Anchorage, Alaska

I was up in Anchorage this week (minus two days thanks to playing superman which = FAIL...see last post) and it was gorgeous, as always. I love coming up in February because the days are much longer. The first day we were up here, we had totally sunny skies and the next day it just DUMPED snow on us. Like 6 inches in 2 hours. Crazy. It was cool though for us Seattle people that haven't seen snow all winter (not complaining though!) Below are some pictures of the sunny day. I also have a great story from the night we went out in Anchorage but I am going to wait to post about that. I know, I know, such a tease.

A shot from the hotel room I was in. Downtown Anchorage with mountains in the background.

And round two looking the other way.

The superman stunt that went wrong

Oh man. Where do I even start?

Ok. So, I have had to work every Saturday for the last month and a half. It's busy season, whatever. But one thing that I've been doing and maintaining this busy season is working out. Every year I say I'm going to be great about continuing my workouts but by about mid-February, I tend to turn into more of a weekend warrior, by March I'm a bi-monthly warrior and by April I'm about ready to go ballistic because I've been working too much and not working out enough. So, this year I promised myself would be different...

I knew two things would help me this year:
1) Going to the gym in our building (easy access- I can escape work to workout and not have to physically leave the building)
2) Working with a trainer (then I'd HAVE to go, I'd pre-pay, I would have more FUN, and it would eliminate the excuse of not being able to run because of my dumb achilles).

So I've been working with a trainer for a few months now and I absolutely love him. Not only am I toning muscles that I didn't really work out on my own, but he is just a super cool, sweet guy and the time spent training with him is just like hanging out with a friend (who also kicks your ass at times). On the days that I don't train, I do cardio. And on the weekends I try to hike depending on how my foot is doing. It's been GREAT and I am getting in better shape than I've been in for a long time, even though I've always been active.

Once busy season really started to pick up, Saturdays threw a little bit of hiccup into my workout plan. So I have had to schedule some Saturday sessions with Justin (my trainer) since during the week I'm often out at clients/have other obligations, etc.

Saturday February 20 was no exception.

I started out the session totally frazzled. We agreed to meet at 1pm and I'd been at the office since 6. And it was just one of those days where EVERYTHING had just piled up and was completely stressing me out. It didn't help matters that I pretty much had to get everything done by Monday, as I was leaving for Alaska that day. So I ran downstairs at 1 and was just a total stressball.

Lucky for me, working out always helps this!

It was a GORGEOUS day outside so Justin had me outside on the concrete porch doing various exercises. Obviously in the gym they have the "mats" for the floor but it was just too nice not to be outside... It was AWESOME to have sun time plus exercise. And, I mean, truthfully, we're just weight training, you'd think it would be safe, right?

We worked out for about 40 minutes out there and then he brings out this yellow resistance band. It's one of those things where you strap one end on to one person and another on the other person. Then one person is in front moving and the other is in the back "resisting" and trying to slow the front person down. So we did this a couple of times- Justin running backwards, me using my leg muscles to slow him down (it was actually a GREAT workout).

Then he asks, "Want to try it with me running straight [instead of backwards]"?

Me: "Sure!" Note: I usually don't say no to a lot of exercises because I really think that I am strong enough to try them... I think Justin would say the same about me.

Justin says: "ok, you ready?"

Me: "Yup, let's go!"

....

and then.

ARGHUMPHHHHHHH was the noise that came out of my body.

Jenn played superman. Except she ate shit.

Justin took off and I am not really sure what happened at that point... either I wasn't totally ready and didn't move my legs or he was just being a world class sprinter. I went flying about 4 feet and then just plowed/skidded on the concrete.

Justin, of course, heard the ARGHUMPHHHHHHH and came running back the second he heard it but MAN I hit hard. And hit everything...

As a sidenote, it really is too bad that we didn't have it on video. I'm sure it looked absolutely hysterical.

So he helps me up and later I find out that I was looking like total hell, like, "what the EFF just happened?" And we turn over my hands and they are just gushing blood. Ugh oh. Then he looks at my chin, same thing. Then we look at my arms, same thing. And stomach, same thing.

