makes me wanna hoop

So I made a hula hoop.

For myself.

Scott asked me what in the heck I was going to do with the PVC tubing I bought from the home despot – when I said I was going to make myself a hula hoop, he laughed. I told him I was serious, and he laughed some more. So I said, “no really, I’m making a hula hoop.” And then he chuckled merrily and shook his head.

He came home from work yesterday and there was a hula hoop in the living room. He said, “oh! So you were serious about that hula hoop thing!” and he wonders why I say he doesn’t listen to me...

I hooped my ass off yesterday afternoon (well, not really, I’m more aiming to hoop my gut off) while I was home early from work. I hooped through Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and part of an episode of Clean House. Which, looking back, might have been too much for my first time of hooping since elementary school. My back was k-i-l-l-i-n-g me last night and I have little bruises all over my waist. But it was worth it! It is supposed to be a good workout for gut and lower back. Lord knows my flabby gut and weak back could use some work. and it's really pretty fun.

You can buy exercise hoops online for $20-$30+tax+shipping, but I got the supplies at the store for less than $10. And that is good enough for me. it was put together and ready to go in under 10 minutes flat.

The first couple of tries at the hoop resulted in the hoop crashing dramatically and immediately to the floor. I knocked a candle off of the coffee table a few times. Scared the hell out of the cats more than once. The first, oh, say, 300 times it fell to the floor it smashed into the pointy part of my ankle bone on the way down. God, you know how that hurts. I said curses (motherFUCKERohgoddamnSHITballspleasegodhelpmeohfuck) so loud and convincingly that i’m certain my pleas were heard at the gates of heaven. i was afraid to look, because it hurt so sharply that i thought the skin over the pointy bone had been cleaved open and that my ankle guts would be exposed. And just like when you bite your lip once, and proceed to chomp down on the same place over and over and over…. Well, it’s the same with pointy ankle bones, apparently. I smashed the bejeezums out of my ankles, then with tears in my eyes I tied dishtowels around my ankles like bulky, super-short leg warmers resumed hoopin’ the night away.

to make a hula hoop of your very own, all you need is some PVC tubing (not the pipes - it has to be flexible enough to bend into a stiff circle), a connector (from the same aisle at lowes depot), and some jazzy colored electrical tape to cover it. and that's it! i think there are calculations for how big around your hoop should be, based on your height. but i wasn't that technical. the tubing came precut in lengths of 10 feet, so that's what i got. i am just under 5'8" and the finished hoop comes just to my belly button when i stand it in front of me. that seems about right to me. go make one. you won't regret it.

Spring!

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

[Today, Billy Collins]

Wow, so spring is here. Finally. (i've been away for quite some time, but we won't talk about that. let's just pretend otherwise for now.) here in DC, the weather has been skipping back and forth between spring and crap for a while now - mostly springy, though. daffodils have come and are almost gone, packing their little hatboxes and heading up north where spring is still sleeping. forsythia was a flash in the pan and the flame is gone. cherry blossoms have peaked and their confetti is sprinkling all down the river. next up will be azaelas and lilacs and other bloomy sisters. i was in ohio last weekend and spring was just arriving there. it was nice! i got to see spring twice.

wedding stuff is chugging right along. right now the pace is pleasant, if not a little skippy. soon it will be a freight train, bordering on derailment, so i'd better enjoy the semi-relaxation while i've got it.

this would be a good time to make a list of things i still need to do. but i'm afraid i would throw up once i saw it all written down. so let's think of other things!

like the vegetarian meatloaf i made the other day! it was DANG good. i didn't do the vegan route - i used the egg that the original recipe called for. and i didn't have hazelnuts so i used a mix of walnuts and cashews. also i used less nuts and more lentils, because the thought of 2 cups of nuts scared me badly. and i slathered it with ketchup for the last 15 minutes of baking. it was so. good. i just had leftovers for lunch. my only thought was that it was a little crumbly - i might add a second egg next time. and i might add a little minced green pepper, since i like that in my regular meatloaf. try it! i'm serious. it is very delicious. i think scott ate 3 slices.

in other news:

- i've been watching american idol. it's a little embarrassing, but hey. we have a DVR now, so it's a lot less painful when you can fast-forward through the crap. and i hope adam wins.

- my seedlings are doing....well, they're doing okay. they were great a few days ago, but a few have mysteriously died or disappeared. i believe the cats are to blame. nilsson must have developed a taste for seedlings last year.

- i'm going to be an aunt AGAIN! well, an aunt still, anyway. or is it again? i'm not sure. but either way, jessie and david are having another baby!

