Another year has passed...

Difficult to believe, isn't it? An entire year has passed since I last posted!  I would really like to keep up with this blog, so here I go again! I'm freshly inspired after finishing Bram Stoker's, "Dracula", in October. I had this horror classic on my reading lest for years and finally accomplished it. Never mind the creepy vampire stuff, I was more intrigued how civilized people used to keep journals or diaries so faithfully. I had forgotten since my school days. I realize the story is fiction, but the way it is written entirely from the diaries of each of the characters, arranged in chronological order fascinated me. It seems our modern technologies have hindered the art of writing rather than helped. How sad this is. I suppose the reason being we are bombarded with information on a daily basis, leaving us overwhelmed. Our schedules so demanding we barely have time to prepare and eat a decent meal let alone write out the events of our day. We have become one way absorbers of information, very seldom does it flow outwardly - except maybe through mindless chatter on a phone. I've also noticed phone conversations seem to be quite a bit of talking and little or no listening. I can recall many occasions where the party I was speaking with will later on have zero recollection of topics we discussed, sometimes rather important information also! I admit I am guilty on occasion also, it's so easy to become distracted since the conversation is not face to face.  I think we all try to multi-task rather than giving our friend or family member our full attention, since we are all pressed for time continuously.  It becomes habit.  

So to attempt a new more positive habit, it will be my New Year's Resolution to keep this blog going. I am simply starting early.

On a slightly separate, but related note;

For decades my goal has been to exercise! In my twenties I would start, then stop - always swearing I would get serious when I turned thirty. I repeated this process in my thirties, swearing to get serious when I was in my 40's! Well, I hit 42 and realized my little game was getting to be ridiculous. My Mother-in-law became addicted to exercise and really inspired me, then my mother fought a battle with breast cancer (and won!), creating some sense of urgency that I MUST do this.  Exercise alone can dramatically reduce the chances of developing breast and many other cancers. It was not funny anymore. I think a contributing factor to my laziness probably has to do with the fact I've never had a real problem with weight, my blood pressure was always low (very low - still is) and I have easily picked up running or other exercise off and on over the years, but I knew now I had to get serious.

So my New Year's Resolution was naturally to excercise and I had failed several times in the past.  I thought long and hard about why I failed, why everyone fails so often, when it comes to New Year's Resolutions. My revelation was this: we all tend to leave them too open ended, too vague. To simply say, "I will lose weight this year," is not going to work as well as, "I will lose 10 lbs. by June." We must set a definite goal with deadlines. Something measurable and not simply a list of things we want to try to do more or less of. It may depend on the resolution, but we really need to be specific about this.

So upon this lightbulb moment, I set my 2012 resolution as, "I want to develop a daily habit of exercise!" (pretty good, eh?)

Ok, I'll be honest, I think I set this goal in 2011 too - and I did better than ever before, but it still was not a regular part of my life. My most successful periods were when I would borrow my sister's dog, Scout, (a "Jack-Russell Schnauzer" who needs quite a lot of exercise), but as soon as she went back home, my exercise fizzled out. Also tried to exercise with a friend, and that was great except our schedules were so different it made my life very difficult. Her best time was evening and that truly was my worst time.

I can now proudly announce I have mostly achieved my goal. By mostly I mean I have yet to exercise EVERY day, but I do regularly exercise EVERY week! Yay Me!

So it all started with a Groupon. It was for "Bootcamp U".

I had learned a few things over the years "trying" to exercise daily:

1) it is nearly impossible for me to exercise any time of day except early morning, for various reasons - our schedules, cooking, heat in Texas etc.
2) I like more intense work-outs where I really feel like I am "doing something".
3) I hate gyms.  I prefer to work-out outside.
4) I like variety - I get bored doing the same thing each time.
5) I tend to be more dedicated when I am paying for it
6) Having a definite set time/date is far better for me than leaving it open ended to go ANY time I want.

I think #6 is why gym memberships never worked for me and I paid for a full year contract and went only for about the 1st month - aside from hating gyms, it was too open ended and I am not disciplined enough to just rely on myself!

Now mind you I am NOT A morning person, but I learned from all my past failures this really is the BEST time (maybe the ONLY time) for me if I ever want to achieve my goal. I discussed it with my husband. He was reluctantly supportive. He couldn't say much because he had always given me a hard time about NOT exercising, he being Mister Athlete, himself a Cat. 3 cyclist. He also had been very vocal for years about why he gets up early in the AM to ride his bike, because it's so much cooler (temperature-we do live in a GDF hot place in the summer).  He also demands an early bedtime for both of us (will go into that another day). Therefore it was a bit difficult for him to say much when I made the announcement I would need to wake at 6am 3 days/week in order to make the 7am class, without him sounding hypocritical anyway. He was not thrilled, but agreed it would be a good thing. I do wonder if he thought, "it's ok - it won't last!" HA!