We're both laughing but I think we were both simultaneously thinking, "oh shit."

So he sends me into the bathroom to get cleaned up which BY THE WAY, HURT LIKE HELL. Water on open war wounds = suck. Justin follows me in because I guess I was looking sort of out of it and he had some ointment to put on my wounds.

Apparently he was right because he ripped off some skin that was hanging off of me and I guess my poor little body had enough. Everything starting to go blurry, fuzzy, star-ish, black. Yuuup. Justin put me on the counter and kind of just held me there while I tried not to loose total consciousness. I remember just staring at the clock thinking ok, I'm not going to stop looking at this, it WILL NOT go black. I WILL NOT PASS OUT RIGHT NOW. I knew I was on the verge of passing out. Like 99.9% there.

And then I started to feel like I was going to puke. MY GOD. I've taken worse falls than this, what in the hell??

At one point Justin said, "are you seeing stars?" And I apparently responded like I was drunk off my ass, "Yeaaaah, seeing stars... niiiiice."

After about 10 minutes of trying to shut down and go black, and a MILLION deep breaths, mind over matter won and everything started to get more clear. Phew.

Justin continued to get the dirt/rocks out of my open wounds then we went outside to just sit for a while so that I could start to feel a little bit better. And seriously, everyone asks me if I kept working out? Really? Um, no.

We sat outside in the sun for over an hour (which was GREAT) and our friend Renee who came down to run joined us too. Eventually I decided I was ok enough to get dressed. which AGAIN hurt like effing HELL.

And then, after laughing, hugging, and reassuring Justin that I was ok, I made my way home (and really, I was ok, really. This ultimately is a very funny story)...

Driving stick, not the best. Going home, I KNEW I had to take a shower since I had dirt all over my face, stomach, arms. But I couldn't even open the god damn door to the house. So, eventually I got in and made myself take a shower. Bloody HELL. (Almost literally). HOLY GOD, I have maybe never experienced something so painful. Did all of my friends back in the midwest hear me yelling F-bombs that day? I'm pretty sure my neighbors did at least.

After that, I bandaged up my poor wounds and called Tim to come home to help me take care of the dog, especially since I was still feeling light headed/woozy.

Turns out, I actually kind of hurt myself... I had to postpone my trip to Alaska for two days so that I could recover. It was kind of nice though because I was able to relax, work at home (in sweats) soI think it was kind of a blessing in disguise.

But at least now we all know that I have no flying capability and nope, I am not superman. How about some pictures of the carnage?


In the car the day that it happened trying to get myself to go into Walgreens to get some bandages (hand 1)... the bleeding had stopped at this point.

Hand number two, the day it happened, again trying to get myself to go into Walgreens.

A shot of the chin.

A shot of the stomach wounds.

And finally at home.... deciding to take pictures instead of making myself get in the shower.

This picture is a couple days after- the chin looks much better!

As does the stomach- I don't even know that you can totally see much here- I basically just had a big gash on the left side and then just skid marks all up and down (which healed quickly).

Maybe you can see it better here...

And hand 1 a few days later- before it turned totally black and blue.

A shot of the whole arm... lovely! I forgot to take a picture of the other hand. Whoops. Turns out I sprained that wrist (the left one) pretty dang bad.

And a shot of the shirt. I'm not sure how this picture will show up but in person you can see the skid marks, holes made by the concrete, etc. It's pretty freaking funny.

So that is my superman story. It hurt. But surprisingly, I didn't even cry. Just laughed and almost passed out. I actually find the whole thing to be quite humorous even though it really did hurt like hell.

And sidenote: since I'm actually writing this in March.... I'm naturally back in the gym working out. It feels GREAT. We even worked out again outside the other day at the scene of the crime since it was gorgeous out again...we did take a moment of silence before going out there. But, no superman stunts, just awesome workouts. Justin continues to be one of the best trainers I've ever worked with and I'm getting in probably the best shape I've ever been in as a result. Plus, he's a pretty good friend too which makes it even that much more fun. And we have laughed A LOT about this, I mean, what else can you really do?

Perplexed.

