. We spent way too much time at the Lego store. There is some really cool stuff there! I ended up getting a 3-in-1 set plane set for my cousin who is a pilot. I went to Sephora to use the rest of my gift card and I had a $15 off a $50 purchase, and I came away with 2 Sephora cream lip stains, a Marc Jacobs Honey perfume rollerball and a Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara (I'm usually a drugstore girl, but I thought this would be worth a try since I had the coupon and gift card).
  • Baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the office. My boss and I have a presentation tomorrow…so maybe people will pay more attention to the cookies instead of me. Heh.
  • Multi-tasked with watching “While You Were Sleeping” on Netflix. This movie is 20 years old. Wow!
Harry was soaking up some sun at my parents' house.
Christmas ornaments that I bought for my boss.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Bench Press and Dumpling Day!

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! I increased my bench press weight to 65 lbs. Whew! Go me, heh. Then there was a 10 minute AMRAP partner workout where one person did overhead squats while the other person ran 200 m and then you switched.

Coach Mike was funny...in the warm up, he told us to do a hollow hold and then "rock back and forth...like a banana." Wow, that definitely works your abs.

I talked to a potential member who was watching the 10:15 AM class while my sister entered in our stats from class. I launched into a shpeal about how great the classes and trainers were, and also apologized for my sweatiness/stickiness from the workout. He said something to the effect of “You can water flowers, and they are still beautiful.”

What? Oh, you sweet talker, you. When are you coming to class again? Ha ha.

Today is dumpling day! I had the desire to make some. I bought 4 packages of wrappers, and then my sister came over to work on the last package (the price of admission). She worked on drawing her holiday card and I worked on writing mine, all while watching Elf on tv.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

CrossFit Holiday Party

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Normally, we don’t have TH morning classes, but they made an exception today because the evening classes are cancelled for the holiday party tonight. We worked on our split jerks, and I increased my weight by 10 lbs to 60 lbs. Then lots of kettlebell swings and jump rope for the workout. I came home to RJ sleeping on my pillow. Can’t blame him though…who doesn’t like flannel sheets with the colder weather.

I went to my CrossFit gym’s holiday party tonight. Wow, we all clean up nicely! We’re so used to seeing each other in workout clothes and sweat. Many of the people that I have class with (Maria, Jackie, my sister, Ryan...) had other parties they needed to go to, so I felt compelled to go represent. The party was held at the downtown location. It's so much nicer than the location that I go to, but I think ours has its charm anyway. It's all I know and it works just fine.  Anyway, the downtown location had a locker room with showers and lockers and a nice set of sinks and mirrors. We just get one stall with a toilet.

The party was fun, despite my initial anxiety of not knowing anyone there aside from the co-owner's parents and some of the trainers for the first 15 minutes. I went with my go-to small talk tactics of asking people questions (because people usually like to talk about themselves...) and giving compliments (this one lady had a pretty black lace top.  She confessed that she got it from Target). Thank goodness Eileen showed up to hang out with me!

The food was good, especially the Georgetown cupcakes.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Deadlift Day

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Today was deadlift day and I increased my weight 10 lbs to 125 lbs. And then for time we did a bunch of box jumps (a total of 60 by the time the workout was over) and push presses. Whew! The coaches reminded us about the holiday party tomorrow night. Several of the people said they couldn’t make it because of other parties they were committed to. “I just have too many friends,” quipped the only guy in the class. Hah. Yes, poor youuu.

Arrow mid-season finale was like AHHH!  OMG, if they kill off Felicity, I'm going to FREAK OUT. I am a little uncomfortable with the idea of Oliver proposing to her without telling her about his son, but I guess that makes for a good story line later on.
Pad thai meeting leftovers
Who needs cat toys when you get a free paper bag?

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Day 44, Holiday Card Making and Zoolights

The person in front of me at the gym got the last 8:30 AM spin class ticket. At first, I was like "Grrr..." but it actually worked to my advantage because I forced myself to stay to do Day 44 of Crush 60 (all cardio) while I waited for the 9:30 AM class.  The 9:30 class is also an hour (as opposed to 45 minutes), so I burned more calories. :)

The afternoon was focused on making holiday cards. I found these pre-made holiday card bases in my stash...ah, perfect! I used the squirrel stamp that I bought a few weeks ago and ta-da...holiday cards! I think the gold embossing adds a nice holiday touch.

