Brummer Family

Garden Journal is now Austin Earth

cindy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:18:00 GMT

I am slowly but surely moving all of the blogs into an updated engine, and Garden Journal is the latest blog to receive an overhaul.

Garden Journal is now Austin Earth, and it has moved to www.brummerblogs.com/austinearth/. Please join us at that URL for more on our gardening adventures.

Thanks!

Tirades has moved

cindy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:16:00 GMT

Hi there!

Tirades from a Tired Producer has moved to a new location! Please head over to www.brummerblogs.com/tirades/.

Thanks for following me!

Want wildflowers? A visit to St. Edward's Park

cindy — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:11:00 GMT

If you're looking for a place to see wildflowers, you don't have to leave Austin.

Today, Luke and I visited St. Edwards Park in Northwest Austin with some friends, and I can honestly say I've never seen so many bluebonnets. It was amazing.

I haven't been to that park, which is off Spicewood Springs Road, west of Loop 360, in years. We may have taken Luke as a baby. Today we went to explore and find the creek. The bluebonnets were a nice extra.

The creek was flowing really well from all of the recent rain, and the boys had fun throwing rocks in the water and scooping up the dirt and mud -- basically, being boys. Another nice extra -- we saw a group of horses walking through on our way out -- always a surefire way to please kids.

St/ Edward's is not the largest park in Austin, but it's definitely worth the trip if you have the time.

First red strawberry

cindy — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:57:00 GMT

We harvested our first ripe strawberry from the garden this morning! According to Luke, it was sweet and juicy, as evidenced by the red juice dripping from his hands and face after he ate it. (Oh, like we would deny him the honor!)

We've had some soaking rain over the past few days, and all of the plants are loving it. I didn't get pictures, but the blackberries are either covered in blooms or green berries. Blackberry season is almost here! And Luke pointed out today tiny little growths on the olive trees that do not look like leaves. We think they MAY be baby olives! I hope so!

Andy and I spent much of the latter half of Sunday trying to put two trellis' up for the new tomato beds.

I'm really happy with how the tomatoes are coming along. At first it looked like they wouldn't make it, but now they appear to be strong, and many also have flowers or buds on them.

I'm sold on the square foot gardening method.

I'm also thrilled that the squash plants are beginning to thrive. Take a look at this one -- which has a flower and is climbing:

I'll admit, it's the largest of all, but none of them look bad. In fact, I just added the plastic ring to a bunch of the squash plants that have come up from the seeds I planted 2 weeks ago. Wow! Grow, garden! Grow!

Bleary eyes... AHHHH, the sacrifices I make

cindy — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:57:00 GMT

I'm going to sound CRAZY, but for the past several weeks I'm been trying to wake up at or around 5 am every day, not just on the days I have a workout at 5:30.

Why on EARTH would I do such a thing? To work. On my stuff that is... not on the stuff I do during the day for "the corporation."

My 3 1/2-year-old likes to wake up early, so I wake up even earlier to get some quality time in. I'm more of a morning person anyway, so it makes sense to feed off of my strengths.

I've added some cool blogs on website design and development to my Google Reader lately. They've inspired me, and my brain is full of ideas I want to try out. I have two clients I'm working for right now, and some of the ideas apply to those projects. But for the really out-there ideas, I've been experimenting with my own sites.

It's my goal to move the remaining blogs on the old system over the Wordpress AND redesign brummerfamily.com. I'm also now in the drawing board phase of redesigning houseonpayne.com. I'm also hoping to hire a graphic designer to put together a logo for my site.

So, there's a lot to do, and not many hours in which to do them at this point. Hence waking early. But I'm OK with that.

House guests

cindy — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:24:00 GMT

Every year, a family of house sparrows builds a nest in a crevice above our back door.

We used to try to seal up the hole so they wouldn't be able to build the nest, but they kept pecking through. Eventually, we gave up. Now, it's really fun to sit on the back porch and watch them fly back and forth to feed the baby birds.