I took this picture on my way home from a client in the deep dirty south of Seattle. I had been sitting in bumper to bumper traffic FOREVER and saw the sign on 1-5 just as I was getting on 405 of traffic times. It said 12 minutes to Bellevue. Well, my friends, these signs lie or the systems operators are smoking crack. It took me another FORTY FIVE (3 times the 12 minutes) to get to Bellevue.

Get ready....

for insane February catch up- all at once. I'm not sure how many posts there will be but they will be filled in for the respective February dates (keep scrolling down). February has been a crazy month so I am attempting to catch up on all of my blogging before March starts. Not exactly the way that I love to blog BUT busy season has once again disrupted my life... enjoy!

Update on the achilles

There have been various updates throughout the past EIGHT MONTHS on the state of my stupid achilles. It just won't GO AWAY. And if you remember here, I talked about what I've tried to make it better and HERE was the best: the day I got frostbite from one of those treatments (physical therapy). Also in that post I talked about Topricin, a homeopathic cream that I have been using to help the achilles heal. Well guess what?! A few days after that post, I got contacted by the nice people of Topricin who saw that post and wanted to send me some samples of some more of their products as well as a cream that is targeted specifically for foot injuries (appropriately called foot cream).

Above is the stash of stuff sent to me by Topricin... it was AWESOME. I have waited to post about this because a) I've been busy and b) I wanted to try out the foot cream for a while to give it a reasonable review. I really like it... it's much better, at least for my specific injury, than the original cream though I would still use the original cream if I had other non-foot related injuries. I feel like it has really helped my achilles so that's awesome. It's still not totally healed but it is MUCH, MUCH better (and the burn is better too, although I've been peeling now for a month- not kidding, it's totally gross).

No, the nice people at Topricin didn't tell me to write this... I just REALLY like their product and know that there are other people out there who have sports injuries. I would HIGHLY recommend this as a treatment... as well as the other stuff you have to do too (rest, ice, etc, depending on the injury).

I'm going to keep using it and hopefully that combined with therapy, rest, ice, and everything else, my achilles will be better- finally. The goal is that by summer it will be 100% so I can do all of the fun things I want to do.

Spring in Seattle!

The weather here has been SO unusual but SO nice. I am LOVING IT. The only crappy part about it is that it reminds me of Phoenix- in that during Phoenix busy seasons, the weather was PERFECT and we were stuck inside working. Welcome to Spring in Seattle in 2010: starting February.

Seriously, FEBRUARY!? It has been high 50s to low 60s and totally sunny pretty much every day. A little rain overnight but then the days are just perfect. I feel like I shouldn't hold my breath because we're not out of the "winter" woods yet but I'll take it for now. Hey, even all of the trees and flowers are blooming!

This is how mostly all of the trees are looking these days- and we have tons of flowers blooming in our yard too. In FEBRUARY. Weird. Usually this doesn't start to happen until closer to April.


Bella has been enjoying the nice weather too...especially now that she isn't sick. She is so freaking SKINNY but her poops have been pretty good for a month if we just don't give her anything BUT her special food. It's frustrating though because she eats A TON but still poops so much (even if they are good) that she doesn't put any weight on. You can literally see every bone in her body. But there is a fine line between getting her to put weight on/keeping her tummy ok. For now, just keeping her tummy ok is the plan. She is a happy camper so I guess that's all that really matters. She has been LOVING the nice weather and playing outside tons. Above is a picture of her after such a day. Tired dog, nothing better.

End of a long week in Puyallup = perfect

I spent all week down in Puyallup (about 45 minutes southeast of Seattle) at a client. Our client takes part every year in a charity event called "Feed My Starving Children." It's a nationally known non-profit group that one of the owners of our clients takes a huge part in. The group makes meals that are specially formulated for starving kids and then ships the meals all over the world, to whoever needs it most. We took part in it this year and our group was making meals for kids in Haiti.

I can't really describe how cool it was to be a part of this event... you put a dried chicken powder, plus dried veggies, plus soy for protein, plus rice into a little baggie (only 380-400 oz). Each bag is SO small but it has all of the nutrients needed to feed a child SEVEN times. I couldn't believe how little food would help a kid and how much these kids that had gotten the food had changed for the better. It was awesome to be a part of it... we only did a 2 hour shift but just in that shift alone, we made enough food bags to feed 116 kids for a year. Pretty cool.


