Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Water, water everywhere...

... but not in my body.  I recently joined a Facebook group who drinks water.  I know, that sounds dumb, don't we all drink water?  Well.... not really.  After recent conversations with people I know, most of us don't drink enough liquid, period, much less enough water.  There are calculators on the internet that tell you how much water you should be drinking each day.  While they don't all give you the same number, the ones I tried all said I should be drinking well over a gallon of water a day, so this is where I'll start.  The group I'm in is doing a 30 day challenge to drink at least a gallon of water each day.  We posted no-makeup selfies today, and we'll take one each week to see if our skin is looking healthier.  The inspiration came from this post and we're all assuming the results were real and not Photoshop or something.  While someone probably should have done some fact checking before we took this to heart, we're trying the experiment for ourselves and hoping for similar results.  Drinking a gallon of water a day, especially in the heat we have right now, is bound to be good for us even if we don't have miraculous results.

There ya go... out there for everyone to see... my no-makeup selfie.  Eeep!  I hope the water helps clear things up and does something about the circles under my eyes.

According to a dozen pins on Pinterest, adding fruit to your water doesn't just add flavor, it adds vitamins and minerals.  All those pins can't be wrong, right?  I figure adding some fresh or frozen fruit, vegetables and herbs can't be bad for me, it's still water after all.  I've got a few limes that are going to shrivel up to nothing if I don't eat them soon and a watermelon in the fridge I haven't cut up yet.  My neighbor brought me a cucumber from her garden recently and I have have fresh mint in my garden, surely I can come up with some fun flavor combinations.  Stay tuned for my amazing transformation or maybe just my whining because I have to go pee a dozen times a day, we'll see!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

The Comeback Tour, again

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

So I know lately all I've been writing is a few book reviews.  I'm sure those are lame, but that's what I've been doing lately.  I figured out that audiobooks aren't just for the blind or for old people, they are actually very convenient for everyone.  I haven't been doing much fitness related stuff lately, just reading some fitness related books and stories.  I haven't finished any of those so that I could review them much less followed any of the advice in them.  I haven't cooked much of anything lately either, fast, frozen convenience foods.  Not healthy, not interesting.  I've gotten really lame lately, no wonder I haven't blogged anything about my life in a while!

It's probably time for me to start being less lame.  Remember when I got my heavy bag and was going to use it every day?  I did use it a bunch then, but then I stopped and step-dad took his garage back so now I can't even get to it.  Can't blame him, we weren't using the garage anymore, he may as well.  I bought and assembled a bag stand to put in the man cave.  This way I can hit the bag in the mornings before the day even starts.  I'm excited about this, should be good for me physically, emotionally and psychologically to get a good beating in first thing in the morning.  Wish me luck, ask me about how things are going when you see me, you know I'm terrible about sticking with stuff and being accountable.

The nice folks at Everlast sent all the bolts and nuts and washers and allen wrench and everything one would need to assemble this stand except the hammer.  Oh, you say it doesn't require a hammer to assemble some metal tubing?  It probably doesn't if one of the brackets isn't bent...  I didn't want to have to put this all back in the box and drag it back to the store to try to switch it out for one that wasn't bent, so I used the hammer.  It worked, now I just have to hang the bag on it.

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Check out the pears growing on the pear trees at our place!  I don't know anything about growing or harvesting pears.  I'm glad these were established when we bought the place and I only have to pick and eat them.  If you have advice on growing pears, I'd be happy to hear it.  Do you know what kind of pears I'm growing here?



Bossypants by Tina Fey


I am a fan of Tina Fey because she is funny and smart so I went into this book with high expectations.  I think if I had read this book instead of listening to her narrate the audio version I would have been disappointed, but to here her read it made it much better.  I did laugh out loud lots because she's Tina Fey, she's super funny.  Tina talks about all seasons of her life, childhood, college, starting out in the improv theaters and working for NBC.  She doesn't necessarily got through all those stages in order, though, rather as the stories are relevant.  I like this format a lot because it feels more like story telling and not a bunch of facts strung together to make a book.   This one is a good listen for your daily commute or for when the kids are at school, there is some language and a little bit of adult content that isn't appropriate for the kiddies to be hearing.  I give this one a big thumbs up. 