Escargot

cindy — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:59:00 GMT

It's been a very wet spring in Austin. As a result, the snail population has exploded -- at least in my garden.

While pulling snails off my vegetables on day recently, I posed the following question: Can you eat garden snails? I was wondering if they could be gathered, or whether they have to be raised under special conditions. Are certain varieties poisonous? Or can all of them be eaten safely.

Turns out garden snails can be gathered and eaten, according to an article I found posted on Chow, through Slashfood, called How to Forage and Eat Garden Snails.

Jokingly, I sent the article to Andy. However, Andy was intrigued, and this weekend, he and Luke put fennel and lettuce in a jar, punched holes in the lid, and began gathering snails.

They hardly may a dent in the snail population, which we noticed this morning when we sat out on our porch and counted dozens of snails on the yucca. I later found this guy on the cauliflower.

Well, as my friend Barbara says, everything tastes good smothered in butter.

Garden shots

cindy — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:29:00 GMT

I'm finally satisfied with my vegetable garden for a change. I've spent the past 3-4 weekends weeding, mowing, and planting, and it looks great. It's really just maintenance from here on through the season. At least I hope.

I wanted to share a few photos.

Our culinary sage is now in bloom:

I love the little purple flowers. It's till incredibly fragrant.

Milkweed:

This is a new addition. It's a native variety -- called butterfly weed, that Monarchs love.

Tomato plant:

Squash seedling:

Squash seedlings

This seedlings are surrounded by a plastic circle to help keep the cutworms out. We lost our entire crop to cutworms last year. Hopefully this will help.

Bluebonnets:

Summer garden plants in the ground

cindy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 07:59:00 GMT

Spring cleaning in the Brummer family yard continued over the weekend with more weeding, mowing and trimming.

I thought we had lost both Cherry Barbados bushes in the winter freeze, and we had gone to the Natural Gardener to replace them with two native salvia plants, but when I went to pull out the Cherry Barbados, we discovered that the roots are still alive. In fact, tiny green leaves are popping out around the bottom. I cut off the dead wood and found a new home -- nearby -- for the salvia.

The salvia should make a great addition to the backyard. They stay green through the winter and have beautiful blooms all summer. Bees and butterflies love them, and the more pollinators I can draw to the yard, the better.

While at the nursery, we picked up some pepper, eggplant and squash seedlings. I also loaded up on squash seeds. All of the seedlings went into the front yard veggie beds, and hopefully we won't have as much trouble with squash borers as we had last year.

The tomatoes we planted in the new square foot garden beds are perking up, and many of them look like they might just thrive. Luke and I planted squash seeds as a companion in one of the tomato beds, and basil and watermelon in the other.

We also planted marigold and sunflower seeds near the seedlings.

We're turning a bare area near the public sidewalk into a flower garden and added two new plants this weekend. Luke and I wanted to plant milkweed for the monarchs after reading about their trouble migrating because of the loss of habitat (more on that in a future post). Two native milkweed plants, also called butterfly weed, went into the ground near the front olive tree. We also planted zinnia seeds with another flower that butterflies love, although I can't remember what it was called.

It was a great weekend to be out in the garden, and I feel like we accomplished so much. Yet, I also know, there's mush more to do. A gardener's work is never done!

In full bloom

cindy — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:08:00 GMT

I just wanted to share a few photos from the Wildflower Center today, because we had a lot of fun.

The wildflowers are just hitting their stride in Central Texas right now. Waves of blue, red and yellow are visible along many Texas highways. Yards in my neighborhood are in full bloom, and now all of the spring wildflowers have started to bloom, so we have a long way to go.

The Wildflower Center hosted an Easter Egg hunt, and we decided to take advantage of it. For about an hour, we wandered around the main grounds, following Luke who was interested in everything, especially spiders. He really wanted to see a spider, but we never caught a glimpse of one. Fortunately, he was happy with the candy in the eggs.

