Yoga

Ever since I found a yoga studio within just a few minutes' walking distance of my apartment, I've been more obsessed with yoga than I was before. The first time I saw someone doing yoga, I basically gave up hope of ever being able to be good, because I thought it must be one of those things that you have to start practicing at the age of three or something to be decent at it later on.

But actually, I found that in yoga, if you keep trying, you can actually see yourself improving and being able to do things you didn't think you were capable of. I definitely saw this, and I've really only been doing it consistently for a few months.

Case in point.

Crow. What.

The first time I tried that, I almost fell flat on my face because my arms were like "WHAT IS GOING ON WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US" and were in no way capable of supporting me like that. This is still one of the more basic moves (I think?). Still working on it.

It just so happens that I like yoga a lot more than any other type of exercise that I've done. I was a big gym-goer in college, and I think the elliptical, treadmill, and stationary bike have more than run their courses. I don't care if I ever set foot on an elliptical again. It's okay exercise if I really want to do nothing else, but I don't really get excited about hopping onto an elliptical as my exercise routine. I also didn't really care for weight-lifting. I did it, but would have preferred not to.

And don't even get me started on running. I've accepted that I will never be a good runner. Also, it hurts my knees and shins. Evil.

Bailey likes yoga too!

Yes, it's true.

She usually freaks out when I pull out the mats (scary), and then calms down and sits by to judge my poses.

Chaturanga. Yayan, get your butt down.

I can do it too. And I'm better.

I.P.A.D.

So.

Nick got me an iPad for my birthday (what a wonderful boyfriend), and needless to say, I have basically not put it down since I took it out of the box yesterday after it arrived. I also haven't touched my battery-rejecting laptop in about 36 hours.

Nor have I slept. Almost. I am sad to say that is hardly an exaggeration. But I'm okay with that.

Unfortunately blogging isn't the most convenient thing to do on the iPad, but since it's my first few days with it, of course I had to give a try. So this post might look a little weird because it seems like all the formatting options are gone in Blogger on the iPad. But whatever. Please forgive me for one day.

I have downloaded no less than 10 apps already, between games and other just random stuff. I found out last night that there was a Kindle app that let's you sync up with an actual Kindle, so now I'm just bumming off books on Nick's Kindle and reading them. He's okay with it.

And since this post is kind of boring since it's just me talking about using an iPad, here are some pictures of Bailey. She feels as excited about the iPad as you probably do.

Whoa. Something new. Can I smell it?

Meh. I don't care enough to get up.

Zzzzz.

I imagine that is the exact progression of your expression as you read this blog post.

Oh, I also ate (part) of one of these cream puffs tonight. It was about the size of my head in its entirety.

YUM

Good night!

Update: I had to use Nick's laptop to fix the formatting in this post because it came out extremly weird on the iPad and I couldn't handle it. Hopefully I figure out how to use this BlogPress app better, otherwise I just wasted $2.99.

Sugar Overdose

I think I overdosed on sugar this past week. Yesterday and today did not help.

I was out with my parents all day yesterday, so head chef Nick made dinner and dessert. He used some leftover chili we had (I made about 10 gallons of chili last weekend, and after eating chili for almost every meal this week, I don't think I'll be able to have any for about a year) to make a cheddar chili pasta cornbread casserole. For dessert he made a strawberry cobbler. Both were amazing, and we had ice cream with the cobbler, so it was double amazing. 

As usual, Bailey spent the entire time we were eating crouched down behind my chair. It kind of looked like she was praying.

Please please please let them give me some please

Nope. Prayers not answered.

And then she looked grumpy the rest of the night.

Yeah, what of it?

Spoiled.

Today my friend Katherine and I made these pumpkin whoopie pies from a recipe by the Hummingbird Bakery. They were insanely good.

:DDD

The frosting's a little messed up, because by this point I'd eaten three of them and my clumsy fingers would knock over everything when I took one. So that was definitely my bad.