I snapped a shot of my co-worker before we started. We all had to wear hairnets which was fun.

Above are the bags of what we created (not exactly ours but it's an example). Additionally, here's the link to the feed my starving children website for anyone who is interested or who wants to contribute time or money as well: http://www.fmsc.org/Page.aspx?pid=398. Such a good cause and the group is doing great things. I plan to take part in this event every year.

Valentines day weekend

We had a great Valentines day weekend... of course I had to work on Saturday but we made the most of it...

Gorgeous flowers, wine and a card from Timmy prior to Valentines day... a nice touch since I think all of that is kind of cheesy on the actual day of.

Fabulous dinner that I made on Saturday night- sweet potatoes, Chilean sea bass, asparagus, and sauteed spinach/mushrooms. It was prettier when it was just served on plates but I forgot to take pictures- these are the leftovers.

Then Sunday, Tim surprised me with reservations to Daniels, a nice restaurant in Seattle. Yum! I haven't seen him much lately so it was so nice to be able to go to a nice dinner. And it was early enough in the evening that it was still light out so we had a great view. Awesome!

And T himself at dinner. We both had salmon... so delish. I usually don't get very into valentines day and this year was really no exception but it was nice to have a few romantic nice things throughout the weekend to commemorate the "official" day of love!

A new profession....

Nurse! After her most recent episode (seen here) Bella has to get one shot a week of B vitamins and I have been giving those to her. I ROCK at this. She doesn't yelp, cry, or anything. I just grab the back of her neck and shoot it right in. She is a little stud at getting shots....I guess after everything she's been through, a shot is relatively mild especially if it keeps her feeling well. Regardless, I still feel bad doing it to her. As you can tell, she doesn't look entirely thrilled at the prospect or her most recent shot....

And no, actually, I will not be changing professions. I actually find that giving shots is quite gross, even if I do a decent job at it.

Driving on the boulevard...

Every Saturday this time of year, I have to work. I work 6 good days a week (meaning anywhere from 8 hours on Saturdays to 12-15 hours the other days of the week), often I work 7 days a week. I love GOING in to work Saturday mornings. I'm not really sure why because about 5 minutes after I get there all I can think is SUCK SUCK SUCK. Especially if I make the goal to get there early at 6am. 6am on Saturdays=grumpy Jenn.

But usually, I get there later around 8am after sleeping in until 6-6:30am. And when I do get there later, I drive down the boulevard in Kirkland, thus the part about loving going IN to work. The boulevard in Kirkland is just that: a quaint little stretch of old and new shops right along the waterfront of Lake Washington, a LOT of coffee shops, including starbucks and Ladro (my fav) that I often stop at, many condos, tons of restaurants and bars, and GORGEOUS scenery of the Lake (and if it's sunny, you can see Rainier in the distance as well as the Olympics far off to the west and the Cascades to the east).

We can walk to the boulevard from our house- it's about 2-3 miles but I love driving it in the early mornings on Saturday and not just because it's a fun place but because it is SO fun to people watch.

On Saturday mornings everyone is out for a morning run, morning stroll, morning bike, morning dog walk. It's so interesting to see people and I have learned that, after doing this for several Saturdays in a row, I kind of judge people: "Oh, yup there's a biker that knows what he's doing." or "oh, running club- I wonder what they are training for- they look like it's the first time training!" or "Yeah, nope, good effort but she isn't a runner at all." or "Wow, high maintenance dog." or "Geez, that guy is hard core- he is ALWAYS out." and on and on. There are literally TONS of people out and I enjoy watching these people share the same love of the boulevard that I have. That being said, I will be happy for busy season to be over so I can join in with all of these people on Saturday mornings... then someone can judge me as they drive by.

Something only someone I know can appreciate:

You know who you are.

When I was at the client referenced in this last post, in their bathrooms, I saw this:

A dyson handdryer! Woah! Pretty slick, and apparently pretty green, though don't quote me on that as I have done no research on bathroom handdryers or what specific kinds are more "green."

