Author Archives: admin

Weekly health update and meal plan

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I’m currently a little behind on posting. I took a day off on Monday from posting because I wanted to spend the day resting after being up all night as a result of being congested. I’m still a little sniffly, but I think that should go away soon especially if I keep remembering to take my allergy medicine. Which, of course, I didn’t remember to do this morning…. Anyways! I will most likely not be doing a hike this week because I’m a little busy driving myself bonkers trying to prepare for the trip that M and I are taking next week.

The meal plan for the upcoming week is a little short (only planning meals for Sunday through Wednesday) and I will be attempting to get rid of perishables because the last thing that anyone wants after returning from vacation is a refrigerator full of smelly/expired foodstuffs. Also, it helps that all the food listed here can easily be eaten while M and I are taking turns playing Mass Effect 3. Which is really really important. ;)

Su-Chicken and broccoli casserole
M-BLT salad
Tu-Sweet and sour chicken over rice
W-beef and garlic stir fry

Ruth Kees Big Tree Trail and Wetlands Trail

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Trail name: Ruth Kees Big Tree Trail and Wetlands Trail (Issaquah, WA)
Date: March 4, 2012
Weather: Hi 53, Low 46; cloudy, but still pretty warm and there wasn’t any precipiation
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: ~5.0 miles
Elevation Gain: ~500 feet
Highest Point: Unknown
Features: ponds, lake, huge tree
Hiking buddy: Amanda
Notes: We probably won’t do these trails again since we found and decided to do it on a whim. It was still quite fun and relaxing, though.

Above is the path that we followed, at the end of the path (near round lake) we decided to turn around back toward the parking lot. The hike as a whole was very easy-going, which was nice since we haven’t been able to go on a full hike in a few weeks.

We were looking for the trailhead for Tiger Mountain Trail: North, but instead found a sign for a kid’s adventure hike (Zoe and the Swamp Monster) which connected to other trails. The kid’s adventure portion of the hike featured a story to read as you go along the trail and was about .3 miles. If you continued on (which we did), you were connected to the Ruth Kees Big Tree Trail and (even further on) the Wetlands Trail.

More pictures of this week’s hike can be found on my Flickr account

Weekly health update and meal plan for the week of 3/4

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I’ve been putting up with a cold (or possibly sinus infection) all week this week, but I am really hoping that it goes away by Sunday for the weekly hike (we’re planning on doing Tiger Mountain Trail: North). Especially after having to bail after such a short time during last Sunday’s hike due to feeling sick/light-headed. I have been congested and fighting a dull to mild sinus headache, which seems to just now be lifting. And I can breathe out of my nose again! Yay! :D

As far as next week’s meal plan goes, we will be repeating some recipes from last week (since we still have some ingredients left over from it) and Tuesday night we are getting together with Len (@lenisham) and possibly Hypatia (@hypatiadotca) for ramen at a local place that does it really well (Yoe’s Noodles). The whole meal plan is as follows:

Su-Chicken and shrimp jambalaya
M-Garlic beef over rice (adding mushrooms and broccoli this time)
Tu-Dinner with Len and possibly Hypatia
W-Mushroom swiss burgers with a side salad
Th-Dirty rice with shrimp
F-Salmon pasta
Sa–Shrimp po boys

February recap and March goals

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So, here we are at the end of another month. It seemed to have flown by pretty quickly and I was kind of lax about getting stuff done, unfortunately. I didn’t do the Sprite Stitch Challenge, even though I had two months to complete it. I just didn’t have the creative juices flowing on what I wanted to make and then once I figured out what I wanted to do, I just didn’t have the time to do it. I also have no excuse for not writing on here every day or for not doing the letter to a friend this month. I did, however, buy some stationary so the letters going out from now on won’t be on lined notebook paper, which is nice.

  • Read this month’s ISBC book
  • Read 3+ other books (listed them in yesterday’s post)
  • Put money in savings
  • Book rental car for vacation
  • Do the Sprite Stitch Challenge
  • Make a budget for the month
  • Write letter to a different friend
  • Write blog posts every week day (failed already yesterday….)
  • Arrange for shuttle pick up/drop off for next month’s vacation
  • Get an average of 70,000 steps a week on the fitbit (been averaging at 40,000. I think it is because we didn’t go hiking for two weeks and then last week I got hit with a bad allergy attack)
  • Stick with the 100 push up challenge

The month of March is going to be a little different because I am also including stuff I want to do/see while in Florida (not going to mention people in particular because I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings if I don’t see them or if they aren’t included on the list).