So here I am, in my 9th month and going fantastically! There is no end in sight. I was fortunate to find awesome trainers and a fairly new style of work-out which I really like. It is intense and challenges me, I can see and feel the difference - and so does DH (dear husband) and I can not say enough good things about it.

I was scared at first. In fact I waited 2 months to begin, it was actually the end of February by the time I became brave enough to get started. Just the words, "Boot Camp" made me nervous. I wondered why they call it this? How hard was it really going to be? Would they really yell at us? My other lame excuse for not starting in January was because it would be outdoors, in the COLD!

For anyone wondering - YES - it was very challenging.  I was very sore the first few weeks, but kept going.  I realized how weak and out of shape I was.  I could not even do one single push-up!  I was determined to stick with it to fulfill my goal and wanted to get stronger.  NO they don't yell at you!  In fact, our coach Robyn was amazing.  Super positive while at the same time encouraging us to push just a little harder.  Some things have changed and Robyn coaches the Crossfit class now while I remain in Boot Camp but I'll go into all that another time.  Now I can do not only many "girl" style push-ups - or what they like to call "modified" push-ups now a days to be more politically correct, but I can do quite a few "boy" push-ups!

I still have not fulfilled my end goal of a "daily" habit, but I go 3 - 4 days every week except for the time we spent on vacation. It is a big goal, so I have bitten off a huge chunk at least and I will keep trying for the 7 days. Our workouts are so intense my body needs the recovery time, but I would like to do at least a short walk or jog or stretching/yoga etc. on my "off" days.  At least I still have something else to work toward.

So that is my work-out lifetime saga - feel free to share yours! I hope maybe my long slow painful bumpy ride to success might help someone else to figure out what their obstacles are in order that they may overcome theirs too!

So now, my next goal is, which I have mentioned, I am starting early to write in this blog at least once per week!

Wish me luck!

Wine of the Day

Lagone

Aia Vecchia

From Toscana

My thoughts: rather tannic - dry - only slightly fruity - maybe a bit like dried apricots - strong but bland if that makes any sense & not my favorite for the price of $16.99 although it is drinkable & won't go to waste

(It has to be pretty bad for me to simply dump it - it would be like pouring $ down the drain!)

Maybe needs to be enjoyed with a certain food?

(I generally stick to a rule of $10 or less - although this is becoming more difficult to achieve these days)

A suggestion from the wine gurus at Central Market here in Austin

Overall - not bad if you prefer dry tannic reds with only a little fruit which is not even like fresh fruit but more like dried - lots of dryness

Bathroom....Gone

Ok - that's it - it's all gone. The tub is still in place, and the toilet.....temporarily. Sink is gone, so we'll be using the kitchen sink to brush teeth etc.



Am mainly thankful we did not find any surprises behind the sheetrock. I must say it does smell kind of musty. Overall, not very exciting other than the prospect of a new fabulous bathroom!


then we found a little surprise under the flooring where the old toilet WAS LEAKING! I told everyone it was leaking, they all said oh you need to change the doughnut...but I knew that stupid toilet had a crack in the bowl, and it slowly seeped ...pretty nasty

Like our "bathroom graveyard"?

Cabinet Disaster....GONE!

The hideous monster in our bathroom, otherwise known as the "cabinet disaster" is no more!































but now.....

what the heck to do with all the STUFF that was inside!? while we renovate......sigh

Decisions Decisions.....

I am now faced with a myriad of decisions. From colors to styles to tile and fixtures, just to name a few. I have spent a good 12 or more hours now and my head hurts.

Did you know they make a SQUARE toilet!? I might have to have it.

I know one thing for sure. We will install hardwood floors, stained black, like the rest of the house. Whew. I feel better already. One down..... I shudder to think how many more I have to make.

I'm thinking that keeping the floors uniform throughout the house is ideal due to it's size. The dark floors, we discovered after we stained them, give the illusion of depth. They sort of "disappear" and make the house feel larger. I am hoping for the same effect in the bathroom! Not to mention, I think they look cool and really show off everything from wall colors to furnishings and rugs.

ok....fast forward, I started that post a while back and now it's August 1st.

Floors are now IN - and look amazing.