And because Katherine and her boyfriend are awesome, they got me some organic Honeycrisp apples from a local farmer's market as a birthday present (yay!) because I spent 20 minutes last week raving to Katherine about how much I love Honeycrisp apples (if you've never had one, go eat one now). I had one as soon as I got home, and I have to say, it was a refreshing break from all the sugary desserts I'd been eating. So, thank you, Katherine and Trevor, for deviating me from my journey along the path to self-induced diabetes. I really appreciate it.

Bailey spent most of the morning the same way she usually spends all her Sunday mornings. Sleeping and being grumpy if we're too loud.

Leave me alone.

That's a half-asleep stink eye she's giving me there. Yup. I'm used to it.

Remember how I said I never buy Bailey toys because she just loses them? Well, tonight proved my point. I decided to give her some exercise and play with her, but then realized that I could only find one of her toys. And she's accumulated quite a lot, since people who are clearly nicer than I am give them to her (Joanna, Nick, and Nick's mom). So it was a slight mystery to me tonight when I only found ONE toy in her drawer. Nick decided to look under the couch, and this is what was dug up.

Yup. All of those got rescued from under the couch tonight. Bailey, WHAT are you doing? Come on now.

She went nuts on one of them for about an hour after we pulled it out. 

I HAVE MISSED THIS SO MUCH WHY WAS IT GONE FOR SO LONG

Cause you put it under the couch and never retrieved it, Bailey.

She's definitely got some smooth moves when she's flipping out. Really just the definition of grace.

I forget how my legs work.

She also cuddled with it a little.

I love my toy.

She's a special one, she is.

Yes I agree.

Dessert Friday #12

I should really just call it Dessert Week, considering the amount of desserts I've consumed starting Wednesday.

Yes, Wednesday was my birthday. In case you missed it.

My wonderful work friends made me copious amounts of homemade baked goods. It started off well with Eileen's fantastic red velvet cupcakes.

:DDD

They were delicious. Recipe from Paula Deen, according to Eileen. And yes, I requested red velvet. Duh, did you expect anything else? And there was more than a generous amount of frosting on it, because Eileen and I share a similar love for frosting. Also, I had two. Because cake on your birthday has zero calories.

And then today Jessie brought in lemon bars. Another one of my favorite desserts.

:DDD

See the empty spaces? It started out with two layers. I'd made my way through four pieces by this point (THEY WERE SMALL). I ended up eating five by the end of the day ad left work in a sugar coma. Totally worth it. Again, zero calories, because it was for my birthday.

And Joanna took me out to Starbucks! Great week. Sugar, sugar, and caffeine. I don't feel like the fat kid or anything here. Nope.

Don't think I copped out on Dessert Friday either. I picked up a couple of red velvet cupcakes (should I be worried at this point about the amount of red food coloring I've consumed by now?) from Macy's after work, since Nick had to stay late. I also might have gotten distracted in Macy's and bought an apple-shaped Martha Stewart cutting board that is absolutely adorable. Side note.

:DDD

I actually almost didn't pick up dessert for the afternoon (I know, what blasphemy), but encouragement from Joanna had me deciding against taking a rain check for more cake.

And thank goodness I got cake, because I came home to:

1. A "We missed you!" slip from FedEx for a package I'd been waiting for, even though I've left FedEx countless notes saying to just ring my neighbors' doorbells so they can drop the package inside. I don't understand why FedEx doesn't pick up on the consistency of this, while UPS has no issues with it.
   
2. A "We missed you!" slip from People's Gas taped on my door, saying that our gas had been shut off due to repairs and because no one was home, they couldn't turn it back on. Huh? Thanks People's Gas, I was hoping to come home to a useless stove tonight. The entire night I kept thinking things like "Oh I'll just make pasta, that's easy, I don't need gas for that....oh wait...." or "Boxed mac and cheese! Easy peasy! Don't need gas for that....oh wait." And apparently their response to all of this is "Oh we'll send out a technician, he'll be there sometime in the next 8 hours." Uh...really? Sure, I'll just drop everything I had for Friday night and wait for the gas person to show up. Which I did not do. So now the gas person is coming at 7am tomorrow, apparently. But whatever. I'll be up anyway, because a certain furball will want her wet food.
   
