chacksy

Our gym memberships have run out and we are on the hunt for something new (and super cheap, oh hi there recession!)  Does anyone have any experience with Planet Fitness?  If not, any recommendations in the Somerville/Cambridge area?

Seriously, super cheap, the BSC and Healthworks are WAY out of my range right now.

I think I am in the nesting period. 6 months into married life, and for the first time ever I am cooking.

Like, real cooking, not boiling pasta which is my usual M.O.

It worries me a bit, as I knit more, craft more, cook more, that I'm losing that hard edge of myself that I've always liked. Can I swear while I'm knitting a baby hat? Is that wrong? My friends used to say I'd be the crazy aunt who would corrupt their kids with booze and cigarettes. Flying into town talking about my latest trips and then disappearing again in the middle of the night. I think I'm having a crisis of self because I kind of like this new stuff I've been into lately.

Let me share some of my recent projects.

Above are caramel coated apples and below are mini mac and cheese bites that I made for a bridal shower .



A baby block cake made for a baby shower with homemade marshmallow fondant. 



Butternut squash gnocchi.



Bread via Julia Child



Tortellini soup

 

I'm enjoying this.  Cooking is fun, which is probably why there are so many blogs about it.  (Have you seen Tastespotting?  Talk about food porn...)  But I can't help the feeling that I was supposed to learn how to cook from a mysterious french photographer while working on an article together, or by earning my keep while backpacking through Europe.  Not in Somerville, MA in a house that has wallpaper that if I'm being kind could be described as "retro". 

But if I'm honest, while it's gross and rainy outside and my puppy and husband are curled up next to me, learning to cook in the life that I"m living isn't too shabby either. 

Caveat: I am biased.

I am posting today (after not having posted in awhile) to say that you must must must catch Forgetful Grandpa's Fairytales before its run ends on October 12th.  It is showing Sundays at 5:00pm at ImprovBoston.  It was hilarious, even for an adult.  (Granted I'm married to Bobby so my sense of humor could be called....childish).  The narrator (aka Grandpa) was amazing.  He threw Werthers at us.  Mia, playing one of the central characters was a real stand out in the double entendre category, as was Jackie Arko. 

I enjoyed this show like I enjoy the Muppets.  It's meant for kids, but when you come back and watch it years later, it has an adult element that you would never have picked up on when you were younger.  If you have a kid, or know someone with kids, I recommend you go.  I have a policy of waiting until I've seen one of Bobby's shows before I recommend it to my friends, and now that I've seen it, I'm telling everyone they have to go.

Our wedding is going to be featured on Offbeatbride.com.  This woman has been on Oprah!  Offbeatbride is pretty much the leading website for alternative brides in the country.  I'm internet famous :)  I have wanted to be on this thing since I started planning our wedding.  I could not be more excited right now. 

www.bobbysmithney.com


I will be playing around with this later to edit the bio and home page (based on his thoughts) but this is the start :)

Our wedding is on our photographer's blog!

www.gwynethcolleen.com

I cried over all the nice things she said about us.

I liked flynngrrl's meme so I thought I would do my own.  I love reading and was quite surprised by how many aren't ticked off my list yet.  I'd love suggestions on what to read next.  Thoughts?  See below the cut for what I haven't read. 

I'm only posting this because 

kev_bot totally let me down and didn't know the answer.  #1 fan my behind!

Does anyone know the piece of music that's in the Quest intro?  It has the line "Sanctus sanctus" prominently featured and may or may not be from Cirque du Soleil.  If I don't itunes this thing I'm going to drive myself and everyone else crazy singing the only two words I can remember (sanctus sanctus) over and over again.

Also, The Boy and I have not stopped talking in an Italian accent since Wednesday.  We've also said "Once upon a time you died. The end" about a million and a half times to each other. 

Hooray being an IB groupie. 

 

I thought I'd toss this one out to the general public.  As I explained in my first post of the day, The Boy has convinced me to play in my first ever role playing game in August.  I think it will be based on the Seventh Sea world. 

Given that I still have some slight misgivings about it, and personal issues to overcome because I've always been a bit fearful of the "nerd" label, I'd love people's reasons for playing role playing games (or reasons for not playing).  Beyond "They're fun" because that's still not something I understand. 

So let me know.  I know there's a lot you out there.  Feel free to comment. 

I don't normally talk about the shows I see at Improv Boston on here.  Usually it's because I offer all my praise and critiques to The Boy once he gets home.  Also, it's because I now know almost everyone in every cast.  I definitely have had a few shows that stand out in my memory out of the oh roughly sixty or so I've seen in the past year and a bit since I've been with The Boy.  The first was What the Dickens, the first show I ever saw him in, which just so happened to contain the moment when I realized my future as a single jet setter was in serious trouble.  The second was Blue Screen.  I caught two of the shows, one about orphans and one about dragon riders and it was incredible.  It was the first time I think I fully understood what long form could look like.  There have also been a few Theater Sports and Mainstage shows that stand out, especially, the Theater Sports my family first came to where they pulled my unsuspecting mother up on stage. 