Sorry about the quality of the above photo. I thought it was weird to snap a picture in their bathroom but I was going to anyway. Turns out bringing my phone to pee isn't really that natural for me so I forgot every time. The above is a google image and is not the best quality.

The company I was at was big on being green in every way that they manufacture so having an environmentally friendly handdryer seemed consistent with the company goals. Perhaps these are around everywhere and I just don't get out enough but it was the first I had seen, specifically of the dyson variety. I thought it was pretty cool.

A crazy ending to a long week...

Actually it's not really that crazy and the week isn't really over so I guess the title of this post is just an all out lie. Turns out that during this time of year nothing is really too "crazy" in all forms of the word. And turns out I'm working today and tomorrow and all week and next Saturday... and on and on. I will talk to everyone that reads this in oh, about 2.5 months.

So yesterday... ugh. So frustrating! I woke up exhausted because that is what happens after a full week of getting up at 4am. I get to the office and then I have to go home around 8am to take Bella to the neighbors' house. My neighbor and I were talking one day (she has a 5 year old boxer) and I told her that I take Bella to day care. She was all, WHAT!? My kids (8 year old twins) would LOVE to watch Bella. So, ever since, they have been. It's AWESOME. Convenient, close, and MUCH more cost effective. I pay the kids $15 a day which is great for them (and me). Plus Bella loves her buddy Sadie. It just really sucks when she decides to pee in their house for whatever reason...

So anyway.

I run home, take her out to poop/pee since she's been sleeping at home for a few hours. Well, guess what princess Bella's new thing is? She will only pee and poop on select grass worthy of her princess ass. I am NOT KIDDING. Let's stop a second here, deep breath and remind ourselves that we are talking about a DOG who poops and pees outside- not on a marble toilet.

Oh RIIIIGHT. This is PRINCESS BELLA. How could I possibly forget that my dog rules the world? Duh.

So yes, she will now only go on select grass that she deems appropriate. We are not sure if it's because the grass she's avoiding is where she was really sick or what but it is WEIRD. So, I'm taking her out, she's not going, I'm being stubborn and refusing to let her go to her "preferred" grass (mostly because her princess tendencies piss me off and I want to "out-stubborn" her) but this time she won. My time was short, I had to get to the client. So she's all hunchbacked/tail down/head down in mass efforts of operation KEEP.THE.POOP.IN. and after 30 (30!!) minutes for her walking circles like this, I give in. BUT! I don't let her win either. It's a draw. I take her to the neighbor's and NOT to the grass she wanted. Ha! I showed her.

Of course by that point, I'm just royally frustrated with her and have to tell the neighbor that she's been holding in a giant shit for a half hour so to let her out immediately. Five minutes later I get a text from my neighbor? Oh yeah, she went RIGHT AWAY. Couldn't hold it a second longer (apparently their grass is awesome). SERIOUSLY. ANNOYING.

After that fun, I drove my way down to a new client that I'd been at all week. It's a pretty awesome client and I was having a good time, things were going well. Until... We all go out to lunch (the audit people and the tax people who showed up to collect tax stuff) and I have been talking with the client all morning so I have to pee. [Seriously, as a sidenote, I really didn't expect to talk about bodily functions this entire post. I must really be needing to get a life...] Oh, and just to add: the client could not keep eye contact the WHOLE MORNING. I am not particularly "well endowed" if you know what I mean so it was quite the different experience to want to shout at him all morning "MY EYES ARE UP HERE." ANYWAY. So I'm flushing and I'm not sure what other people use to flush with but I use my foot. So my foot slips and THERE GOES MY SHOE INTO THE TOILET. Next thing you know?

Shoe is in toilet and I'm falling all over the stall. NOT KIDDING.