Square Toilet....check

Baptismal sink complete with shroud (like Turin, get it)......check

(could have had this same sink with a pedestal instead, but come on, ANYONE can have a pedestal....how many people can say they have a SHROUD!?)

I think when we're finished, using our bathroom will be like having a religious experience!

It better be anyway....

The toilet/sink/tub decision process was rough.

Our original plan was move all the fixtures around & get the clawfoot tub, if you remember. Clawfoot tub we had access to was stolen out of friend's garage. on to plan B - or maybe C....I am already losing track.

Next idea was an all monochromatic grey bathroom, including fixtures. For several reasons, that didn't pan out. For one, our tub is a good quality expensive cast iron tub which would be very difficult and expensive to replace. Once all the gunk is cleaned off it, it's in excellent condition also. The replacement tub would essentially be the same, only grey. It seemed very wasteful. That left me stuck with white fixtures. Boring, but about $1000 cheaper in the end, not to mention a great deal of blood, sweat and tears saved by not having to pull that thing out only to replace it with something nearly identical.

But it would have looked WAY cool.

Ok....so then it was between the Reve line and the Memoirs line.



I had been planning to use the Memoirs sink and toilet since forever ago!!! I loved that sink! the style echoes crown molding (if you've seen our living room & dining room, you'd know how much I am in love with that stuff). It was more traditional, square (I love squares and rectangles for some reason) and a little bit Art Deco. Best part, for us, it had a rim around the edge which would allow a person to set something down while getting ready. If you've ever gotten ready in a bathroom with a pedestal sink and no countertop, you realize JUST how convenient this little ledge can be!

One up side to having a pedestal sink & no countertop is that it has forced me to put everything away in the cabinet & this little act eliminates clutter. (I had a hard time training Stefan because he loves to set EVERYTHING and on the back of the toilet, never putting anything he uses away. He then loves to accuse me of having clutter!?) Our current toilet does not have a flat surface on the tank, and it was the only place to set anything, because our sink rim was too small & uneven. However, so was the toilet tank cover, so things we set there also tended to fall off. It was maddening. Sooooo, the Memoirs toilet had a flat area on the toilet tank also.....so an actual surface, to use for decorative purposes as well as convenience.


ok, so now you see the surfaces dilemma I was dealing with.

So then I see the square toilet (I mentioned my love of squares?......I know I know..."your face is so angular LOL". But it had me. Then, the icing on the cake.....my friend Maria told me she saw them in Italy while there in June. MY FAVORITE COUNTRY! I had to have it, that was it. But it didn't go with my favorite Memoirs sink!!??!! So I looked at the sink to go with it....the line is called Reve. Both lines are by Kohler. Well naturally the larger size Reve sink is much more stylish than the smaller, but won't fit in our tiny bathroom. Ok, I can live with that....it was also an issue with the Memoirs sink. They made two sizes and the larger (of course) looks much better. I just had to suffer that one no matter which sink I chose. But, I would be losing quite a bit of surface area by going with Reve.

Just so you know, the prices would be roughly the same for either toilet/sink. Once you get to shopping around on the web....Reve was maybe a little more, but not significantly. Am thankful for that!

Soooooo....ultra mod and square fabulous Italian toilet with "eh" sink. Or traditional style sink I have admired and dreamed of having for 7 years with surfaces, but with "eh" Memoirs toilet (which I was not in love with, but it matched).

After changing my mind at least 67 times (I seriously lost sleep over this)...... Reve finally won. Here was my final thought process: I decided the streamlined look was good for our small bathroom, even without convenient surfaces. In fact, surfaces invite clutter. Also, without the clawfoot tub to add drama and excitement, the memoirs sink seemed hopelessly dull. Each time I decided to go with Reve I longed for the classic beauty of the Memoirs sink....but each time I had made up my mind to do "Memoirs" ....I would very soon I get the sense of "b-0-r-i-n-g". Also, when you are talking sinks then you have to talk faucet hardware. I liked the Memoirs sink faucet, but I really did not like the Memoirs shower faucet.

Not to mention, I kept seeing the Memoirs sinks and toilets everywhere. The line really is a common choice. It's traditional styling and I think it's "safe" while still being good quality and stylish. ......but I can't stand always being like everybody else...... and I really don't like playing it "safe"! ( well, not all of the time anyway.) So, if I MUST be stuck with a boring white drop in tub....I MUST have some PIZAZZ.

Bathroom Renovation...... finally

My husband made the announcement .....he is willing to start the bathroom renovation and do the work himself instead of hiring a contractor!

