getting a handle on this thing

It's no secret I've been pretty lax on the posting of late. I've been going through some growing pains with this blog trying to figure out what it should be since it's not a wedding planning blog any longer. For now I'm going to try to be more regular with my posting and in terms of topics, I'll try to keep it relevant to what I'm doing now.

Last time I introduced you to Cappie. When I'm not chasing my scraggly little furball around, I probably skating. That's right, I'm a roller girl! I joined the No Coast Derby Girls in November. Before I joined I had been on roller skates a grand total of twice in my life. (Ari took me skating for the first time for my 22nd birthday. It was me and 4 birthday parties of 9-11 year olds.) I'm not going to lie and say it's been easy, it's been a lot of hard work and a huge time commitment, but it's so worth it! In the coming weeks I'll start talking more about derby, the rules, the community, the history. (If you have any questions, let me know and I'll go more in depth.)

Derby is not for the feint of heart. I work out on skates several time a week both on and off skates. Sometimes it sucks but I know that it both makes me a stronger skater and skinnier person (I've lost 10 pounds since I started!). So, I've decided to start cataloging my efforts on Workout Wednesday, starting with the previous Wednesday. I'm owning up to my off days and hopefully I'll keep myself honest and even get my junk food addiction in check.

Workout Wednesday for the Week of 3/16-3/22:

Wednesday: 1 hour Interval Group Class (lots of running uphill since spring is finally starting to show up in Lincoln!)
Thursday: 1 hour Body Sculpt Class
Friday: 35 minutes (3.67 miles, 397 calories) on the elliptical. I did what I've deemed a "half." I set the elliptical to do one giant hill up and down (Kilamanjaro on the Life Fitness machine at the gym) for 30 minutes, the length of half a roller derby bout.  I then mimic the jam timing. 30 seconds active rest (the 30 second set-up time between jams) followed by two minutes of flat out sprint (the maximum length of a jam). This worked out nicely with the 30 minutes because each increase or decrease in resistance coincided with 5 little 30 second sections, just the same as my jam plus set-up. I'm going to try to work up to sticking this in on all but one off day a week (everyone needs to rest some time!)
Saturday: 2 hour All League Practice (these are harder because the A team girls practice with us too.) Admittedly I only got about a third through this before I rolled my ankle. It was stupid and my fault. I wasn't paying attention when I was falling. I spent the end of practice icing my ankle and watching.
Sunday: 2 hour All League Scrimmage. We played A Team (Mad Maxines) vs. B Team (Road Warriors, my team!). We worked HARD.
Monday: 2 hour Practice.
Tuesday: Off. At this point I'd gone 6 days in a row and I was TIRED.

6 of 7 days in the week, just like I aim for! I've got a bout coming in a week and a half so I'd better keep it up!

meet Cappie

This past year on my parent's anniversary, I gave myself a present. Ari and I met at lunch and headed down to the Capital Humane Society. I was prepared for excitement, heartbreak and to come back until we found the perfect dog for us. Well, I was mostly right. There were lots of dogs, many of which we had to cross off the list right off the bat because our apartment has a 15 pound cap on dogs. Big boys were out, which left us a handful of little guys. The poodle got adopted while we were there. The Min Pin barked louder than the German Shepherd. We ended up taking out two little guys, a Sheltie mix and a Boston Terrier mix. We saw the Sheltie first and I really liked him, despite being a total whiner. But then they brought us Cappie. Ari picked him out of the kennel because he didn't bark, he just wagged his tail, looked up at us and said, "Oh yeah, I'm the best, nicest, cutest dog here. You sooooo want to take me home." In the meeting room the first thing he did was lick us. We were pretty sold. I asked Ari if he was sure (I really wasn't expecting to bring home a dog!), he said go for it. So got for it I did! $90 and two pieces of paper later I had a goodie bag of treats, a ghetto donated leash and my new best buddy.

Cappie Halloween 2010, 4 months old

I had been pushing hard for a dog for a few months. I was going a bit stir crazy with the wedding gone, no job happening and the fun of unemployment long worn off. Cappie is my buddy, we hang out all day. Ari gets up first thing in the morning and when he and Cap come back from their walk, Cappie jumps back in bed with me for a mid-morning snooze. He gets me out of the house and keeps me on my toes. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the little furball.

other people's weddings are an excuse for pretty clothes

Dear Stefie,

You are awesome. You are one of my blog's biggest cheerleaders and for you, I blog again! You're a maid of honor in a wedding, so of course I have spent time procrastinating searching for a kick ass bridesmaid dress for you to (not so subtly) suggest to your bride-to-bride. (Well, not your bride-to-be, but your friend who's getting married. You know what I mean!) Since you haven't yet given me specifics (not that you asked for help, but let's gloss over that.) I took a quick shot over to ModCloth. Here you go:

First up is my favorite, the Romantic Incarnation dress ($90).

Next is the Standout and Deliver dress ($60).

Then comes the Dianthus Fields dress ($90).

Apparently I'm in a pinky purple kinda mood. Anyhow, wedding aside, I'm pretty sure you just need this one for nights on the town.

Love you,

Shayna

you're welcome

OK, so it's been 18 thousand years since my last post (again). This one is just a drive-by. But it's worth it, I swear. This is quite possibly the handiest thing I have seen in a long time: how to fold a fitted sheet.

count in the heezie

Why yes, this is the best thing I've seen all day. 

One, two, three, four, fizzle.

via

i remember

And you should too. See you at the polls.

tastes like autumn

Ok, I admit it. I am not Julia Child. Or Mario Batali. Cooking, it's not really my deal. But now that I'm the currently at home (aka momma needs a job!) half of the team, I decided that we couldn't have frozen dinners in a bag or ravliolis every single night for dinner. So last night Ari and I spent some serious time cooking. I wrangled a fresh butternut squash from a local farm (which is harder than it sounds) and we got to cooking. It was so good, we had it again for lunch! And the dog liked it! But you don't know about him yet, but he liked it like whoa! We even made our own recipe, and damn, it came out AWESOME. So, friends, for your gastronomical pleasure, bacon butternut squash soup!


Butternut Squash Soup

Plus, it was fun to try out our new food processor (thanks, Browns!). Try it and let me know how it turns out!