The lady next to me is stifling laughter as I'm trying to collect myself after yelling FUCK and then SHIT, MY SHOE (awesome considering the context at that moment...) and then BOOM.BOOM.BOOM. CRAAASH. I mean, I wasn't even DRINKING. So, I pull my shoe out of the toilet after picking myself up and dusting off a bit of what we like to call TOTAL humiliation. What am I supposed to do? I feel absolutely horrendous like I've just bathed in shit since I fell all over the damn stall and now I have a pee shoe. I mean, what would everyone else done in this situation? Walked back out to the lunch meeting with a shoe wrapped in a paper towel? Or stayed in there forever trying to get it dry? Or washed it in the sink? Well, I gave it a quick rinse in the sink (after hobbling on my dry shoe to the sink- not really sure why since it didn't matter much at that point) and then just put it back on. I will mention that I smelled it and it didn't smell like pee. (I KNOW, SERIOUSLY GROSS).

The third thing that happened to me was on my way back from said client. Mini's are known for getting clobbered by rocks. Winston (my old mini) was no exception and I replaced that windshield about 3-4 times. Well, Alfred (the new mini) has now joined the club.

He waited until about 3900 miles (picture taken this morning).

Big rock mark. So sad. I guess that means this little coop is getting older now that he is part of the rock hitting windshield club.

After all of this madness, I promptly hit the gym for a great workout to sweat out the remnants of my day and then headed straight to happy hour. After a couple of glasses of white wine and laughs with friends, all was right in the world again. But I think I am going to throw away that pee shoe.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Today is my lovely mom's birthday... I won't disclose her age, not that I think she's sensitive about it but, well, I don't know, I guess I'm having doubts that maybe she doesn't want that broadcast everywhere.

She has had a rough part of the last few months of her life... shoulder surgery, double cataract (eye) surgery, and falling on the ice/severe concussion. Add to that continuing to take care of my grandma 24/7 and I'd say that she deserves a massive celebration today to start this next year out right. She is one of the strongest women I know and certainly deserves everything good that will come to her in this next year.

Here's to the next year, Mom... hopefully you can slow down, stay healthy, and enjoy some "you" time that isn't forced by a hospital or doctor. Happy birthday, I love you!

There is such a thing as bad elevator music...

Well that title just seems like it could win dumb statement of the year, huh?

But seriously.

In the almost 3 years I have worked in my office, NEVER, has there been elevator music. To my knowledge, the management/owners of the building haven't changed either. I'm not really sure what's going on but starting at the first of this year, I think that the building management's number one resolution was to play as much annoying elevator music as possible. I mean, really. There's been nothing normal.

We've had:
-Music that is completely unrecognizable but is from various eras: 20s, 30s, 50s, 70s (maybe some of that would be defined as "waltz" and "polka", I have NO IDEA...it was all like nails on a chalkboard to me...painful)
-Classical (and not GOOD classical...like out of tune blaring horns)
-Elvis (lots of Elvis...)
-Typical elevator music (aka: soft rock radio station-esque)

And today? Today was the kicker... it was FROGS AND BIRDS. I kid you not. I felt like I was in a freaking rainforest on my way up to floor 5.

Unbelievable.

UPDATE: Two more "genres" to add: Some sort of attempt at "island" music and funeral music. Both were beyond depressing.

It's going to be that kind of a week...

My new thing this year, this busy season, is to get up EVERY DAY at 4am so that I am in the office by 6am at the very latest. Can I just say that for the better part of my early 20s, I wasn't even in BED at 4am? I mean, seriously? This working thing, I get it, I do it. BUT 4am? It's just that time where you wake up and want to either hit your head on the wall to make sure that you don't really have to be awake or you want to throw up because it's so damn early... AND, I'm even a morning person. Early for me is pretty much ungodly for most people.

But, regardless, I'm doing it. I'm getting in early so that I don't have to work until 9 or 10pm at night...because, generally, I function much better in the morning. Things that really cramp this 4am wake up time: sick dogs, husbands that take naps and then can't go to bed by 10pm, still having to work until 8 or 9pm. This week (already) has been rough in the sleep regard. Ok, last night in particular. Because, one of my vices? I can't believe I'm going to admit this publicly... I watch the bachelor. No, really, I do. I watched it in college and all of my college friends had a bachelorette party when Trista/Ryan got married. I've been hooked ever since... well, not technically, EVER since. I missed a good few years in there. But last year, I just happened to catch an episode where the guy was the bachelor and also from Seattle... everyone was talking about it here so I joined in and watched. And of course, got hooked. Then the bachelorette was one of the girls that Jason, the bachelor from Seattle, had dumped and she was adorable so I watched that season and NOW the bachelor is one of the too freaking cute guys that SHE dumped. It's just a vicious cycle that really needs to be broken.