  • Read this month’s ISBC book
  • Read 4+ other books
  • Put money in savings
  • Keep up with blog posts while on vacation
  • Get an average of 50,000 steps a week on the fitbit
  • Finish the 100 push up challenge
  • Go to Dinosaur World
  • Go on an airboat tour of the Everglades
  • Go on a haunted tour of downtown St. Petersburg with friends
  • Eat the best Cuban sandwich I can find
  • Do something with Nikita for her birthday
  • Go to goddaughter’s birthday part
  • Do something special with goddaughter for her birthday
  • Make Easter baskets for the godkids and leave them with their momma
  • Prep hard drive for cousin
  • Prep laptop for little sister

 

Stuff of the month (February)

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Instead of having pictures of everything (because that got really old and ugly looking fast), I’m just going to do a list of stuff that I have read, watched or listened to and then just link to the appropriate sites for descriptions/additional information (American tv shows will be linked to wikipedia, anime to anime news network, music to youtube, and books to goodreads).

What am I listening to:

Wheatus – “Teenage Dirtbag” (I haven’t heard anything else by the band, but the song really caught my ear on the radio while driving to work)
The Black Keys – “Howlin’ For You” (This kickstarted an addiction for The Black Keys)
The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
Fun feat. Janelle Monae – “We Are Young”

What am I watching:

We are still watching the same anime and American tv shows that were mentioned last month, but we have also started to watch Supernatural. We are now completely and hopelessly addicted to this series.

What I read this month:

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick
Eric by Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (currently reading)

Wildside Trail and Redtown Meadow

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Trail name: Wildside Trail and Redtown Meadow
Date: February 26, 2012
Weather: Hi 40, Low 30; snow flurries throughout the hike
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: ~5.0 miles
Elevation Gain: 3500 feet
Highest Point: 950 feet
Features: creeks
Hiking buddy: Amanda
Notes for next time: I really, really need to remember to take my sinus/allergy medicine. We were starting up the Coal Creek Falls trail, but then had to turn back because I started to feel really ill (light-headed, kept sneezing, shortness of breath), which I think could have been avoided if I would have remembered to take the meds. This will keep happening (getting sick) if I don’t take them, especially since things will start to blossom/bloom pretty soon.

We decided to these trails this week because the book (Day Hikes: Snoqualmie Region) said that it was good for a hike year-round and can be a really nice/easy/pretty hike. Well, they were partly right. The small falls and creeks were definitely very pretty and I got a few shots of them, but other than that the walk was kind of gray and dead. We will most likely visit the trails again later in the year after things have bloomed, but before/after the mosquitos start to swarm (there are a few places along the trail with standing water).

More pics (there are like eight total) at my flickr stream (one of these days I will set up an album…)

February discussion and March book reminder

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Hopefully everyone had enough time to read this month’s book, Kevin Mitnick’s Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker. Today we’re going to discuss it (either on Twitter using #ISBC2012 or in Google+, the choice is yours as to which you want to use) and I have a few questions to start us off with:

1. What did you think of the book? Why?
2. Would you recommend it to someone else to read? Why or why not?
3. What was your favorite part in the book?
4. What was your least favorite part in the book?
5. Would you want to read more books like this (autobiographies/biographies) for ISBC2013?

I also wanted to remind everyone that there has been a change with the next book (March). Instead of Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks, we will be reading Metasploit: The Penetration Tester’s Guide by David Kennedy, Jim O’Gorman, Devon Kearns, and Mati Aharoni (image of book’s cover below).

February’s Birchbox and MyGlam beauty product reviews

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This month was kind of a double-feature. I got my usual Birchbox, but it was also my first month getting a MyGlam bag. MyGlam is a service that is very similar to Birchbox: you fill out a beauty profile and for $10/month, they send you an assortment of products to sample.

Birchbox

The moisturizer in this month’s box was really nice. It makes your face feel baby soft and smooth as well as smells very lightly and refreshingly of berries.

My only qualm with the make up remover wipes that came in the box is that I really had to scrub to get my Blinc mascara off (but I think that has more to do with the mascara than the quality or the strength of the make up remover). It cleaned off all of my make up and left my face feeling clean and refreshed. I will probably pick up a container of these (only $9 for a pack)

Now for the part that was kind of a disappointment… I haven’t tried the eyeliner tatto-things. They’re kinda weird to me. I don’t do the whole fake eyelash thing so I have no experience gluing/sticking stuff to the area around my eyes nor do I really wear eyeliner. So the product is just kind of wasted on me. And the mineral foundation in the box? They said that it was for light/fair skin, but it left me looking like Snooki.

MyGlam


We got a $100 gift certificate in the bag for NuMe hair extensions or hair styling device. I think I may pick up a curling iron since I have a new hair dryer/hair straightener and have never really using a curling iron.

