It just occurred to me

that I may be a crazy cat lady! Although the cats in my last post weren't mine, so maybe it's ok...


Me, Only Better asked where I got my pedicures in Calgary. I usually go to Canmore to Wildflower Esthetics, but this time we went to Urban Venus on 11th Ave SW. My Silpada rep, Jen, is another option. Her spa is Jennifer Leigh's Esthetics.

Happy Sunny Friday!

Wednesday Catch-Up

I thoroughly enjoyed my days off!! My mom came to visit and we had a fabulous time--got pedicures, ate some great food, reconnected with some family (it was my aunt & uncle's 40th anniversary so it was us, their kids and spouses and my uncle's sister (who is also one of my mom's high-school friends)and her husband--it's very convoluted), slept, cleaned, gardened and did some yoga. *sigh* Absolutely wonderful and waaaaaaay too short.

Yoga tonight was awesome. I taught 20 minutes today and got the best compliment, "I felt like I was taking a yoga class from a very experienced teacher." WOW. Now that I've set the bar kinda high, guess I'd better start prepping for next week's hour-long class!

I made an amazing curry from Vive le Vegan by Dreena Burton--Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole. OMIGOD, it's easy and by far one of the best veggie dishes I've ever made. Chickpeas, sweet potato, onion, coconut milk and spices. It rivals my African stew. YES. It's THAT good!

And because my mom found the cd's with my African photos on them (I had a big panic last week when I couldn't find them), I'll leave you with a few:

Momma Kitty taking dinner home for the kids



Royally Bad Hair Day


At the watering hole--there was a herd of giraffes who were trying to get water, but this kitty (and some friends) was hidden in the grass and every once in awhile would pop their head up just to let the giraffes know they weren't alone in the savannah!

Knitting Fool

J's birthday is fast approaching, so I whipped up this fun, lacy scarf yesterday on big (10mm) bamboo needles. Super easy to do too--cast on 20 stitches then knit till it's the length you want. I used two yarns--one plain purple and one multi-coloured, multi-textured.



Finally! Here's the finished baby blankie for baby I! My original goal was to be done this by the end of January, if you remember. You may also remember I asked you, my loyal readers, to keep on me about it's progress. Well, only a few months late, but here it is. I love this wool! I bought more to make another blankie for my friend A's baby that's due July 1.


Check out the super cute daisy my mom whipped up in 5 minutes or less to make it a little more girlie:




Nerm likes watching me knit. Well, she thinks watching the yarn is fun to watch!

Where does the time go?

I blink and it's a new day! Saturday flew by in a yoga haze. It was a fabulous day. Long, though. Met my mom for pizza on the way home and had a quick visit. Went for lunch with S & his bro on Sunday morning, then we went for a quick walk in the park before I had to work. Came home, had a very short sleep and bang! Time to go work again.

Me and Nerm are having a quiet night in, catching up on Corrie. You gotta like that.

Heading out the door...

...for a day of yoga with my favourite teacher, Kate!

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are!

Namaste.

Happy Sunshine-y Friday!

The sun has finally returned to my fair city and I love it!! Eating breakfast by the window, sipping chai, Nerm sitting on my lap and basking in a sun beam is a great way to start the day!

I'm feeling kind of frazzled since I'm working late tonight and then up and at 'em in the morning to drive to Edmonton for my day of yoga! Before all that though, my Tupperware "leader" (for lack of a better word) is coming to drop of some discontinued items that one of my customers bought. Then I have to go pick up my rental car. Whoo hoo! The freedom of the open road!

S. had a pretty awful day at work yesterday. His company let 16 people go, 6 that he works with directly. He dodged a bullet but is thinking he'll be a little busier now!

Physio is going pretty well, but I can't believe that the "little" exercises she gives me make me so sore! Holy noodle! Guess she was right when she said I had some muscle imbalances. Which reminds me, I need to do those exercises today...

Yoga teacher training rocks. We've moved on to teaching small sequences (warrior I to warrior III and back to warrior I; down dog to pigeon hip stretch; triangle to extended side angle to half moon, back to triangle, just to name a few). Here's a question for you though. The store where training is held was open. Now it's closed "pending final building inspections by the city." On Wednesday when we went in, the whole front entrance was shrouded in plastic. My question is: if it's not safe for the store to be open to customers, is it safe for us to be there 8 hours a week in the evening in the back room?

What do you think?

Happy Weekend!

Nothing to Report

Nothing exciting, anyways!

Friday was BIG mooshkala at work. B.I.G. Should be interesting to watch the fall-out. Kind of like a car crash...you know you shouldn't look, but somehow just can't help it.

Went to help M. move only to discover all of her people had bailed. Frantic, desperate phone call to S. who I eventually convinced to change out of his jammies and come to my rescue. Wow. Twice in two days he rescued me (Thursday was crazy snow storm). My knight does not ride a white steed, however, but drives a silver sports car. Hmpf. Who am I to complain?

Woke up Saturday morning to muscles screaming at me for working them in ways they had forgotten. Oh, did I mention M. lived on the fourth floor of a four storey walk up with no elevator? Yeeeeeaaaaaaah.

Work on Saturday was relatively uneventful, although I doubt that anything will ever top Friday. Yep. It was THAT bad.

And then we planted our asses on S's couch, only to leave for sustenance. Saturday we found a great Thai place. We'll definitely be going back (in fact we almost went back last night, too!) since S wants to try a 3-chili dish (I want him to try the Crying Tiger) while I'm quite content with the 1 & 2 chili dishes we had!