We walked around for a while after that looking for places to take pictures for that "obligatory bluebonnet shot." I told Luke he owned me one with me and one with Andy. He reluctantly agreed. He was much more interested in all of the fun stuff going on -- the kids, the bugs in the water, and bubbles -- to be bothered with stopping for yet another photo with flowers we already have in our yard. At least, that's how I would have felt if I were him. :)

Spring cleaning

cindy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:24:00 GMT

I've become reacquainted with my yard over the past two weekends. Whew! I enlisted the entire family's help in cleaning up the yard/garden. There's still much more work to be accomplished, but we've managed to make progress.

Tasks accomplished:

Front yard weeding
Build/fill new garden beds
Plant tomato seedlings
Remove agave
Remove sago palm
Partially remove landscape fabric under front olive tree
Mow

I'm glad I didn't have to get rid of that agave. It was in the way of a new garden bed we planned, so we decided -- for safety's sake -- to take it out. That job fell to Andy, who spent a good week nursing a skin irritation on his arms that required some heavy duty prescription ointment. Those agave have evolved with some very nasty defenses so nothing will eat them! Andy's still picking barbs out of his hands -- because no matter how thick your gloves, that stuff will poke through.

The weeding took the most time for me, but mostly because I was doing it by hand and trying to weed around the multitude of wildflowers that have sprung up in various areas around the yard. It's a good thing I know what I want to keep and what I want to remove, because most of the wildflowers haven't started blooming yet. A few bluebonnets started blooming just this weekend!

Here's a few photos I took from other areas of the garden:

That's a bloom on a lettuce plant I allowed to go wild. It does a great job of drawing pollinators. Below is Greeg's Bluemist, a perennial just starting to come back this year. Butterflies LOVE it.

We have itty-bitty strawberries growing!

Here are some of the tomato seedlings I started inside and just planted. I hope they make it!

Luke's been eating our broccoli right out of the garden. It's delicious!

These are paperwhites -- they're like a daffodil.

Our little Texas redbud tree had a few blooms this spring.

The garlic looks amazing. We should have a great harvest this year!

Our spinach and chard are growing really well, despite all of the freezes we've had. In fact, the freezes make the leaves sweeter!

A taste of organization

cindy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:12:00 GMT

I got a taste of organization yesterday, and I LIKE it!

It all started when Andy suggested that we go ahead and move Luke into the big bed that's been stored in pieces in the closets since we set up the crib. It was my bed growing up, and it's really sturdy. The only problem is -- we couldn't find the hardware.

We tore the entire house apart searching for it, and we finally resigned ourselves to buying new bolts. However, in the process of searching, I discovered about 15 places that need to be cleaned out and re-organized. Things can really pile up when you've been living somewhere for 5 years!

So this morning I announced to the boys we are going to organize, and Andy got an amused look on his face. "Uh-oh, here we go."

LOL... what are your organization tips?

SXSWi -- It's a wrap

cindy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:36:00 GMT

I promised to blog a lot during SXSWi. Obviously that didn't happen. It was really the logistics and reality of both mobile technologies and social media.

I don't have this blog set up to update from my iPod Touch, the mobile device I carry with me everywhere. But it is set up to update via Twitter (@cindybrummer, BTW) and Facebook and text-messaging. I also was able to check in with my Google Reader, FourSquare, email, and GoogleTalk with my husband.

So I wasn't quite up to the task of blogging, but wow! Everyone had an iPhone or mobile device! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was amusing to walk the hallways of the Convention Center and see just about everyone using their phone to text, check schedules or whatever. There were also a fair number of people with laptops, although I certainly wasn't the only person without one. Plenty of people also used notebooks and pens to take notes.

SXSWi was probably the most tiring and yet most inspiring 5 days I've had related to my career. I attended a number of interactive business sessions, with a few web design/development sessions scattered in. I absolutely can't wait to put what I've learned into practice.

