Spring fever...

I have spring fever. 

I have it hard core.

Anytime that the sun is out all I want to do is go sit outside. 

I can't get enough of it. 

I think if I could physically hug spring I would.

This past weekend was very "hippie-tastic" for Husband and myself. 

We went to a healthy-living expo. While fascinating it was also a little uncomfortable. I love alternative medicine but seriously? Some of the people there were a little too out-there for my taste. I am so not a hippie. 

After that we attended "EcoFest". I was a little disappointed honestly. There wasn't as much info as I thought there might be. Although to be fair maybe the vendors were a bit burned out by the time we got there. I'm not sure. 

(What can I say... Tulsa has a looong way to go when it comes to environmentalism!)

Sunday was the best. We attended a Compost Bin sale & lecture provided by The M.e.t.  A lot was learned (by me at the very least) and we scored a pretty nifty deal on another compost bin. 

I'm so excited. 

The problem I had was fear. Fear of doing it wrong. 

(Yes I realize that it is really hard to screw up compost... now) 

So let me introduce you to the family.

 Big Bertha (left) & Tiny Tim (right)
We received B.B. a while back as a Christmas gift. She's wonderful but there's a small problem with her. When she's full... I can't move the damn thing. Her design was intimidating. So I procrastinated on composting.
T.T. is the one we received on Sunday. The beauty of him is that when B.B. is full and cooking I can continue to throw things in him. There's a nifty door that slides up and thus allows you to remove the ready compost while the rest cooks on top. Pretty sweet.

Here is Big Bertha all full and ready to be sealed up and left to her business. In theory we still have to roll her and add water but she can be Husband's project.

Tiny Tim shall be my baby. (There was much satisfaction to be had from shedding and throwing his box in to be compost!) 

He's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress.

I look forward to seeing how all this plays out. 

It'll be an interesting journey.

Oh and I totally want to do worm composting now. 

It's ridiculously neat... and gross.

Maybe one day. 

A new year...

We are finally back in the bedroom. I can barely believe it. It feels surreal after all this time. I'm taking the process of moving back in slowly so I can savor the feeling. We are attempting to purge a lot of clutter during this process which can be so time consuming but it feels so good though.
So the tour...

Our new dresser/entertainment center. *love*
Do you see the hidden panel next to the dresser for our breaker box? Pretty fantastic work on Husband's part I must say.

This is the wall that contains the backdoor. (pictured above) We don't have the curtains up yet, long story, but eventually....
The back wall.
Gotta love the matching night-stands. (It was quite the exciting day of furniture shopping let me tell you) They make me feel grown up.
The totes on the floor? I'll explain in the next picture.

This is where the closet will eventually go... We have yet to figure out this little conundrum. There's a hidden door on the far right side that allows us access to the water heater... Husband has plans in place to build a small removable shelving unit against that wall so that we can eventually attach the poles to hang clothing. It's just ridiculously cold outside so who knows how long some of our clothing will remain in totes...
(The trash bag? Clothes for charity)

So there you have it. I'm finally beginning to feel like there's an end to all this madness. We still have trim to lay, doors to stain/paint, curtains to hang, closets to finish, paint to touch up... And that's just the bedroom.

I feel like it will be a year of change and I hope that change is for the better. I have a feeling it will be though. So here's to new beginnings.
(And no I don't make resolutions)

Bah-humbug

"You bought me a present? Why would you do such a thing? I know you think you're being generous, but the foundation of gift giving is reciprocity. You haven't given me a gift, you've given me an obligation. The essence of the custom is that I now have to go out and purchase for you a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship as that represented by the gift you've given me. Ah, it's no wonder suicide rates skyrocket this time of year. Oh, I brought this on myself by being such an endearing and important part of your life..."

-Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory

(Amen!)

I am Ebenezer Scrooge this time of year. I have absolutely no problem with this. Maybe it has something to do with getting older. I don't know.
I do know that I've always hated Christmas music. Think I'm exaggerating? Ask my mom what I did to her Chipmunks Christmas music...
This makes my desire to shop even less then normal. It's not even December and I swear if I hear "Jingle Bells" one more time I might just snap. Combine this with the fact that I'm prone to panic attacks when crowds are involved and you'll understand why I might become a tab-bit bitchy this time of year.
*sigh*

Husband purchased an Xbox 360. I am now a widow. (As if I needed another reason to hate Microsoft!)

This is perhaps the greatest find of the last several weeks. I got a $10 coupon for Up, as well as an $8 coupon for Monsters, INC. They have an amazing upgrade program, all you have to do is enter the barcodes from previously purchased Disney VHS/DVDs and they give you a coupon for the Blu-Ray version (which also comes with a digital download version that you can import using iTunes). When they offer this for Toy Story 1 & 2 I might die from sheer happiness.

Which reminds me. Our laptop is off at the Best Buy repair center for the 2nd time in, oh let's say, 2 months. First they had to replace the motherboard and now the wireless card. This lead a very frustrated Husband and I to start looking for new laptops, preferably one that is a bit more reliable. This time we went with Sony because it has the Blu-Ray player (for Husband) and an awesome graphics card capable of playing the Sims (for me, obviously). I'm in love. Windows 7 is weird but other than that.

Right. My desktop has also gone crazy in the last 3 days. It now is taking 4 minutes to boot up. We have no idea what's wrong.
*sigh*

Technology, what a bitch.