I have to say Quest is going to rank up there among the favorites.  I was not lucky enough to see its incarnation a few years back, but in some ways that's good because I come to this with fresh eyes.  The opening music is dramatic and sets the tone immediately.  I love the introduction, as you get small snippets of character detail and a lot of energy right from the start.  Of course (and here comes the bias) the narrator was awesome.  And handsome.  You should go see Quest just to see how handsome and awesome the narrator is (but hands OFF!)

Let me say, before I continue, that I am not a general fan of role playing games.  I won't go into it too deeply, but it has been a point of contention between The Boy and I.  Somehow, Warhammer doesn't bother me, but people talking in different voices and sitting on a couch pretending to be someone else is such a foreign concept to me.  Anyway, that being said, last night's show made me get it a little bit more.  Now, some might worry this might mean that I'd enjoy larping (as The Boy suggested) but I insist that the difference for me was knowing that the show was being produced for the benifit of an audience, not for the players.  So, onward...

It was great to see some new faces in the cast, especially Mia, who was a total stand out and hilarious.  It was also nice to see some of my favorites all in the same show.  The story is set in some place I can't pronounce with character names I can't remember, but maybe after four + nights of watching it I will catch on to them all.  And yes, it was that good.  Where now I want to know what happens enough to see it repeatedly.  Also, it was good enough for me to agree to playing my first ever role playing game that The Boy will run this summer. 

So yes, biased review definitely, but check out Quest. 

The idea of training for some kind of competition has been sticking with me lately. I started by talking about a triathalon, because I'm good at swimming and decent at biking, but I quickly realized that I would need to up my running ability by quite a bit. With that in mind, I decided to start thinking about a 5k. Today I checked out the website Couch to 5K, which outlines a detailed program of how to build up to a 5k and there's also a link to Spark People on there, which I'm already on. 

I was already planning to go to the gym today, but after looking over the website, I decided that today I would try going 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) on the treadmill.  i felt that I could ease into it and go at intervals, so if I was tired at 2 miles, I could call it a day as last month I wouldn't have even thought about getting on the treadmill at all.

I started off my workout with 15 minutes on the elliptical, going with more resistance than I've tried before.  Then I did two sets of fifteen single arm chest presses at ten pounds, one set of should presses at ten pounds, and forty bicep curls at 7.5 pounds.  In between each set, I did 25 crunches on an exercise ball.  Then I did aerobic step ups for a minute, a ball on the wall squat and a one minute plank.

At that point, I had already been at the gym for about forty minutes.  I wasn't sure how long a 5k might take, but I was pretty sure it would take me quite some time.  I was already tired, but I decided I was going to do it anyway. 

There was one free treadmill, and I quickly realized it was because the television on it didn't work.  At that point, I almost turned back, but carried on anyway.  I decided to do five minute intervals at 2.5 miles per hour, 3.5 miles per hour, 4.5 miles per hour and back to 3.5 again before starting over.  I had no idea what kind of stamina I would need to accomplish this for the first time.

And I did it.  I did it in 52 minutes and 3 seconds.  When the distance ticked to 3.1 I felt like cheering.  Three months ago, I was winded by 15 minutes on the elliptical at low impact, and that was my whole workout.  Now even though it was slow and on a treadmill, I've done a 5k. 

I'd like to halve my time, but for now, I'm going to celebrate the fact that I did it at all. 

There is no way that she should have been kicked off. Tyra couldn't stand the competition. I'm pissed. She's the only one who looked like a real model at all.

If you have HBO and get the chance to catch Autism: The Musical, I highly recommend it. It's fascinating, beautiful, sad and powerful. I've been alternately laughing, tearing up, being happy and being angry.

Seriously, try to see it.

As some of you who have been following my bridal adventures know, planning a wedding can be tough on the ol' sanity.  Imagine, one day, you receive a shiny sparkly object and are told to put it on your hand.  You think yes, yes, weddings, fascinating as you stare, hypnotized by the glitter.  So you begin to plan your wedding.  And you meet other women.  Others who, like you, have been entranced by a ring.  You start to hear words like, "favors" and "monograms" and "conchshell pink" (not to be confused with "poodle pink").  You try not to let them leak into your lexicon, but you realize that they are.  You worry for hours about choosing the right flowers to put in your bouqet.  Do you want them to be symbolic?  Do you want them to have fall hues or summer hues?  Do you want round, cascading, or button flowers? 

The world slowly starts to take on a dull Barbie pink glow.  When you meet other brides, you feel at once dumber, but also understood, when you nervously ask, so what favors are you having?

So now that you have arrived at my mental state, please do the following:  Go get a bucket, or large bowl.  Grab a stick or two of gum.  Get a hair tie if need be.  Then have a seat. 

Here are some examples of  what people/advertisements  tell me I need every day:
Favors
Bride Cake
Victory
You've got to be kidding me

These ads are in addition to the fact that since I have been engaged, facebook has decided to only show me wedding advertisements, even though The Boy is engaged and he doesn't get any.  They are in addition to the calls that I get telling me I've won a condo, or a trip to Tahiti, or a different husband. 

I cannot wait to be a wife instead of a bride.