Here's a look at the sessions I went to days 3-5:

Exploiting Chaos -- How to Spark Innovation During Times of Change
Start an Agency
How Did This Happen? I'm in Business?
HTML5 and Accessibility
Don't Get Sued! A Guide For Content Creators
Web Accessibility Gone Wild
Millionaire or Artist? How about Both?
Future 15: Convergence and the future
Design for the Dark Side
Future 15: Social Business
Maps Mashup

I also went to the Valerie Casey keynote on sustainability. On Monday and Tuesday I got wise to the fact that I actually needed to eat. That gave me time to check out the trade show on Monday, talk to some CMS vendors as well as others and score some swag.

SXSWi is a huge party. Parties fire up between 4 and 5pm and there are various ones going at points all through the night. On Monday afternoon you couldn't walk more than 100 feet without running into more free beer.

Seeing as how I'm not drinking now, I did not do much partying, which is a shame, because that's where most of the networking seems to happen. That's OK -- I did meet quite a few people and there's always next year. You know it's a good festival when you're already planning for next year.

SXSWi -- Days 1 &2

cindy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:04:00 GMT

Wow. I mean, wow.

I've been wondering the past two days why I haven't been to SXSW Interactive before now. It's just so amazingly crammed full of interesting people and ideas -- it's hard not to be inspired.

As a newbie, I have been nervous my cover would be blown at the festival, because in my heart of hearts, I wonder if I really know what I'm doing. I'll admit, that fear has kept me from going to several intense workshops that I had initially marked down.

I'm going to attempt to break down that barrier by going to a workshop tomorrow, but I digress.

You really do have to pace yourself at something like SXSWi. There's so much going on, it's easy to find yourself rushing from one session to the next without stopping in between to check out all of the other stuff. Or eating.

That's what happened to me today. I am really glad I brought snacks, because I didn't "stop to smell the roses" -- sit down and eat. I was interested in going to a session at every opportunity.

Friday's panels started at 2pm, and I though it was crowded. I was wrong! Saturday was nuts! I felt like I was back at UT at some points, trying to navigate between classes. The flow of people was endless, all going in different directions. If you went to UT or another huge university, you know what I'm talking about.

And because there were a ton of people, there were also a bunch of those "promoters." You know what I'm talking about -- people who stand at key crossings or entrances handing out slips of paper or brochures that you have no interest in getting at all. I hate that stuff, because I'm not going to do anything with it anyway. The one I actually read was trying to turn me into a vegan in order to end animal suffering. Anyone who knows how I eat will know that this was targeted at the absolutely wrong person -- not that I like animal suffering or anything.

So what kinds of stuff am I going to in between navigating a ton of people? Here's a quick sampling of the sessions I went to and whether I liked it or not:

Social Media Marketing for your Business -- AWESOME
Crime Scene: Digital Identity Theft -- SUCKED (should have gone to the workshop on content)
Eight Ways to Deal with Bastards -- AWESOME
Pain Free Design Signoff -- AWESOME
Pen & Paper Tools to Get from Research to Design -- GOOD
Shameless Self Promotion Without Looking Like an @#$%^&! -- AWESOME
From Kitchen Table to $Million Business -- OKAY
How to Unplan Your Business -- GOOD

I also went to the keynote speech by Danah Boyd, an expert on social media, about privacy and publicity, which was really good.

So, most of the stuff I've been to has been great, and I've been doing a lot of business sessions. Sunday is no different -- lots of business and a little development and design. I still need to go to the trade show and check out the South By Bookstore, where I have a feeling I'll be dropping some dough.

One area I'm consciously trying to work on is networking. I finally starting introducing myself Saturday evening, but I need to keep doing it. It's all about meeting people and making those connections at things like this. Three more days -- I've got to make the effort.

Off to SXSWi!

cindy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:08:00 GMT

My iPod Touch is charged. My bag is packed. I have studied the maps, chosen my sessions, added them to my calendar and synced everything I possibly could.

I've even packed some snacks for the day. I know I don't have to, but I'm not sure what kind of stuff I'll find that's not loaded with grains and dairy.

I loaded everything into my bag, and now, it's time to gather my nerves. Check out that badge -- I'm going as a representative of my business. Awesome. That reminds me! Pack extra business cards!