I got a new book last night that I'm ridiculously excited about. The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. She had blogged about the book over on Crazy Sexy Life and I was intrigued. Besides I need to build up my resources before making any seriously, life-alternating changes. I mean I have an awesome/supportive Husband, but even he has his limits.
(Barnes & Noble keeps throwing coupons at me.) (seriously, 40% off any book for using my mastercard!)(That's not mentioning the 2 15% off ones sitting in my wallet))

I have got to do something about my professional life. Seriously. This sucks. I hate being this unhappy. Ugh.

So in short, wake me up when spring rolls back around. Or at least when the holidays are over.

S.Y.T.Y.C.D. 2009

(If you want to see the complete set (230 photos) clicky here)

Last night the So You Think You Can Dance tour finally came through T-Town. It was glorious and a great time was had by both myself and Husband.

(See how excited we are!? or thoughtful in Husband's case)

I love me some SYTYCD and have watched religiously every summer for 5 seasons now, well 6 if you count this bizarre fall season that just started, but I digress. Husband loves it as much as I do (he joined the bandwagon during season 2) and it was almost entirely his idea to attend last year's tour... this year though we were partners in crime, despite the ticketing price. Last year we had floor seats but we were in the back (boo)... this year we were on the floor but only 4 rows back from the stage. It was sweet to say the very least.

(I got several really good pictures until my camera battery started flashing red... so wanting to conserve the remaining power for videos of my favorite dances I switched to my cell, hence the serious decline in picture quality.)

So enjoy!

(The top 10)

The top 10, plus 2 alternates, introduce themselves.

Some disco with Janette and Brandon to kick the evening off nicely!

A little hip-hop with Jeanine and Phillip is always welcome.

The "butt dance" (contemporary) with Randi & Evan was quite the crowd favorite.

Bollywood with Jason & Caitlin.

Hip-hop with Ade & Janette.

Broadway with Evan & Melissa.

A ridiculously sexy Hip-hop/Salsa with the top 12.
(Probably my favorite group routine EVER)

A zombie hip-hop with Jason and Kayla.

A group Russian folk dance.
(You really had to watch the show to appreciate this.)
(You also need to look at the other pictures in the series to see what happened next...lol)

The top 12 in full Halloween garb at the end of the show.

They promptly went into a thriller routine... Awesome!

A last look at the top 12.

And then it was over...
Until the next tour...

My Vita-Mix Love...

(This post was started roughly a month ago and has since been sitting in my drafts... *sigh*)

So guess what my in-laws had hidden away in their house? That would be a Vita-Mix 5000 (The Cadillac of blenders)! So Karen... why is this so exciting? Why do we care that your in-laws have a blender? Well... since you asked, lemme esplain... They have NEVER used it. EVER. And... (after some begging on Husbands part) They gave it to us!!!! Apparently Husband's grandfather gave it to them as a Christmas gift years ago and they never even tried it out. That is a $450+ shame! Ever since I got my juicer I have been really wanting a blender to supplement this healthier lifestyle that I'm trying to get a handle on. (Read a raw food website and you'll be seething with envy over my new baby, trust me.)

When we busted out the how-to-VHS (That's right VHS, copyright 1994!) we nearly died. Luckily we found the manuals (above) to fill in the gaps since the first few minutes of the VHS were toast (well that and the lady doing the how-to video was absolutely hysterical so we were cracking up through most of it).
Now I can not only make fruit smoothies... I can make soups, breads, batters, milk & spreads from scratch. Grocery shopping yesterday had me giggling about making flour from whole grains and making my own rice milk. (Obviously buying rice, almond, & cashews in bulk and using my blender is much cheaper then buying pre-packaged milk alternatives) The possibilities are endless and we're both really excited. (I was actually really shocked at how excited Husband is to be honest!)

The first attempt at smoothie making went pretty well. We had pineapple, tangerine, banana, apple, strawberry & honey, with just a small amount of ice. Although truth be told we might have overloaded it just a bit...

The end result was beautiful and very creamy. We're not very rigorous about following the suggested portions so this first round was a bit too pineapple-licious for my taste. However, just like everything else there's a bit of learning curve...Take my attempt at making bread.
There we were standing at the bulk bins at Whole Foods contemplating our selections. I saw spelt seeds, thought to myself... hey that sounds familiar let's get that. So we used the Vita-Mix to grind up the seeds into flour then threw the concoction into our bread maker.
Keep in mind we weren't exactly following a recipe, just making it up as we went along...
While it was baking I thought to myself, that looks funny and proceeded to do some research on spelt. Turns out spelt bread is prone to being very temperamental. Imagine that.
It didn't necessarily taste bad... it just looked really, really bizarre.

Today at Barnes & Noble I picked up 2 books that I'm hoping will spur me back to the path of health & wellness.

• Green Smoothie Revolution : The Radical Leap Towards Natural Health - Victoria Boutenko
• Juicing for Life - Cherie Calbom

The problem is that there's so much info out there but it takes time & patience to wade through it all to find the real gems. Recipes seem few & far between or seem to rely on you understanding how best to combine all the fruits & veggies in your fridge to find something that taste delicious. I need to have my hand held instead of just being shoved out into the deep end. So it's slow going but I'm sure, eventually, I'll get there. In the meantime I'll just doggie-paddle my way around...