- i think the Death March is out this year. we didn't register in time, and all the spots are filled. refresh your memory on last years' walk here.

- and that's it for now.

ta ta.

just like my dreams

to find me gone

Oh it's been so long, been so long
The sound of my heart stopping, a surprising sound

wow! people, i've been away from here so long. i suppose no one even reads me anymore. anyone? anyone? i didn't think so.

i won't bother recapping what's been going on here to keep me away. that would be boring, even to me who lived it. but i will say this: i worship a new idol now.

well, maybe two idols.

they compete for my time and space in my heart. they are Wii Fit, and Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility. I curse the mueller clan for bringing this foolishness into my life. i haven't been so obsessed with a video game since the days of laying with my brother and sister, three in a row, on a soiled old mattress on the bare concrete floor of the basement rec room, taking turns at the paddle wheel of Atari Kaboom! until our eyes bled from the sockets, the primitive buckets a blurry whir on the screen, napping a little between turns. or, i suppose in college it would count when my roommate carrie and i would crouch behind our friend kiwi as she played Legend of Kyrandia on her PC. we wouldn't even play! we would sit for hours (hours!) after dinner in the dining hall, watching as the little elf Brandon (odd name for an elf) would try and save the kingdom.

scott go Wii Fit for me as a birthday present. i didn't ask for it, and i didn't necessarily think it would be much fun. but MAN! was i ever wrong. in the weeks following my birthday, i played it every day. and when i wasn't playing, i looking forward to the next time. but it wasn't a total obsession. not really. i couldn't play it endlessly, hours at a time. it is a very finite game - there are set amounts of yoga poses, excercises, and goofy games. once you unlock them all, that's it. and once you play them all, there's really a limit to how many times you can play "super hula hoop" or "hey, i'm a penguin, watch me catch fish!" before you either collapse from exhaustion or just get bored for the moment.

but not Tree of Tranquility. oh no. not that.

scott's sisters got it for me for my birthday. i thought, gee, that's nice, sounds neat. and tara said it was awesome. so hey, nice present! i waited a while to try it out, mostly because i didn't know a thing about the game and honestly, the cover of the game looked a little childish and dull. even the first time i played was only so-so - lots of weird legend that i only half payed attention to... lots of talking... preferences... set up. and even when i got to the game itself, i was annoyed by the long loading-up time as the game paused between scenes. but i stuck it out. AND NOW I CAN'T STOP, so help me. we got home from ohio on saturday. i started playing it sometime around 6:00pm. with a break for dinner, and a short break for a shower, i played NONSTOP until 2:00 in the morning. then i got up at 9:30 and played until 11:00. if scott hadn't been around, i would have surely played all day, eventually rotting into the cushions of the couch. even now, at work, i wish i were home playing that DAMN GAME.

but it is so fun.

it sounds reeeeaaaally dumb. here's how it goes: you are this anime-type character (see? i can't even speak the lingo) who gets sent to this island for some reason (again, i didn't really pay attention), presumably to set up a ranch/farm and also to possibly solve a mystery about a goddess and a rainbow, and save the island. you mess about fixing up your little house and exploring the towns, and buying seeds and planting gardens and harvesting and.... man, this sounds lame. but it's friggin addictive. maybe it is because i love to garden, but i am very impatient? in the game, plants take only a few days to start producing. maybe it's because i like having chores to do? on the island, i have to water my fields every day and harvest produce every morning, before i can do anything fun.

i'm going to stop talking about the damn game because by now you likely think i am crazy. plus, it is making me want to go home and play more. instead of making dinner. doing laundry. playing with my other christmas presents. i am an addict. i said it, OKAY??! are you HAPPY??!

geesh.

i hope you all had a lovely holiday. someday soon i'll remember to post some pictures of what i've been up to.

Fall is here!

blue sky, chilly breeze, golden-y leaves. this is my favorite time of year! the end of sweating! the end of upper-arm-baring tops! the beginning of blazers and cozy sweaters. pumpkins and craft projects.

but this time of year also brings 'round the dreaded Switching Out Seasonal Clothes. admittedly, it's an easier chore now than in years past. i used to have to stack a small dresser on top of my larger dresser, then drag over a rickety desk chair to stand on... then climb onto dresser number one, then way, way up onto dresser number 2... then sling one leg and part of my torso up into the loft of the bedroom... drag over a hugeass tupperware under-the-bed-storage bin with a cracked side and an ill-fitting lid, full of heavy jeans and sweaters.... then somehow crawl back down the whole mess, feeling for direction with my feet, while carrying the heavy wobbly half-broken bin. and i have TWO bins, so even though my nerves would be thoroughly shot after the first trip - i'd have to get right back on the saddle and do it all again. it's not much better now, but at least i have a real ladder instead of stacked-up furniture.