It's all about networking, right? Not exactly my strong suit. Better change that.

Andy and I were looking at all of the materials I picked up with my badge last night. There's so much going on! I don't have a laptop to take notes with -- I hope I don't look like a doofus with my pen and paper -- but that's still the way I like taking notes the best. I informed Andy that next year, he's going too. He saw so much that he'd like to check out. It's ridiculous that he can't go and learn. Hopefully, I'll come home with my head spinning with tons of info and experiences.

SXSWi just days away

cindy — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:29:00 GMT

I'm so excited!

SXSW Interactive is just a few days away! I think I picked out at least one panel to attend every hour of the festival. I think it's time to go in and narrow it down -- I must leave time to socialize and eat!

Still, it will be amazing to network for a few days. I'm going not for my day job, but for my passion -- my own web design business. I plan to fill my brain with as much information as possible and gather as many new contacts as possible.

I also plan to blog a lot during the festival about everything I see and hear. So stay tuned!

What are your plans? Are you going to SXSW?

Time to plant

cindy — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:54:00 GMT

March is traditionally the time to plant tomatoes in Central Texas. I wish it had been warm enough to plant sooner, because these seedlings are really showing some stress.

But we've had an exceptionally cold winter -- the coldest on recent record, according to meteorologists -- and planting early is a little worrisome for me.

Still, plant tomatoes too late, and it will get too hot for them to set fruit. It's a gamble, and Central Texas gardening is not for people who fear to take risks.

We needed to build new beds to handle the huge number of seedlings this year. We also needed space in order to rotate the plants to prevent disease. This time, instead of digging up a section of yard, we decided to try the "Square Foot Gardening" method. The folks at the Natural Gardener really got behind this method, and we picked up the book late last year. We simply built the frame, put landscape fabric underneath, and piled the soil on top.

The soil is different from what we've used before. It's basically potting soil -- compost, peat moss and vermiculite. It took the better part of this weekend to pull all of the soil ingredients together, and we put together one of the beds Sunday evening during a break in the rain.

We marked off blocks of 1 square foot, and then it was time to plant. The tomatoes went in the two rows down the center -- 1 per square foot. Later, when it grows warmer and we can take off the row cover, we'll put a section of bull wire down the center for a trellis.

I chose to plant the tomatoes that were doing the worst because I'm not sure if we'll have another freeze or not. If they bite the dust, at least I have more. If they don't.. we'll, they should definitely be better off on the ground than in the house.

The squares around the edge will be used for other vegetables. I'm not sure what -- maybe some lettuce? Or possibly some basil?

We built another bed and have the soil ready to go, but we decided to change the location to a more suitable place, closer to the street. The only problem is we need to take out a giant agave in order to make it fit. It's kind of dangerous to have that agave so close to the veggie garden anyway, and I've suffered from it's poisoned points at least twice, so I'm not upset about losing it. We have another large one that puts out babies all the time.

Now that planting season is here, we'll probably be out in the garden every weekend tending to the seedlings and planting more. I have plans for a new flower bed in an area where we'll be removing a freeze-damaged sago palm.

And now that we know how cheap it is to bag your own stuff at the Natural Gardener, hopefully we'll be able to pick up enough decomposed granite to finish the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street.

Oh, happy, happy spring!

We're moving: Check out my new blog

cindy — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:55:00 GMT

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, even if you’re averse to celebrating such a Hallmark holiday.

I did, and my husband sure knows how to treat me – dark chocolate, the new Spoon album and two years of hosting on Dreamhost!

You know what that means? I can officially launch my new blog engine on a hosting server that doesn’t take more than a minute to load. Yay! We’ll be setting up a redirect in the future, but please head over to http://www.brummerblogs.com/redintheface and bookmark it, follow it in your favorite RSS reader, because that’s where I’ll be writing from now on. You’ll find all of my archives there, too, plus some embedded video and photo galleries – exciting for me, as this blog engine is a little too clunky for that.

Check in with you at Red In The Face!