   End rant. I promise only rainbows and sunshine from here on.

So after that ordeal on the phone, I poured myself a drink.

Rum & Coke. And cupcake.

That doesn't make me sound like an alcoholic at all...

Disapprove.

And then I had my cake.

:DDD

Can I just take a minute here to admire that frosting? How MUCH of it there is? It actually has the amount of frosting a Crumbs cupcake promises to have, but doesn't.

Bailey's taken to sitting next to my chair behind me when I eat at the table, I guess hoping I'll drop something. Who knows.

Not a chance, especially given this cake had insane amounts of sugar in it (which I clearly needed more of, after my five lemon bars and all).

Hello there. I'm just sitting here. Playing with my toy. Not waiting for food.

She's really learned how to turn on the pout now too, if we don't give her anything.

Murr.

I'm standing my ground here. Don't really want another cereal bowl incident.

Cave Kitten

Last night we went to bed super late (well, much later than we would have liked) because a certain kitten had nestled herself under Nick's legs on the bed and decided to camp out there.

At first it was fine, she was just sitting next to me.

Hmmm what's over there?

Nick's legs propped up under the blanket was what was over there. She went ahead and settled into the blanket cave.

Oh hey. Please don't kick me out.

And when we showed no signs of wanting her to leave, she got a little more comfortable.

Hello I'll just lie down here.

And then even more comfortable.

Alright it's bedtime.

Yup. We stayed up 40 minutes later than planned because of that. The things we do for that cat...

In other news, I found a yoga studio ONLY A FEW BLOCKS FROM WHERE I LIVE! I have no idea how I missed this before, because I've been hoping for a yoga studio close by for...oh, forever. And I found one today! And it's super nice! As far as I know, best discovery ever. Just wanted to get that out there.

Dessert Friday #11

Ugh, what is wrong with me? Late on Dessert Friday again.

Actually, I do have an excuse. Sort of.

Not really.

My laptop's battery decided to completely die last week (either that or my laptop has decided to reject my battery's existence), and now I can't use my laptop unless it's plugged in, and I can't move it from, say, the couch to the dining room table without shutting it off, unplugging it, and turning it back on.

Apparently this five-minute delay is enough for me to tuck my laptop away for a few days and lose all connection with the internet world.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm extremely impatient? I am.

In any case, Dessert Friday did happen last week. We had red velvet cupcakes (YUM) from Sugar Bliss.

Every week when Friday rolls around, I tell myself that I'm going to get something other than red velvet. Nope. Apparently it's not going to happen.

Always and forever.

I also came home to this.

What?

Yes, Bailey took one of her toys, carried it to the other end of the apartment, and dropped it in her food bowl. I have no idea why. She was probably annoyed the rest of the day because she blocked herself from her food.

She also got a NEW toy (Joanna, thank you for being the main supplier of Bailey's toys)! One of those catnip stick things she LOVES. And always loses.

This is mine oh yes it is.

Yesterday was a shopping extravaganza day with my friend Katherine. It was so great. I love Ikea. I also love Meijer. We got home around 6pm and I wanted to make this General Tso's Chicken recipe, which was delicious but took me like two hours to get done.

Yum.

Bailey came over looking all hopeful, but I was having none of it and didn't share. She got a little huffy.

Fine. I see how it is.

I can't even look at you right now.

She's also got kind of a fat lip on her bottom lip. I'm not sure what caused it, but it happened once before and went away by itself, so I'm hoping that happens again. In case any of you happen to know what this is, let me know:

Fix me :(

It's that purplish splotch on her bottom lip. I think it might be acne. You know. Kitten puberty and all.

