Cuddle Time!

Office cuddle time with RJ.

He's looking at me like, "Excuse me, you stopped."

Happy 5th Year Anniversary to Me!

I will be celebrating my fifth year anniversary at work in early October.  As a thank you and congratulations for reaching this milestone, my office gives each employee a key chain from Tiffany of their choosing.  I went with a simple star.  I ordered it from Human Resources on Friday and it was at my doorstep on Tuesday when I came back from the office to check the mail.  So cute! :)

30 Day Shred: DONE!

I recently got Jillian Michaels's 30 Day Shred at a yard sale.  I decided to do it as a personal challenge to myself, and I'm happy to report that I did the DVD for 30 consecutive days- August 18 to September 16.  No breaks.  :D

The concept is that there are 3 workouts: 1, 2, 3 (increasing difficulty).  Each workout consists of 3 circuits, and each circuit has 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.  You would do 10 days of Workout 1 and then move on to Workout 2 for another 10 days and then finally Workout 3 for the last 10 days.  Hence, the 30 Day Shred.

I already had a mat and a set of 5 pound weights at home so this was perfect.  I could wobble and wheeze and gasp for breath in the comfort of my own home.  Even though the workouts were short, they were very efficient.  At the end of each workout, I was sweating so badly.  If I was in public, it would have been embarrassing!

I can’t believe it that I was actually able to do it!  I've been wanting to incorporate strength training into my workouts, so this DVD came into my life at the right time.  I tracked my progress through a chart that I found on Pinterest.  It was a satisfying feeling to be able to cross the days off over the course of a month.

Results: My weight didn’t change at all: 152.3 to 152.5 with some fluctuation in the middle. However, the changes that I do notice are that my arms, shoulders and butt look more defined and my poochy isn't as...poochy. I can wear a belt with my jeans now.  Not too bad in a month’s worth of work and some sprinkling of emotional eating. In retrospect, I should have taken measurements during this process, but in all honesty, I didn’t want to in case I wasn’t able to see results. I should have had more faith in myself.  After I finished my last workout last night, I promptly purchased my Groupon for a 60-minute signature massage and detoxifying foot scrub that I've been eyeing for a while.  Tee hee.

This was as much a mental exercise as a physical one and while I don't see dramatic results (who would, in 30 days anyway? That probably wouldn't be healthy.), I'm proud of myself for being committed and proving to myself that I could do it.  Here's to getting fit!

Sad Day

I turned on the radio this morning as I was trying to wake up.  Through the fogginess, I heard something about a shooter in the Navy Yard.  Wait, what?  Are you serious?  I laid in bed with my face still mashed to the pillow, listening to the preliminary details.  Oh, no.  I heard it right.  That wasn't some messed up dream.  I spent most of the day having the television on, trying to keep updated on the news.  It sounded like a scene from NCIS, except this was real life.  Listening to the death toll rise was also disheartening.  :'(  People just wanted to go to work and do their thing this morning!  Why do people do such awful things?!  What a sh*tty way to start the work week.

Mushroom Recipe and New Makeup

Recipe #8 of 2013: I found a new recipe for mushrooms.  I bought a container of them on sale thinking that I'd be using them for my salads, but when I found this baked and breaded mushroom recipe on tumblr, I had to try it.  I used Italian breadcrumbs instead of panko ones, one egg, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and 12 minutes later, I had some mushroom goodness.  They were quite tasty with some thousand island dressing and would make a great party appetizer (and healthy too since mushrooms are low calorie).

New Makeup: The new Jordana balm stains, eyeshadow pencils and eyeliners are getting quite the buzz on YouTube lately.  I wanted to see what all the fuss was about without spending too much money.  I was able to use my credit card points to get a Walgreens gift card, and after I went to spin class this morning (I told myself that I couldn't go to Walgreens unless I went to class), I bought some new makeup to try.

• Jordana Twist and Shine Moisturizing Balm Stain in Honey Love and Rock 'n Rouge
• Jordana 12 Hour Made to Last Liquid Eyeliner Pencil in Jade Jewel, Black Point, and Aqua Stone
• Jordana 12 Hour Made to Last Eyeshadow Pencil in Eternal White and Endless Emerald
• Jordana Easyliner for Lips in Tawny

I also went to Goodwill, but didn't find anything.  There were several Disney DVDs (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White) there and my heart jumped for joy for a second  until I opened the cases and realized that the discs were gone.  Ugh!  What a tease!

New Nails: Time to break out the fall colors!  I painted my nails yesterday with a very dark purple polish.  This is two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Plum Luck. I really like this color over lighter shades of purple.

Participating in Coworker's Yard Sale

Yard sale: Whew, early morning today!  I told my coworker that I'd be at her place at 7:30 AM to start setting up for the yard sale.  Fortunately, she only lives 5 minutes away, basically one neighborhood over.  When I got there, she had her tarps out and was putting stuff on them already.  We had a few customers but it wasn't like a rush of people like she said she got last weekend (I couldn't attend because of a funeral).  Many of her neighbors stopped by, many of them moms.  All in all, I made $28.50 from the yard sale.  The following items found new homes: 5 bottles of nail polish (I even told the lady that I used them maybe once or twice.  She took them anyway, but I couldn't tell if it was because she didn't understand what I said or didn't care), 4 tops, 1 skirt, 1 jacket, 1 box old stamps and ink pads, and a cupcake decorating set with wrappers and toothpicks.  Not too bad for a morning's worth of "work."  It was such a beautiful day outside (a little chilly in the morning), and it was nice to hang out with my friend outside of work.  My current teleworking arrangement doesn't really allow for that these days as much.

Movie: One of Susie's neighbors came by at the last minute to drop off some movies that he wanted to get rid of.  It didn't matter if he got money from them.  He also had some PlayStation 2 games.  I would have taken them, but since I don't have a console to test them on, I left them behind. I was curious about the Stitch movie so I took that home with me.  Julie and I watched it earlier tonight, and it was pretty awful.  I was so disappointed because I loved Lilo and Stitch (it's one of my favorite movies of all time...not just Disney), but this sequel stunk.

Ebay Refund

Ebay refund: The lady that bought the Estee Lauder trial mascaras sent me an email (almost 2 weeks later) to let me know that she was disappointed because she thought that the mascaras were used.  She claimed that there wasn't a vacuum seal pop when she opened them.  Alright, well, I've never heard of mascara tubes popping when opening (this isn't like a jar of pasta sauce), but I'm not going to fight her.  I promptly refunded all of her money via PayPal within 30 minutes.  I'm hoping that my speedy customer service will make her happy and she won't leave mean feedback on my page. 

Just relaxin'.