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Archive for December, 2006

zuned in

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

Another holiday come and gone. I hope every one of you had a delightful holiday of your choosing. G and I upheld our three-year-old christmas at home tradition. This tradition involves us wearing PJ’s and eating some quick and easy to make delicacy (mac & cheese, spaghetti). This year it was pizza. More specifically, free pizza. I know this isn’t part of my cleanse, but I said screw it for a day and ate some pizza. Anyhow, as part of our Christmas eve rounds, we stopped in at our friend Toni’s holiday gathering at her grandmother’s house. A cousin of hers makes and distributes frozen gourmet pizzas. As with all the family, we were sent home with a couple. This was perfect, as when we went to pick up some food at the grocery store earlier in the day, it was already closed.
So, our plan was to stay in our PJ’s (aka, winter pants and tees), in bed, and do everything there. We woke up in the late afternoon to open our gifts.G got some coca-cola paraphernalia, a candle holder, money and gift cards from the fandamnily. From me, he received a Gorillapod. He’d been saying we needed a tripod, and I thought this would be perfect. You can wrap it around things, adjust the legs to be different heights, I even discovered I could stand it on my ass, if I needed to. Sadly, since the camera was on the tripod, we could not capture that moment for your viewing pleasure. Santa brought the kitties some treats, which Lucifer skeptically sniffed and swatted until he lost it and we had to get him another. Eventually it was ingested. Santa brought G some candy, a World of Warcraft Warlock patch, and the Batman handbook. That last item is awesome. If you’ve ever wanted to be Batman, this book will show you the way.
From the fam, I received a Wizard of Oz ornament (which was perfect, ’cause it was the one that was sold out when I went ornament shopping the next day), a couple of cute shirts, some moola and gift cards, and some jewelry. “The AV Geeks” got me a copy of Dazed and Confused. G said that he always feels like he gets things for me that are really for both of us, and since he doesn’t care for this movie, it was definitely for me. Hey, that’s fine with me! I shall happily watch it and laugh and laugh. I also reveived a membership to the Linkin Park fan club, complete with fangirl tee-shirt.Then I got to the peculiar package that had been intriguing me since I laid eyes one it. It was a collapsible cardboard box with handle, that G had carefully wrapped. Truly an amazing piece of wrapping there. The card said it was from G and his ‘rents. I opened it…there was a Zune!!! Whoooooohoooooo! I shall admit that I rolled my eyes when G first mentioned getting his. However, it is pretty freaking awesome. It won me over in a way the video iPod never could. I was bemoaning the fact that we couldn’t really afford to just up and buy me one…and lo and behold, i got it!!! G supplied me with pink marshmallow earbuds (the ones that come with the Zune are way too big for my ears. I can’t even get them in) that are pretty rad. They work like earplugs, you compress them, and they expand to fit inside your ears, and block out a lot of extra noise. He also got me a fuschia case for it. It looks a lot like a wallet, in fact it does have a place for me to keep some cards. he took it and got it set up and loaded for me, so I could play with it while he went to work that night. Santa gave me some CDs, which have since been loaded (yay!)
The rest of the day involved eating pizza, eating some cookies, watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and Love Actually…all in bed. Sadly, G had to leave for work around 11…bah! I meanwhile, Zuned myself to sleep.
sleepy with zune.JPG