We're gardeners!

cindy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:20:00 GMT

Andy and I have been amazed at our green thumbs recently. We decided to start seeds again this winter.

I felt reticent about doing so, because we've had so much bad luck in the past. But Andy said, let's try it again -- we have nothing to lose.

So we did. And... success!

Just look at those tomatoes! If it weren't so cold, I would put them in the ground now. Our last average frost date is March 15, so we have at least a month before they can go in the ground.

In the meantime, Andy and I will need to lift the lights onto blocks, because the light chains won't raise up any farther, and we may need to pot them up again.

I'm not sure why they are doing so well this year. They are sitting under florescent lights, set on a timer to 14 hours of light a day. They are also sitting on a heating mat, but we had it last year, too. This year, I'm not feeding as heavily. I've only given them seaweed once or twice, rather than once a week. Water is the main nutrient. We also started these seeds at least 3 weeks earlier. But they are already larger now than the seedlings we had at planting time last year.

Our squash and melon are also doing well, but I started them much too early. They are already blooming, but since it's so cold, there are no pollinators for them. Darn.

Outside, the broccoli and cauliflower have little broccolis and cauliflowers! Wow! I just hope the strawberries make it rhough the winter. We've had a very cold and wet winter. Wet is good, but we could have sleet tomorrow, and my plants need protection.

I will also go outside and take photos of the 2 new plum trees we recently planted in the backyard. Fruit trees! They should start producing in a couple of years!

Around the corner....

cindy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:13:00 GMT

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've written in this blog. I usually have updates for my fitness blog, but I feel like I've been spinning my wheels lately and haven't had anything significant to announce in Tirades for a while.

Things have been chugging along as usual. I have had little time to spend on my business of late, but I'm making plans for a rejuvenation, so to speak, coming soon.

I'm also very excited to have my pass in hand to South By Southwest Interactive! This will be my first time attending the festival, and I think I've picked out at least 1 or 2 panels to attend each hour of each day. I'm taking time off from work to go, and I can't wait! I'll be writing extensively about my experience and everything I learn and see, so stay tuned!

Good day

cindy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:46:00 GMT

Today is a good day, and it's about time I've actually thought that.

The sun is shining. It's cold as heck out there, but I'm warm. My muscles are tired, but only that one glut muscle is bothering me, so I'm OK. I'm not exhausted for once in my life, and my stomach doesn't feel sick, so I ate a real breakfast for the first time in weeks, rather than a couple of small snacks. I didn't have to get Luke dressed this morning, AND we got everything done and STILL didn't have to rush out the door to leave for school.

It's a good day.

And, I finally got around to changing the look of my blog, which I have renamed "Red in the Face." It just feels like a better fit. I have been waiting to relaunch my blog in WordPress, but the server engine has been too slow to handle it (Thank you, WebHost4Life!) So instead of waiting, I finally decided to change the old one and later I'll make the move over to the fancy, new-fangled one.

Ahh, yes, good day.

I wasn't so sure it would be a good day when I saw the WOD this morning.

"Karen"
150 wall ball shots
&
1k Row

Hmmmmm..... well, I did say I need to work on wall balls, did I not? I started with the row, which went pretty well. I wouldn't call my rowing "sprinting," but I was putting out some significant effort. Time: 4:49.

I was feeling very apprehensive about the wall balls as we waited for the other group to finish. Rx weight was 14# for women (20# for men). I decided to use 12#. There's another Cindy in my class, and I joked to her that I would pretend Zach was yelling at her, and she could pretend Zach was yelling at me. The first 25 were strong, then it got really hard. I started to fall apart, but eventually I would do 5, catch my breath for 5 seconds, and start again. My shots started getting lower and lower on the wall, and they weren't high to begin with. I was praying that Zach wouldn't call me out for the couple of times it landed only just above the red square, because that is REALLY low. Luckily, Zach's been laying off me lately. I wonder why ;).

I don't know how I finished in 9:37. Did I miscount? No, I couldn't have, but sometimes I wonder.

I did an challenge workout with Andy last night when I got home from work.