it is safer (marginally) but still a monumental pain in the rear. usually half my clothes are either missing or too small or eaten my moths, so a temper tantrum/crying jag ensues. i can't have scott witnessing any of this, because i am usually attempting these feats of acrobatic balance and emotional distress while wearing only torn-up granny panties and half a too-small bathing suit (or some similarly awful getup). it's not something i look forward too. but it's gonna happen soon, because i can't keep wearing the same 3 long-sleeved shirts to work over and over and over.

in other news, joe and dana are starting a blog! i'll add a link when they send it.

i had a great weekend of fall fun. on saturday scott and i, and cliff, courtney, ian and angel went to the "life and death on the C&O canal" - a spooky, fun, awesome, kind of hokey, great program run by the national park service at the great falls park in maryland. the canal runs parallel to the potomac at that section, and the tour reinacts various grim and gruesome acts along the canal and river over the last hundred or so years. civil war field hospitals, mine collapses, booleggers getting shot in the night, drunken canal workers robbing folks on the path, rival irish gangs who dug the canal brawling and killing each other, kids drowning in the canal... i can't even explain how fun it was.

on sunday, the october meeting of Sew Watts Cookin' was a spectacular hit! we focused on fabric printing (paper printing was also on the docket, but we didn't get to it). we had two methods - freezer paper stencils and making a cheater silk-screen with mod-podge painted right onto the silk. i embellished a canvas pea coat with the paper stencils - it looks SO good. i want to paint on everthing in the house now! someone else used the other method and made a set of six fabric coasters, and they look terrific. i can't wait to do it all again. pictures on the Sew Watts blog will appear in a day or two. here is a link to the freezer paper method, in case you want to give it a try: http://www.neitherhipnorfunky.com/?p=106

what did you guys do over the weekend?

oh, but it's friday

i used the word "awesome" in a conversation with my boss the other day.

i am still mortified.

hurricanes in ohio? and other news.

so i've been out of touch with the news that past few days. i was in NC for my brother's MBA graduation, then had a crap-busy day at work on Monday. i didn't hear about the "hurricane" in ohio until late last night! yikes! i called mom and dad this morning, and they are fine. they have a generator, which they are using to power the fridge and freezers... and they are living in the camper, since it uses much less power than the whole house. fun! still no power, but they are thinking of it as extended camping. wow. i still can't get over it. hurricane in ohio.

anyway!

so today is day three of a self-imposed "no refined sugar, no refined flour" diet. i did it a few years ago, in the month leading up to halloween. i lost about 7 pounds, then went on a tootsie-roll-dorito-pizza extravaganza for a week and never looked back. the fridge and cupboards were bare, and i needed to stock up on essentials - what better time to clean the slate and try again? i can't do no-carbs, because i like a little starch. and i can't do it forever, because i love bread. but for a short while, it's a good challenge.

monday:
breakfast - oatmeal with skim milk, coffee
lunch - seaweed salad, miso soup, futo maki roll
dinner - turkey sausage and potato pancake with cabbage, peas

tuesday:
breakfast - puffed rice cereal with skim, apple, coffee
lunch - green salad with feta, green beans, 1/2 grilled chicken breast, fresh fruit (catered at work!)
dinner - zucchini cut into long strands like pasta, steamed; sauce of fresh tomatoes and red peppers, with ground turkey, olives

for snacks and guilty-pleasures, i can have popcorn (whole grain)... potato chips (hey, they're just potatoes, right?)... cheese... apples... and other assorted, more boring stuff.

last time i did this, i cut out all artificial sweeteners. and coffee and all caffeine. i think that was a swell idea, but sometimes i just want something sweet and that became a deal-breaker. so this time i am allowing sugar-free hot chocolate and sugar free pudding, if i reeeeeaaally need it. and coffee. last night i had sugar free cook-n-serve tapioca pudding, with a cinnamon stick boiled in. it was worth the chemicals, let me tell you. i can only find sugar-free cook-n-serve in two kinds - chocolate and tapioca. the cook-n-serve taste (i.e. slightly toasty) hides most of the sugar-free taste. try it. you'll like it.

we are going to a Nationals game tonight. let's see if i can find anything to eat there.... yikes! i suppose a hotdog, sans bun? some chili? this could prove to be interesting.

it's too bad all i can think about are pancakes like these - jess, i think these look right up your alley. sort of like those nifty breakfast muffin thingies you make and then freeze. make some, then mail them to me in approximately one month. :)