Thursday, June 11, 2015

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion


After loving The Rosie Project so much, I had to get the sequel.  I know, often times we are disappointed by sequels because they don't live up to the original, but I think that is mostly just movies.  I love to read series of books and this is no exception.  This is the story of Don and Rosie after they are married and living in New York.  There are a LOT more mishaps in this book because Rosie is expecting their first baby and Don doesn't really know what to do with that information.  In true Don Tillman fashion, the is research to be done.   Don's research sets off a chain of unfortunate events that could get him in some serious trouble.  While he's dealing with this, he chooses not to involve Rosie in order to reduce her stress and the cortisol levels of her and 'Bud'.  Meanwhile Rosie is busy trying to be Superwoman and starts to think Don won't make a good parent.  There are big decisions that need to be made.

While there were many times in this book that I thought things got a little too far fetched, I feel like Simsion brought it all home in the end.  I was happy with this installment of the Rosie books.  I would read another if I found out there was one.  I seem to be the minority, the folks on GoodReads didn't all feel the same as I do.  Again, I downloaded the audio and maybe it makes it better if you can hear it with that Aussie accent of the narrator.  I give this one a big thumbs up!

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Yes Mommy by Amy Sprenger



Amy Sprenger is a mom who gets to stay home and raise her young children and blog about it. Amy finds herself saying "No" to her children more often that yes and starts to wonder if maybe she is too uptight with them. What would really happen of she let them stay up a few minutes later or have ice cream for dessert or go to the park and ride bikes more often.
Amy starts a month long experiment of Yes Mommy. She cannot tell her children "no" for thirty days. Of course the children don't know she has made this decision or they might ask for ridiculous things, but even without their knowing, they manage to get away with a lot more that she usually allows.
The adventures and mishaps that shape this book are funny and relatable. In the end, Amy manages to add more yeses to her parenting style and learns to relax with her kids.  I recommend this book to mothers who have it together, mothers who aren't so sure and mothers who don't have a clue. I think we are all each type of mother at some point!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I finally got around to finishing another book.  Actually this time it was an audio book.  I always thought books on tape were for old people.  Not sure why I thought that, but I did.  Now I can download books to my smart phone, that doesn't make me old, that makes me technologically advanced, right?  Whatever, I can listen to a book while I drive or while I clean house or whatever.  I like it. On the the book!



This book was strongly suggested by my local librarian.  She said I MUST read it and when I reminded her that I didn't have time to sit down and read a book these day because I'm busy with Netflix, she suggested I download the audio.  I reminded her that was for old folks and secretly downloaded it anyway.  She was right.

Don Tillman is a single guy from Melborne, Australia.  He's a quirky genetics professor who is very set in his ways.  Same meals, same routine, same everything every week.  His life is scheduled on his white board for maximum efficiency.  With the help of his only friends, he decides it's time to start looking for a wife.  Dating in the traditional sense is not an efficient use of his time, so he creates a questionnaire for potential mates to complete.   After a few awkward dates, he's not found Mrs. Right, but he's managed to update some of the questions to rule out less than optimum candidates.  In comes Rosie, a disorganized woman with her own issues who catches Don's attention.  Don offers his assistance to Rosie for a genetics project and it's a world of adventure and disrupted schedules from there on out.  This is a funny book that only mildly pulls at the heartstrings.  I would recommend downloading the audio if you can.  Dan O'Grady does a great job portraying the emotions and feel of the characters.  Disclaimer:  there is some profanity in this book, so be aware.  For me, it wasn't enough to make me not want to continue listening.  There is a sequel, The Rosie Effect.  I'm listening to it now and love it just as much as the original.  All in all, I give The Rosie Project two thumbs up!