Barack Obama Singing Born This Way by Lady Gaga

Sidelined

My knees have been killing me for a few days.  Since Friday, actually.  I hit the gym for an after/pre-going out work workout and overdid it.  What?  Me?  So I've been taking it easy since.  It's killing me because I'm used to activity and this sitting around bullshit is driving me insane.  They still hurt, but they're starting to feel a little better.  I'm hoping by this weekend I'll be ready to use and abuse them again.  Until then, I'm going to sit around feeling flabby.

A Tribute to Honey Boo Boo Child

The Music of 2011

It's no secret that music is a huge passion of mine.  I have my iPod on 10 to 12 hours a day and I lose myself in it.  This year I found music more comforting than ever before.  I really lost myself in it the whole time Mom was sick and after she died.  Overall, I think 2011 was an amazing year for record releases.  One of the best in a really long time.  I'm going to list out some of what I consider stand out releases for the year.  You may agree or disagree with me, and that's fine.  All that cares is the following records brought me great joy this year. What albums made you particularly happy in 2011?

 In no particular order....

Wonder Woman

I love happy surprises.  Tonight I was browsing through Amazon.com and came an upcoming book I was completely unaware of.  The book is Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors.  It's a trade paperback collection of a two-year long run of the Wonder Woman comic from the 70's.  In the late 60's, Wonder Woman's book took on a bold new direction.  She renounced her powers and gave up her super-hero life. She became a boutique owner and crime fighter more along the lines of Emma Peel from the Avengers.  By the early 70's, Wonder Woman was restored to her normal star-spangled self.  With her powers costume and powers back, she was offered her membership in the Justice League of America again, but before accepting it, she wanted to prove she was still worthy of being a member.  The Twelve Labors is that story.  Each issue of the series had a different JLAer shadowing Wonder Woman through her various adventures.

I have all the individual issues of this run, but I'm very excited by the prospect of owning it in a single volume.

Spank

This is turning out to be a hard week.  It really shouldn't be, but it is.  And because it's what I do when I'm under stress, I turn to food.  And not just any food, usually.  Shit food.  I've been overindulging with cookies and chocolate.  The logical side of my brain is screaming at me to stop, but the emotional side is ignoring it and I'm eating and then feeling like crap about it.  In turn, I'm going to the gym every single night without fail.  I felt like a zombie when I got home tonight.  I've worn myself out.  I need to stop this insanity.  I will do tomorrow morning what I've done every morning this week.  I'm going to try to start out with a clean slate and behave myself.  I will try not to let life's burdens get to me and I will be a stronger person.  Or Batman will slap my ass, and not in a good way.

New Scissor Sisters

Disaster

I'm not handy.  I don't like to do home improvement projects because (a) I'm no good at them and (b) I spent my entire childhood as my Dad's assistant seemingly every weekend as he ripped apart the house and put it back together.  I hated every minute of it then and little has changed since then.

Yesterday Ken decided he was going to change out the kitchen light.  He bought new lights for the house a year ago and they've sat in the kitchen collecting dust ever since.  I made my feeling clear that I wanted no part of the project and he decided that it was okay.  He was going to handle it himself.  About fifteen minutes into his project, he called me because he needed help.  And that help, most of which was me standing around holding things or handing him things or fetching him things, lasted nearly two hours.  

Ken is deathly afraid of fire, and so by association, he's very, very wary of doing anything electrical.  With this in mind, the nearly two hour project of taking down the old light and putting up the new light ended in complete and utter disaster with him kind of freaking out and the light getting destroyed in the process.  It's now sitting in the trash bin with a temporary light fixture up in it's place.  

To me, it's worth the money the professionals gouge you for to have it done right the first time.  I know I can't do it and Ken second guesses himself the entire process.  Other things he's a whiz at and should stick to them.  When it's something that terrifies him, I say spend the money.  I'm happy not to eat out a few times if it means Ken's peace of mind.

He bought the lights last year when they were on clearance and was panicked that he wasn't going to be able to find a suitable replacement that goes with the other lights yet to be hung (and the foyer light fixture that is already in place), but today he reported that he found one that will work.  That's a huge relief for him.  Me, I don't particularly care.  I didn't have a problem with the lights that are up now.  That irritates Ken, but that's just me and what makes me so adorable.

It's Fake Jan Day, Y'all!!!! Happy Jan 2!!

Sweat

Today is probably going to be the last quiet day at the gym for the next two or three months.  With that in mind, I made the most of it and headed there early to get it out of the way.  I was right.  The place was a ghost town.  I picked out my favorite elliptical and got right to work.  After all, I had the damage of a New Year's Eve wedding to work off before my first official weigh in of 2011.  I tried to behave myself last night, and for the most part I did.  Well, until dessert time.  Not only was there a huge selection of cupcakes (in lieu of wedding cake), but the groom's grandmother supplied an entire buffet of pastries and cookies.  Needless to say, I screwed myself over pretty late last night.  So this morning it was important to work a little of it off.  I generally do an hour and then a ten minute cool down.  Two minutes into my cool down this morning, I feel a loud snap and then a lot of rattling. My damn machine broke!  I guess I don't know my own strength.  I alerted the woman on duty and then hopped on to another machine to finish up my workout.  I went a few minutes above my plan, but that's okay.  So listen up, 2012.  Don't give me any shit or what happened to the elliptical is going to happen to you, too!

I love tracking things and keeping stats.  This year, my love of that is what helped propel me through every single workout I accomplished.  I tracked every workout I did in the iMapMyRide app on my phone, like a freak.  The initial goal I set for myself to accomplish was to travel 1,200 miles in 2011.  I thought it was a lofty goal when I set it, but I soon realized it was too low.  I hit my goal in early June.  I then challenged myself to do 2,400 miles for the year, which I also accomplished.  I was hoping to hit 3,600 miles by the end of the year, but I fell just short.  August and September were hard months for me to get a chance to workout.  I traveled to Texas in August and spent as much time with Mom as I could in September.  I worked out more days inJune than I did in August and September combined.

I just added up my mileage and calories for the year and I'm quite impressed with myself.  And I have every right to be.  I wore myself out.  

Of the 365 days in the year, I managed to sweat my ass off 257 of those days.

I logged in 1,702.33 miles on the elliptical

I logged in 1,533.31 miles on the bike

I logged in 53.18 miles on the treadmill

I logged in 23.78 miles walking outside.

That's a total of 3,312.60 miles for the year.  As for approximate number of calories burned, that would be 252,909.

Now that 2011 is behind us, I can put this challenge behind me, too.  I focused almost exclusively on mileage.  I need to expand my workouts to include building muscle.  I have little to no upper body strength and I'm sick of it.  I'm a little intimidated by using the weight machines, mostly because I've never really used them before.  After a few rounds with them, I should feel a little better (and a lot sorer.)