So, last night, of COURSE the bachelor was on until 10pm and NATURALLY they hook you in like you wouldn't believe. It makes me so mad because I really think that so many things are rigged just for the drama of it all. But, I'm a sucker and just had to stay up and watch even though I knew that my 4am wake up call was just getting closer and closer... So I didn't go to bed until after 10pm and then my poor husband was not feeling awesome. So by the time I got to bed at 1am? 4am was a mere 3 hours away... I think this morning I finally managed to drag myself out of bed at 5am. Yikes.

So, it's Tuesday and I'm already wiped. The past few weeks with this 4am thing, I start to feel it by Thursday or Friday, which is fine. Feeling like crap already on Tuesday? Not a good sign. BUT, luckily, I have my ways of waking up: tea, exercise, and eating right! Focus on now? TEA!

Starbucks just converted all of their tea "bags" to loose leaf teas- the one above is the Tazo chai tea (a blend of black teas/spices). It's MUCH stronger than the bags were and SO yummy... definitely has a little kick to it.

One of my favorites- Caffe Ladro, a local Seattle coffee shop- has my favorite choice organic teas. I usually buy the choice teas at Whole Foods and take them in a commuter mug to work (I like the darjeeling) but this week, I'm going to have to make a trip or two... or three... to caffe ladro to get their organic breakfast tea which is amazing also... the tea coupled with the walk to Ladro will sufficiently help to clear my head on mornings like today where it (the head) is a little bit slow moving and foggy...

I'm not a coffee drinker and not because I don't like the taste- I do. I've just done my research on it and don't really think that it's THAT good for you. Everything in moderation, definitely, so I do still have the occasional cup, maybe once a month or so. But for the most part, I just really love tea and have grown to like its taste OVER coffee. Additionally, tea is widely known for it's health benefits, plentiful antioxidants, etc. And it still has a reasonable dose of caffeine which gives me a little kick in the mornings. I also really love green teas, but I've posted here about the teas that I use as my coffee replacement (ahem, morning cup of "please wake my ass up").

Tonight might not be any different on the sleep front, though, I might add... Another vice? Biggest loser. I am FASCINATED by that show. I caught it last season for the first time in years and MY GOD. How do people LOSE that much weight?! Of course, anything I can get my hands on regarding diet/exercise/nutrition, I am all over, even a silly show. I know, I know, LOST is on too but I haven't watched that show since, like, season 2 (I KNOW!!)... so, as such, I'm kind of out of the lost crowd and I'm way more excited for biggest loser. While I still have SOME time at nights since it's just the beginning of February, I'm just going to watch it...my days of free nights are going to start to become numbered starting soon. So, I guess tomorrow I'll have to decide if I'm good with just my commuter cup of choice darjeeling tea, or if I want some loose leaf tazo, or if I want to make the trek to Ladro...Hmmm....

A new favorite snack.

The other day I was at Trader Joes and stumbled upon a Pure bar. Awesome! I'm always looking for new "bars" without the bunches of artificial crap that sometimes comes with them, as awesome as they (usually) purport themselves to be. And the healthiest ones can sometimes have a tendency to taste like some form of cardboard or have a million grams of fat along with the artificial stuff, so I'm always a little skeptical.

BUT, these pure bars?! Well, first, I read the stats on the back of the bar thinking, well, I'll TRY it but who knows. They only have 180 calories and are totally raw AND organic. I'm sold based on those facts. These are the ingredients: organic dates, organic agave nectar, organic rice protein, organic cashews, organic cocoa, organic almonds, organic walnuts. THAT'S IT. All of my favorite things, healthy, organic, great fats/protein/calories.

On to the taste test: AMAZING!! I am totally a huge fan.