It's my birthday next Wednesday (yes it is), and in preparation for the slew of baked goods that are coming my way (thank you in advance to everyone who said they're baking), I of course kicked off Sunday with...cake.

Joy.

My mom bought me this tiramisu cake and it was so so good. I love tiramisu. Hard to say whether I like it more or less than red velvet. It's a tough call.

And she got me flowers!

Pretty :)

Yay for birthdays!

Crepes

Because I've been so lazy about dinner this week, I've had to buy lunch the past couple of days instead of having leftovers. Today's lunch made me nauseous for the entire afternoon, and I vowed to never buy food for lunch again.

For a while, at least.

So tonight I made a gigantic (and I mean seriously gigantic) pot of corn chowder, along with crepes for dessert. No, there are no crepes left for me to bring to lunch tomorrow. But there's about 50 more servings of soup, so I'm good with that.

I would just like to take a moment to ask: how adorable are those bowls?! I got them in Fargo for $2 each. I nearly died from happiness. I live for good deals.

And of course, the crepes. I've only made crepes once before about two years ago, and I remembered it being stressful because of how you have to spread the batter out in the pan. It wasn't too bad tonight. I'm going to take that to mean that my cooking skills have improved over the years.

Spread out and not too misshapen!

Beautiful.

I also found TWO jars of Nutella stashed in the back of my shelves that I had somehow FORGOTTEN ABOUT. How could I forget that I owned something so delicious? I have no idea. We had the crepes with Nutella and raspberries. Because we didn't have strawberries.

YUM.

I promise it's not a burrito.

Bailey smelled all of the good stuff and came wandering into the kitchen. She sat behind my chair for the majority of the meal and stared daggers through my back, silently willing me to give her some food.

Yup. I will be here until you give me some of whatever you are eating.

She stared at whoever got up to get seconds.

Pass me some, will you?

At one point I turned around to find her three feet closer to my chair. She's sneaky. Silent. Like a ninja.

Oh hello. How about sharing, now that I'm right here?

She switched off between staring at me and staring at the food. Just to make sure I knew what she was going for.

Yeah, that one right there. Just toss it over.

Nope. She did not get any.

Sad Bailey

Bailey's been kind of depressed the past few days. Just kind of moping around, dragging her paws, not being her usual INSANE self. I'm perfectly fine with the lack of sprinting around the apartment, but I'm less happy about the fact that she actually looks sad.

No one understands me.

It's gotten a little bit better today. She lifted her head.

Eh?

An hour ago she was even pouncing (kind of) in our (clean) laundry.

Sneaky.

Sad. But getting there. Maybe.

I, on the other hand, have been dragging through this week like I'm trying to walk through mud in chains. Next time I plan a vacation, I'm going to plan to come back to work on a short week. This is madness. I've set my alarm for 5:10am every morning this week, and I haven't gotten up ONCE for an earlybird workout. I just snooze every ten minutes until it's 6:30am and I have to get up. That's a lot of snoozing.

I also haven't cooked a real dinner since we got back. By "real" I mean something that takes longer than throwing together a random-as-heck salad of kale, sprouts, chipotle peppers, and a Boca burger. Or just a Boca burger and some eggs.

Apparently I've got a thing for Boca burgers these days. Those are healthy, right? I'm getting all the necessary nutritional value. Agree with me. AGREE.

I've also got a thing for wine.

It used to be full I promise.

And Slim Jims. Oh. My. God. Do I ever have a thing for Slim Jims.

<3

I discovered these in Fargo (thank you Sam, I'm just going to go ahead and start buying sweatpants and sweatshirts because those are the only things I will be able to fit into soon) because Nick's mom had a box in their pantry. The first day I learned about their existence, I ate five. Within about two hours. And then someone gave me a box of my own to take back to Chicago. I don't remember who actually gave me the box (Sam? Nick's dad?) because I was in too much bliss holding my very own box of Slim Jims to remember anything else.

I think I'll go and have one now...