I caught up with Robyn at Zoolights tonight. We had both been sick this past week, so I'm pretty sure she was ready to get out of the house as much as I was! I was actually a little shocked to see how many people were at the zoo. It's a school night! Go to bed!  Ha ha. Since she’s a member of the zoo, we got free tickets to the carousel and tubing hill. We had to wait several turns to get on the carousel, but that worked out fine because we could scope out which animals we wanted to get. I felt like the oldest non-parent people there, hah. Robyn ended up with the cloud leopard and I got the red panda. There was a kid in front of me with his mouth on the guardrail and his mom scolded him several times. EWW!  I hope he has a strong immune system. The zoo also had a light show outside the elephant house, which I think is a new thing. That was pretty cool to see.

Fun times!

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Crafty Loot

I decided not to go to CrossFit this morning because I wasn't feeling 100% yet. My goal is to make it to Monday morning's class though! My sister said that the coach said "We're missing a (last name) sister..." Yeah, well, I'm sure you don't want what I have.

I slept in a little and then went to the mall with the intention of only getting lunch. But THEN, I went to Joann's to "walk around" (err...we know how those trips go sometimes...) and came out with all these goodies. The die cutting items were 30% off. The colored pencils were on sale too and I had a coupon for the coloring book, which wasn't on sale. The coloring book and pencils are a Christmas present for a friend, so it's not like all of this was for me! (That's supposed to make me feel better).

Oh, and I got some stamps from the post office for this year's Christmas cards. I spent the rest of the evening working on some anniversary cards that worked placed an order for (40 cards, yay!).

Friday, December 4, 2015

Oh, Christmas Tree

Ok, finally feeling better, yay!

I talked to my boss this morning before she left for the airport, so that was good. I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for my cousin who is going back to Taiwan early on Saturday. I made sure to wash my hands thoroughly, but I figured whatever germs were left would be nuked in the oven. Today was National Cookie Day...which really should be every day!
Finally not looking and feeling sick. Bring on the winged liner!
Sorry, buddy. No cookies for you.
I was so happy to be out of the house once the work day was over. I went over to my parents' house with the intention of setting up the Christmas tree. Julie sat in the kitchen and mumbled that she didn't feel like doing anything tonight. Ok, fine. I went downstairs and brought up all the pieces myself. I finished putting in the branches and reached for the bags of ornaments. "Aren't you going to wait for everyone to show up?" Oh, hm, ok, I guess so. My cousins (and cousin's girlfriend) showed up soon after and they helped hang the ornaments and lights. Hugo is much taller than I am, which came in handy because all I had to do was direct him when usually, I have to drag a chair across the floor to hang up the ones from the ceiling.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Request from the Executive Director

Day 4 of feeling gross. I think I’m finally getting somewhere though! I was at least feeling well enough to telework, which involved 4-5 hours of being on the phone. My boss was like "How are you doing?" All I could do was groan and she understood that I definitely wasn't at 100%. I didn't even get to see her during her visit here, but she'll be back in 2 weeks and I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted to catch what bug I had.

She told me that we have a new project...something that the big boss wants us to help with. Hey, ok, that's cool. Until she told me what it was. I repeated what I thought i heard her say to make sure that I understood. "So they want to have a meeting with people who aren't as engaged with the organization and have most of the discussion is over dinner?" Whattt. If they aren't engaged with the organization already, what makes you think that they will a) want to come to the meeting and b) be willing to participate in this discussion with people they don't know very well? How are you going to be able to pull that off? Fortunately, I don't have to worry about invites or running the actual meeting, just logistics and maybe some notetaking.

My parents were worried how I was doing (mind you, I am in my 30s and this is not the first time I’ve caught a bug of some sort), but they didn’t want to fuss over me directly so they interrogated my sister instead. Parents will be parents, I guess.

Is it Friday yet??

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Day 3 of Feeling Gross

Ugh, I am sick again! I went to work not feeling 100% on Monday, and things got progressively worse when I got home from work that night. I teleworked yesterday because I had 2 conference calls that I needed to take, but now that I look back on it, it was probably not the best idea because I felt worse this morning when I woke up. I had a catch-up meeting with my boss and a follow-up meeting from my ATL trip a few weeks ago, but I figured they were not emergencies. Thank goodness for sick days.