Imagine my surprise, after 7 years!

To be fair, we have tackled some major projects over the years, including the kitchen. Since we mostly "pay as we go" and do the work mostly ourselves, we could not do it all at once (this house has been quite a project). We have saved the bathroom for almost last.

Our original plan, which we'll call "Plan A", was to reconfigure the entire room, but to hire someone for this monumental task. Lately we've been discussing the practicality of keeping things simple and doing only a cosmetic upgrade. This alone will be quite a job.

It's a really tiny and really ugly room. Honestly, at first glance, you might think it should be condemned. It's that bad. However still maybe not as bad as our kitchen was.

So, now for the "Before Pictures" which are really important, albeit very embarrassing, to get an idea just how bad it really is (or was, once we can show off the finished room):




Please, before that thought, "jeez, she could at least clean it! it would look better...?" pops into your little head, allow me to explain! I have attempted everything short of sandblasting this disaster to try and remove the mold. The problem is, the moron who redid this used plastic (fake) tile board - that stuff that just looks like tile but comes in big sheets! It was installed all the way around the room, and then the person had the bright idea to install it in the tub surround! Maybe they ought to have considered whether this stuff was rated to handle the constant wet conditions of a shower/bath? as the surface coating of plastic cracked, it revealed the fiberous backing, and trapped moisture causing it to expand and mold. The more I cleaned it, the more it removed the plastic and gradually has gotten worse. OH JOY.

Additional mold is growing underneath the very sloppy gloppy caulking job they did around the trim. Nothing short of removing the caulk & trim will get it off, hence we were "saving it" until we ripped it all out. It's so disgusting I can barely stand to bathe in there!

Aside from it's hideousness, the tub does not have a level rim or any shelves, so there is absolutely no place to set shampoo bottles or soap. If you attempt to set anything on the rim, it is not level so most things end up slipping and falling off. We use one of those dumb flimsy unattractive shower caddy things.

The next source of utter embarrassment (the entire room is awful, but these are the WORST areas) is an original metal cabinet - the only storage we have for the entire bathroom, pictured below. Obviously, someone attempted to refinish it, but just never quite got the job done. I am thankful it's BEHIND the bathroom door, but this is also a problem because the doors from the cabinet are in the way of the bathroom door constantly. When I first saw it, I did not want to even use it! I realized I had no choice so I scrubbed and bleached and lined every shelf surface with heavy contact paper. You can imagine how ready I am to rid our home of this catastrophe.

Other fun and funky things about our bathroom - one is the door handle. It's one of those cute glass door knobs, but it's stripped, so after attempting to fix it several times we gave up and left it for when we "renovate the bathroom". We know not to close the door tight, and try to warn guests. In the event of emergencies we would keep one end of the door handle in the bathroom cabinet, but after having to walk a number of trapped guests through the process of finding the door handle to release them from our bathroom prison, we decided to keep it dangling in the door, and sometimes it falls out.

Other issues:

The only ventilation is the old fashioned way....open the window.

If the bathroom door is left or pushed open (which is usually is due to the above mentioned door handle issue, people walking outside down the street can see directly in through our living room window and into the bathroom with a perfect view of anyone using the toilet! Always fun when my sister's dog visits and feels she must investigate each and every time someone uses the toilet, and pushes the door wide open! Hi neighbors!

Of course, we are now scrapping Plan A for Plan B so we will not be moving the toilet afterall, which means this will continue to be a problem (but at least the door will finally be fixed!)

Just as an FYI if you are interested - "Plan A" was going to be to reconfigure the entire room. First we planned to knock out a closet in the dining room which would give us a good extra 9 or so square feet in the bathroom. We planned to then move the toilet to this more private area (where the closet was), which would have prevented neighbors from inadvertently viewing toilet users. We also were going to move the tub to the far wall below the window, and replace it with a clawfoot tub.

See how complicated all that was? Our new plan "Plan B" really is so much easier. I am, however, really sad about scrapping the clawfoot tub idea. Maybe in our next house....or our next life....sigh. I suppose we just can't have EVERYTHING.

But it does mean we can now afford some nicer upgrades .....heh heh heh

CHAMPAGNE

One of my Philosophies of Life is.....

Life is simply too short to not always have a bottle of CHAMPAGNE chilling in the refrigerator!