clean

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

So, today I started my detox diet. I was going to start it right after the show closed, but that didn’t work out. Today did.
I’ve researched detox diets previously, just never felt the need to start. Part of me has been fascinated by this site. Even the remotest possibility that any of that is lurking in my colon freaks me out. While I don’t have a protruding belly, I do suffer lots of digestive problems…maybe it’s caused by old poo? However, the cost, the three month commitment and the photographing whatever my ass drops in the toilet are not appealing to me. So, I’ve shoved it to the back of my mind.
I decided to give it a shot based on how lousy I’ve felt lately. Lethargic, flabby, practically everything I eat leaves me in pain, not to mention the crap I’ve been putting in my system (McDonald’s nearly every day of the run). I decided that I should finish off the year by cleaning out my body.
I researched the options, what I should do, what I should eat, how I would feel, what to expect. I took quizzes to see how “toxic” I am and if I was ready to do it.
Yesterday was the big shopping day. We went to the co-op at the end of our street. The one we’ve been to perhaps a couple of other times that we keep meaning to go to but never do. I was armed with a mental list, my unbleached canvas shopping bags (a very thoughtful wedding gift that we don’t use often enough), and a supportive husband. We grabbed a small cart, ad I started filling it with healthy, mostly organic food. Veggies to make stir fry, fruit to snack on, extra virgin olive oil, rice protein powder, rice milk, frozen fruit for smoothies (on sale!), Quorn (which I think is okay, but debatable from the list of ingredients), brown rice to eat with my stir fry, and psyllium husk powder to bind to the toxic material and pull it out of my system (trust me, it was the most appealing of my options). We went to the checkout where the friendly cashier chatted with us as she rang and I bagged. As she handed us our tickets for bringing our own bags (a nickel a bag to cash in on future trips), we expected for her to ask if we were members. Well, apparently we looked like season pros. She just asked us for our member number. We sheepishly told her we didn’t have one. She made sure we had the information on how to get one before we left. I felt like I infiltrated the co-op system! We were one of them! Of course, I thought despite our vegan purchases that my leather motorcycle jacket would have given away that we aren’t total hippies. We are going to save our nickels to get a membership, though. We can walk there, and while some of their things are pricey, they have a lot of locally grown food that is organic, plus a lot of hard to find things. The staff is friendly, and as G pointed out, their produce is especially vibrant.
Last night I put a batch of rice in our rice cooker. This would be the rice cooker that I rolled my eyes over when G wanted to get one. We were not yet married, and I could get a discount on it where I worked. I thought it was a frivolous purchase. Can’t you make rice on the stove?? How wrong I was. It’s silly, but this darn thing makes it super easy, and makes it so I don’t mind making rice. Not a bad deal. Anyhow, I made my rice. this morning I arose and drank my psyllium husks in water. I stir fried my veggies in olive oil with some ginger. I gathered my food for the day, and headed off for work. For breakfast I had a deelish berry smoothie. I snacked on some carrot sticks, then later heated up my rice and veggies for lunch. I drank herbal tea all day. At home I had a Quorn “chicken breast” with a salad of mixed greens with grape tomatoes and some oil and vinegar. I succumbed to one treat at my work party (It was a piece of candy consisting of dark chocolate, rice noodles and peanuts). However, I was strong when we wound up out to dinner and spared myself the cocktail, bread, and appetizers I would normally have and had a spinach salad with berries and mandarin orange slices with vinaigrette dressing. I just finished drinking my second husk drink.
So, I’m about to turn in for the night. I know I really should be putting crap into my body, but part of me just wants some greasy fries. What’s weirder for me is I like fruit and veggies more. I crave fruit often, yet I eat junk. It’s pretty ridiculous. So, I shall keep with this thing for two weeks and see how I’m feeling. It could be in my head, but right now I feel a bit like the time I had too much of a heavy metal in my system (I can’t remember which one, I think copper?) and had a detox treatment for it at my alt doc and went home to let the ick leach out of me. I am a freak, but I am excited to do my dry skin brushing (as the largest organ, we must allow our skin to do it’s detoxifying thing). i am picturing brushing off all sorts of disgusting stuff before I shower. I am already amped to make my breakfast smoothie in the morning, and eat my fruits and veggies and rice during the day. Yum yum. Hopefully I get some more energy over the next couple of weeks and my tummy gets less grouchy. the only thing I’m nervous about is my skin. I was warned that as the body pushes stuff out, I will probably break out. The degree will be based on how much damage my bad diet has affected me. I could also get rashes. Yuck.
So, wish me willpower. My hope is that the good feeling of taking action on my health and well being will be enough to keep my momentum, even though it is easier to lay around and whine about it.

to mold, or not to mold….

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

So, I am spackling the entryway. Well, not this very minute. I mean, I was about five minutes ago. Right now, I’m waiting for what I patched to dry, so I can sand it and put another layer to blend the screeny bits in to the wall. While I am excited for it to have a new pretty coat of paint, and I know the red will be GORGEOUS, I am dreading the numerous coats of paint I will have to put on.
In the meantime, dear readers, I need some opinion action. some of you have seen our place, others have not, but either way, use your mind’s eye to picture my options, and tell me what you think our course of action should be.
Because we are in the “garden level” unit, we have a suspended ceiling. This is so that all the necessary lines can be accessed for the building, since it is a converted house. We are replacing the existing (ugly) acoustic tile with pretty faux pressed tin tiles. Originally, in the kitchen and entry way, we were going to replace the existing moulding that looks like this (only oak coloured) with simple wall angle type moulding, that would look like the rest of the grid. However, I started to think about the pain-in-the-ass factor and extra cost, and began to doubt this course of action. We are installing white cabinets with slate style porcelain floor tile and a granite coloured countertop. The kitchen walls will be white, and the entry will be red (like a Coke can). So, here are our other options, please tell me which you think is the best, if you like, why, or if you have a better solution we have not thought of, tell me!
Option A: Leave the existing moulding up as-is. Mounting the cabinets so they butt up against the bottom of the moulding, leaving about a 1″-1 1/2″ gap between the cabinet tops and the ceiling. (option A, part two, paint the moulding white–which we may have to do anyway if I can’t get the paint off where the previous peeps didn’t tape off)
Option B: Same as Option A, but add crown moulding around the tops of the cabinets that would hide said gap. We would for sure use white crown moulding, and would paint the other moulding white as well.
Option C: Remove the moulding where the cabinets will be installed, and use wall angles there. The cabinets would butt right up to the ceiling, and the edges of our existing moulding would butt against the cabinets. Again, we could paint or not, but the sloppiness of the previous owners may take this choice out of our hands.
Option D. Leave the moulding alone and hang the cabinets in the manner the old ones were up, leaving space between the cabinets and ceiling. Not enough space to be useful, but enough that a very determined cat would fit there. The cabinets would be at random heights, to spice things up. In this option we could either use a stud finder, or drill test holes until our drill hit a stud.
On second thought, just ignore option D. Actually, on third thought, ignore option B, as well. Cutting the new crown molding to fit over the existing crown molding for where the two meet would be a nightmare.
So, A or C or new-unthought of option.
Thanks kids!