AMRAP 12min
10 Dumbbell deadlift
10 Dumbbell shoulder press
10 Dumbbell hang clean

I wanted to go fast, and shoulder press is a weakness, so I chose the intermediate weight -- 10#. I wasn't disappointed with my final total: 8 rounds + 3 deadlift.

Andy loves these workouts and wants to continue doing some twice a week after the challenge is over. I'm up for it, but I think I'll take a week off. I need rest.

Carb craving

cindy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:08:00 GMT

I wish my current relationship with food was better than it is. Lately I have been shunning all of my favorites, and despite eating Paleo for months now -- barely craving bready carbs all that time -- for weeks I have been craving everything I'm not supposed to eat during this challenge.

There was ice cream in the freezer at work yesterday -- a gift of 4 new flavors from Blue Bell in honor of National Meteorologist Day. It was calling my name. Terri brought cookies to work. Usually I don't have trouble walking past them -- this week, I paused, sniffed, and wished.

About the only thing I'm also craving that falls in the "It's OK to eat this" category is Chipotle. I visited Chipotle for a chicken salad three times this week (Mmmmm -- greens, chicken, fajita veggies, salsa and GUACAMOLE). The folks over at the Anderson store now know me.

And my appetite in inexplicable. I used to eat on a regular schedule -- 3 meals, 2 snacks. I would be hungry at each one and eat until satisfied. Now, at some meals, I feel RAVENOUS. Like this morning, I devoured so much food at breakfast, so fast, I was hurting at the end of breakfast. But at other meals, I'm just not hungry at all. Twice this week, I skipped dinner because I just wasn't hungry.

It's taking some adjustment learning to listen to my body just enough to feed it good food, but not enough to listen to it tell me to grab a huge handful out of every sample basket in the bread department of Central Market, which is what I wanted to do this morning. Stupid brain.

The good news is, I'm staying on track and I finished my last workout for week 4! We're over the hump! That Hut's burger and scoop of Amy's Ice Cream is only a month away now!

For time:
Power swings 20, 18, 16 ... 6, 4, 2
Sprawls 2, 4, 6 ... 16, 18, 20
Finish with 5 40 yard sprints

Time: 9:27 @ 15#

This WOD fooled me. I thought the swings would be hard. Turns out the sprawls were much harder.

Now for a snack....

A Thursday bruiser

cindy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:05:00 GMT

The sun is finally out today as I write this. I’m so happy to see the sun, which has been gone for the better part of a week. I don’t think I’d last long in the North if I have this much trouble without the sun.

Yep, it’s been cold and wet – one reason why I almost skipped a group workout last night… but more on that in a moment.

Thursday morning’s WOD was all about lifting, which I generally love.

Jen C.
7 deadlift
5 hang power clean
3 push jerk
*5 attempts
Bar cannot be put down

I was paired up with Sally and Lory for this one, two women who I don’t know very well but are bad asses.

We loaded our bar with 65# to start. Here’s how it broke down for me:

65-70-75-75-75

Yes, I failed on all three attempts at 75. The deadlift was no problem – it was the hang clean that got me, but after talking with my friends later, I realized I wasn’t the only one.

Hang cleans can be hard if you try to use your arms to flip the weight up. Zach showed us all after class that we have to think about our arms as straps that connect out shoulders to the bar. The body shrugs up and pulls the bar – not the arms. All we have to do is pull our bodies under the bar and flip the elbows up.

I would say that this is a form that I need more practice on.

In the evening, my friends planned to take on this week’s endurance WOD just down the road along Shoal Creek. At first I bowed out because of the rain, but they kept the pressure on, and I finally decided to go. It was raining, and the water was rushing down the sidewalks and streets, and I wasn’t too happy to be there at first. But it turned out to be good I went.

Mile repeats
Run 1 mile x 3

Rest for half the time it took to run the previous mile

My times broke down like this:

8:58
9:00
9:20

I was the slowest of the group… But not too far behind. What was really cool was being “called home.” Pam and Maggie ran out to me for the last 400 meters or so to help push me in.