Now before you say anything.... it can most definitely be a less expensive brand, or a cava (Spanish version) or a prosecco (Italian version)....but, you never know when a special occasion will arise, like maybe a good friend popping in, or your husband comes home after just having a good day at work! If we don't celebrate little things like this, when will we celebrate? Annual holidays don't come around often enough.....and Americans are overworked and overstressed so maybe it would help if we looked at more of the little things as worthy of celebration.

Now, for my "wine storage" - we have a small inside joke - when we bought our refrigerator, we were "forced" to get the KitchenAid Architect series (terrible I know) - because we have a door in the way in our tiny house which a deeper refrig would just out and be very much in the way, not to mention the aesthetics. We couldn't really afford a Viking or other "counter-depth" model. KitchenAid was affordable in comparison. Well, one of it's features is a "wine rack" which consists of a plastic thingy that hangs on the side of the shelf and holds one bottle of wine. You would not have thought to call this a "wine rack" if you had seen it. We found it quite humorous. Admittedly, it sounds impressive to tell your friends you have a wine rack in your refrigerator, and it works perfectly to keep a bottle of some sort of sparkling white wine on hand at all times. It keeps it up and out of the way, so it was partly my inspiration to do so. Anyone could buy one of these for their own refrigerator, probably through the Kitchenaid website - or I'd bet The Container Store or maybe even Target has something functionally similar.

My other inspiration for always keeping a bottle of Champagne (or sparkling white wine) in the frig is one of my all time favorite movies "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - because THAT is the life I really want to lead..... ;)
I strive for it. (ok, maybe not the call girl part, just the endless wild swanky parties wearing fabulous clothes part.)

One issue many have is how you open a bottle of champagne, drink a couple glasses, then what the heck do I do with all this champagne? I have two solutions.

1. Buy the little bottles. I think they are half liters - maybe even less. Enough for about two full glasses or 3 to 4 small "toast" size glasses. Even a few of the better Champagnes comes in these smaller bottles. I often purchase them for just the two of us, because Stefan doesn't like to drink ANY white wine. He will drink it when I make him, but not more than a glass, then I end up drinking the rest by myself! Not an entirely unfortunate scenario I suppose, but I can't say I always want to be drunk all by lonesome.

2. There are some very handy special stoppers (also available at many stores which sell that sort of thing - like Bed Bath & Beyond or Target/Wal-mart) which work perfectly to keep any bubbly beverage (I also use them for sparkling mineral water) fresh and bubbly for very long periods of time. Not the vacuum type wine stoppers, those won't work at all. These have a silver or metal thingy which bends down and tightens the seal. They work extremely well. The prosecco I used for dessert at Easter had been in there since New Years! I'm serious! It honestly, in my opinion, didn't taste horrible or anything. Especially since it was only used for dessert. It's not like I had a sommelier coming to dinner. It will only work if you have at least a quarter to a half bottle left. Anything less is not worth keeping anyway, make some Champagne vinegar out of it!

(money saving recipe for champagne (or any other) vinegar: take any amount of champagne (or wine or cider etc.) in any glass bottle or jar, I usually use the bottle the champagne or wine came in, and add a teaspoon or so of Bragg's raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar with "the mother" in it - available at many health food type stores. "the mother" is the living culture that will feed off the sugars in the wine and turn it to vinegar within a few weeks, depending on the temperature. Do not cork or keep the lid tightly closed. It needs air. I usually wrap the opening with a little fabric (like cheese cloth) and tie it with string or rubberband. This keeps fruit flies etc. out yet allows it to breathe.)

Now, I am certain a sommelier would cringe at the thought of this. However, while I know I have a fairly good palate, my taste buds are not QUITE that refined.... (and not to be rude, but neither are my guests', for the most part anyway! So I just don't think most of us need worry about this aspect.)

Honestly, if you are one who claims you are not crazy about champagne, I have found it is often due to having exclusive experience with nasty cheap Andre (or similar least expensive brand) often found with a plastic cork. Or maybe only having experience with that which is served at midnight on New Year's Eve in most clubs after already consuming a dozen other drinks, which is a most common cause of the "champagne headache" many of us have personal experience with on New Years Day! It is always amazing to me how anyone could proclaim they do not like "Champagne" when this is often their only experience with it!

My advice, hit a wine store, talk to someone there and get suggestions. Try out an inexpensive, yet still decent bottle (avoiding plastic corks and screw caps). My rule for most wine is usually $10 or less, unless I splurge on good Champagne. And, don't be afraid to tell the person at the store your price range, otherwise how will they know? Just begin to experiment with a few sparkling white wines. Then, go home and have a glass with some fruit like say ...peaches, strawberries, raspberries etc....you might just be transformed!