Stolen because it is so, so right…

Saturday, December 16th, 2006

Click, because assholes need to be stopped!

keepin’ it real…short

Thursday, December 14th, 2006

I was going to post something all long and detailed, either about the trip or another fun story. however, I managed to get something in my eye, and so i think that means I should go to bed.
However, I do have to brag. Now, some of you might be all, “finally! Didn’t you start that like during the first Bush administration???” However, i shall rebut with a reminder that I just did a show with 16 performances in 11 days, not counting tech week. Combine that with two jobs and trying to stay reasonably sane, and a lot went on the back burner.
Anyhow, after priming a couple of days ago, I actually painted the hallway. With color!! It’s the same color as the living room. This means that as i started painting, i got alarmed all over again, because the color looks more like caution tape yellow when it first goes on, rather than the deep luscious goldenrod we selected at ye olde painte shoppe. I carefully wrapped my paint tray and roller in plastic wrap until morning, because I am sure that I will want to touch up. Thanks to my Dad’s school of painting, i am pretty anal about painting, and want the color to be as rich and vibrant and evenly distributed as humanly possible. When I don’t do this, I stare at any less-than-perfect spots on the wall, and am compelled to point them out to guests. Happily I did splatter paint on the old craptastic carpeting. That was satisfying.
Oh, and i am very happy that I primed. First off, i had lots of repair spots on the walls. Secondly, I am pretty sure that instead of paint, the walls were actually covered in a very light layer of sponge. The wonderful “paint” they used pretty much sucked that primer right up, hence i used just a bit more than I thought I would. I am pretty sure I will be fine moving into the entry and kitchen, but am slightly nervous both because they used the same high-quality stuff in the kitchen…at least where they bothered to paint. There are several places with raw drywall.
I had hoped to get some “during” photos of the process…but since I didn’t wear pants for any of the painting…I thought that would be awkward. Lets face it, the paint i got on my ass was already awkward enough.

whirly blur

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

So….Sleepy…
I closed LWW on Sunday. It was only a week-and-a-half run, but we did have 16 performances, at least one per day, with several days being two show days. On top of that I was working like a fool and battling a nasty cold. Overall, i had a good time with the show, but I will be happy to be able to rest now and then. Part of me wants to audition for something. The other part thinks I should get some things chipped off my to-do list instead.
The toll on my system has been painfully obvious. For instance, we went to a friend’s holiday gathering Saturday. I was so wiped out. I felt like the lamest party-goer ever. I was ready to leave by 11:30, desperately trying not to fall asleep on the hosts’ bed. LAME! I was asleep the minute I was buckled in the car, and barely mad it to our bed before crashing once again. Sunday we met our friends at The Chatterbox for Karaoke. Once again, it was like 11 and I was ready to crash. I slept in later than I planned before work. Today I had a hair appointment at 3. Totally thought i would be up and getting shite done. Nope. Instead I barely had time to shower and get dressed before going. Perhaps my newly flame dyed hair will wake me up? (The hair is pretty freaking cool. It has four different colours in it, andgoes from RED in the front to blonde at the back. My stylist even took a pic for their look books)
I don’t think the tiredness is helped by me still fending of illness. this cold has been nasty. There were colors I have never sen in nature coming out of my nose. i think I need to follow Mimi Smartypants‘ lead. seriously, her cold sounds a lot like mine. If the neti pot worked for her, maybe it can work for me. Once we are out of cow milk, I am also going to do a detox diet. I think that all the junk I’ve been putting into my body has been ill-affecting me as well. i am actually looking forward to it, although the no-dairy part will be a bit difficult. However, things like smoothies made of fruit and rice protein do sound yummy. I figure if I can do it for about 3 weeks, that will be good. Then maybe I will get back on track with eating well, and exercising. Maybe it will let me focus on finishing our house projects and having things all put together and pretty and useful.
I am currently summoning all my energy to finish some painting and cleaning. I should spackle the entryway, but that may be beyond my energy stores. I promise I will rest fully and have actual interesting things to say. For reals.