Two workouts in one day wore me out (I fell asleep around 8pm) but I’m glad I got the endurance WOD done. It wouldn’t have been as fun by myself.

Isn’t it funny how friends can make all the difference?

We meet again: Fight Gone Bad

cindy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:10:00 GMT

I've been rushing about the house in the hours since my workout ended this morning, and I haven't had much time to reflect on how I did. Now, sipping my tea, I can think about it, even though the dogs are running through the house, playing, and making a huge racket.

They're fun to watch.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the WOD:

Fight Gone Bad
1 min max reps
Row
Wall Balls (W 14#)
Sumo Deadlift High Pull (W 55#)
Box Jumps
Push Press (W 55#)

My reps per exercise were written down on my sheet that gets kept in my folder at the gym, and I neglected to write them down. I do know my total reps: 121.

It was low compared to my class, and a little lower than the last time I did 2 rounds of Fight Gone Bad three months ago (126). Disappointing at first glance. But here's why I'm not disappointed. This time I did the whole thing as prescribed. I used the Rx weight and I jumped on the box -- I did not scale it to step ups, which is what I did last time. Jumps are slower for me, so I'm not surprised the reps went down. The fact that they only went down by 5 is amazing to me, considering how crappy I felt this morning.

I felt stronger on push press, which is where I started the rounds, but I felt weaker on the SDLHP. Wall balls continue to be a struggle for me -- something else I need to work on -- because I was hitting so low on the wall.

I'll take 121.

Last night I took on a challenge WOD at home. Andy did this one with me, and I must have been really off, because I really struggled.

AMRAP 12 min
8 shoulder press (15#)
12 renegade rows
15 situps

I only got through 4 rounds. Yikes! Of course, I didn't read the directions all the way through, which stated clearly that you should do 6 rows with one arm and 6 with the other each set. I did 12 with both. No wonder I was slow. Oh well, great workout.

I also returned to Kung Fu yesterday morning for the first time in 2 weeks. Testing is getting really close, and I really shouldn't take any more time off between now and then. I have my material, but I need to make sure it's solid and fluid. I'll probably start practicing weekends at home in the backyard for a few weeks.

There's no backing out now -- Master Joe knows I'm testing, and he's expecting me to be there. Plus, why back out if I'm ready?

Week 3 over... whew

cindy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:35:00 GMT

I've never been so happy that a week of the challenge is over. Between being sick and having to put off the WODs until the end of the week, I was fried.

On Friday morning, with my stomach aching and the rain pounding away outside, I decided to do this challenge workout inside:

For time:
100 dumbbell snatches (15#)

I found the form hard to master, and I struggled, but I finished in 8:47.

On Saturday, I still had one more challenge WOD to do, but I also promised I was going to show up to the free UTB workout on Saturday morning. You know me -- when I say I'm going to be somewhere, only a major act of nature can stand in my way.

After warm-ups we did:

4 rounds
45 sec wall balls
45 sec chest pumps/fast feet

Then, with a partner and a medicine ball we did:

2x 20 around-the-worlds (each partner)
2x 20 chest passes (each partner)
2x 20 overhead throws (each partner)

To round it off, we did 25 squats and ran as fast as we could to the other side of the MoPac pedestrian bridge and back.

I was worn out after that workout. I was happy to take a nap later in the day. I only intended to sleep 30 minutes, but I woke up 2 hours later. Yikes! And I still had that challenge workout to do! It was one I had been dreading all week.

Army PT Test (all levels)
2 min max reps sit-ups
2 min rest
2 min max reps push-ups
2 min rest
2 mile run for time

Considering how worn out I was, I did better than I thought -- 53 situps, 40 pushups (chest to deck of course) and a 17:50 run. I ran around my neighborhood and got back just before it got dark. Whew!

It was a rough week, and I'm hoping this week goes better. I'm taking Sunday off. No workouts. The only thing I'll be doing is cleaning my house and sending the boys off to a birthday party so I can have some peace and quiet.