Firmly entrenched on the comfy couch, we watched Season 2 of Dexter and some weird UK show that S ordered from Amazon. And no, it's NOT Coronation Street! Which reminds me, I'm waaaaaay behind and should do something about that. We tried out a new Indian place last night and man, did we score! We were the only people in the place and had amazing pakoras, lamb bhoona, a spicy channa dish, naan, galub jamon and kheer. OMIGOD, it was good. And the chai rocked, too.

I'm waiting to hear if there's room in a yoga workshop in Sherwood Park next weekend. A little peeved, since I've attended for the last two years and because I can only attend Saturday and not the whole weekend, I now have to wait till Thursday to find out if there's room. Good thing I know the teacher and put a bug in her ear...;-)....pretty sure there's gonna be room for me!

I'm working evening shift for the rest of the week and while that would normally drive me nuts, I've come to the realization that it's great while I'm doing my training. Did I mention that I'm over half done?! YIKES! In less than two months, I'm gonna be a yoga teacher! Although everyone was having a tough time tonight--nobody seemed to be able to get the right words out at the right time.

And that's the latest and greatest in my world. Oh, it's also snowing. Did I mention I'm ready for winter to be over? No? Well, I am.

The End.

TGIF!!

Nothing too exciting going on this weekend. Work today, then physio, then helping a friend move. As far as I know, it's just us, the U-Haul and a 4 story walk-up. Can we say leg workout?

Working till 3:30 Saturday, then having tea at a friend's house so that I can raid her yoga library. Apres tea, it's me and my guy, his couch and two seasons of Dexter!

Happy Friday!

It's Thursday already?

Not sure where the week has gone!

Wasn't feeling too hot yesterday, so I skipped yoga in favour of taking care of me. I did go out for a brisk 3K walk/run after dinner to "get the stink blew off" as my dad used to say. It was glorious! I love that my trails are dry and that it's daylight till at least 8:30.

Getting my sparkly bits disguised after work, then me & S have a dinner date with my fave peeps, S & L. Korean BBQ!! I also need to stop and pick up S's b-day gift. I think a gift certificate for pretty spring toes is in order!

Gotta run, or I'll be late for work. Happy Thursday!

Monday (again)

So I walked to and from yoga. Garmin says:
9.78 km
1:40:41
690 calories

It's the first time in a long time there's both a foot and turtle sticker on my calendar! And I had a lovely picnic in the park, sitting in a sunbeam.

Yoga was good--an hour long class of spine strengthening. The teacher was a friend I haven't seen in a long time and one of the girls from my training was also there! Now I just have to fill out the evaluation for training and my homework is complete.

I just started my second AeroGarden garden. Tundramunkie asked a few questions and here are my best guesses:

How do you like your aerogarden? So far, I love it!! My first garden wasn't super successful, though. Only the basil produced, but holy mother, did it ever produce! It definitely made up for the fact that the chives and thyme did little more than sprout.

I know you have to buy replacement pods, etc. How much does it cost for each new round of growing stuff? I can't really answer this one! S. bought me the whole kit and kaboodle for Christmas, including the kit that I just planted. Canadian Tire sells new kits for $19.99. Considering I planted the first garden on Boxing Day and have been eating basil since January, I don't think that's a bad deal. Looks like you can get it cheaper on the AeroGarden website. You can mix and match stuff to create exactly what you want.

Hope that helps!

Ran into the totally random-crazy chick in my hood again today--not just once, but TWICE! She waits until you've almost passed her and then starts yelling about how small minded Albertans are, how un-Canadian we are and once she accused me of being a Nazi. Oy vey! Seriously, if it's so terrible living here, just leave. And shut the f*&k up while you're at it! Oh, and apparently SHE has dedicated her life to ensuring the freedom and liberation of Canadians, unlike some of us (narrows eyes and looks at me). But wait! You freely admit that you don't know me, yet you presume to know so much about my life and career? How exactly does that work?! Wowsers.

Off to sort through the mountain of laundry that awaits...I should also make something for lunch this week!

Monday Mumblings

Not much on the agenda today:
-yoga at noon
-walking to and from yoga (~10K round trip)
-dinner with a friend

What should be on the agenda:
-cleaning
-laundry
-cleaning & replanting the Aerogarden
-working in the outside garden

We'll see how ambitious I get!

Quickie Update

In point form:

- went to physio on Thursday to see about nagging IT band/knee issues. Seems I'm pretty muscularly imbalanced throughout my entire core and lower body. Nothing some diligent work can't take care of (she says). Oh, and she says she can probably get me out of orthotics for running (once we strengthen the muscles in my feet). Had acupuncture for the first time. Felt pretty damned good after!

- vacation request at work DENIED yet again. Le sigh. I put in a new request for two consecutive weeks in June and there is absolutely NO possible reason that it should be denied. Oy vey. Now, to convince my boyfriend who's scared of flying that a trip to Hawaii in December is the way to go...

- WI--down from last weekend's festivities and the emotional eating that occurred apres vacation denial. Heading out for a walk before we go for lunch this morning (buffet at the Taj--where else?) to get some activity in. I was going to go for a run, but instead chose to turn on the computer. So I'll shower and go for a walk in civvies instead of running gear. Still not obsessed with the number on the scale. I'm loving how strong I'm feeling and how my clothes are fitting, despite the number on the scale.

- Easter lunch with the in-laws. Well, there weren't party hats or singing this time, so I'd say it was better than Christmas! Good thing I took a lentil salad, though. The lamb was waaaaaay overcooked. Oh well. We went for a drive and did the family duty thing.

- Had some yummy sushi last night with Carol, who celebrated a big milestone yesterday. Whoo hoo!

- Better get moving or there won't be time for a walk. Lunch at 1130 and then working at 2 (oh joy!).

Happy Spring!