The Nyx body/eye/whatever roll-on glitter is actually kind of pretty. I received the gold one in my bag and an equal amount of color and glitter showed up (which is nice, since my experience with these types of products is that my entire face becomes covered in glitter instead of just the part where I applied it). On the first try, I used an eyelid primer before putting on the color and the result was getting a very bold bronze color on my lid. On the second, I tried it without the primer and it was a more subtle (but still noticeable) bronze/gold color. If you end up putting on too much, it’s really easy to blend/lighten with a brush.

The X-Out shine control moisturizer was easily my favorite in this month’s bag. I usually have pretty oily skin (especially across the forehead) and this moisturizer did a great job getting rid of the shine without completely drying out my face (it’s still a little dry, but using a little bit of oil-free moisturizer afterwards helped with that). I will most likely buy this product on my own.

It also came with two face masks (Freeman’s Goji Berry moisturizing masks and Cinderella Mask by Dead Sea Premier), but I haven’t gotten around to trying them yet, so I really cannot speak to their quality/effectiveness.

Health update and meal plan for next week

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Unfortunately, there is no hike update or more pictures to post up. Our trip out to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Trail was kind of cursed. First of all, almost 15 miles before the trailhead, I realized that I had slipped on my Converse shoes instead of the pair that I reserve for exercising and hiking. But it was supposed to be a short long trail with very little elevation and no rocks/climbing, so I was determined to just suck it up. Then we got to the start of the 15 mile dirt path to the trailhead. It was *full* of pot holes. It got so bad that we were doing under/around 10 mph. But we continued on. Until we hit snow/ice. That was covering the pot holes (something to keep in mind is that we weren’t in a SUV, truck or jeep). So we decided to turn around about 5-7 miles in and do another one of the trails that we passed on the way over. So we get about a half a mile in the trail and then… BAM. We both have to use the bathroom. That is about when we called it quits and instead did a 5 mile or so tour of the local outlet mall. The end.

I know that I kind of took a break during all of last week, but I don’t think I’m going to bother with posting the meal plan (we didn’t do a hike last week either). If anyone does want it, they can ping me on here or on Twitter and I will send them links. But here is this week’s meal plan!

Su-Chicken enchilada soup
M- Dirty brown rice with shrimp
Tu- Green coconut curry chicken with rice
W-Cajun chicken pasta
Th- short beef ribs, mashed potatoes, salad
F-Chicken and broccoli noodle casserole
Sa-appetizer day! (we have some recipes for lightened-up versions of mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls and stuffed mushrooms we’ve wanted to try)

On regret (part 2)

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Yesterday I posted my feelings in regards to The Top Five Regrets that people have and the blog post that Joe Peacock wrote. I had covered the first two and today, I will be covering the last three…

I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. I feel uncomfortable expressing certain feelings with people. It’s not easy and I feel like I will be judged or defined by those feelings, which may or may not be fleeting. There are a few feelings in particular that I have trouble expressing, namely:

-Asking for help. I hate asking other people for help. I feel like I am weak for doing so and fall apart before, during and after asking for it. I also have a problem with feeling like crap until I felt like I have paid the person back for their help. I know on a fundamental level that a person cannot go their whole lives without reaching out and asking for help, but I still try. Even when it has caused me greater pain/trouble in the end than it would have if I would have asked someone for help in the first place.
-Frustration with family. There is a lot of hurt feelings in regards to my family. Not just between my immediate family and myself (even though there are a lot of feelings of hurt/betrayal/mistrust), but between members of my family with one another. I want to work on being able to express those feelings with the people that I have issues with as well as try and help the family heal overall, but unfortunately it isn’t entirely up to me. Everyone has to be in a place where they are comfortable enough to express their feelings as well as let others express theirs without fear of someone lashing back, which I just don’t think is going to happen, so I keep it quiet.
-Constantly afraid of failure. I can easily say that my biggest fear is failing at something and disappointing, well, anyone. Especially those who I hold in high regard. Again, I know it’s not possible to go your life without failing or without disappointing someone and that failure and learning from that failure is essential for growth. I just get tired of having people rub my past mistakes/failures in my face just as I start getting to a point where I feel like I’ve learned from them.
-Closet Christian. For the past three years, I’ve been a closet Christian. I’ve prayed and studied in secret because I feel like I’ll get ridiculed for believing. A lot of people, when hearing that someone is a Baptist assume that means automatically that I’m an anti-abortion, gay-hating loony who is secretly (or not so secretly) judging and condemning people to Hell because they don’t believe what I believe. Of course, anyone who knows me knows this is complete bullshit. Of course, I realized that believing that people would judge me for my beliefs, I was also judging them for something that they haven’t even done yet. How dumb is that?

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Not much to say about this one. I feel a bit disconnected from the friends that I moved away from since moving to Seattle. But I’m trying to fix that by calling people more often (even though I really hate talking on the phone) as well as starting to send at least one letter a month to a friend back at home.

I wish that I had let myself be happier.
-I’m a big bully to myself. I talked a lot about how I’m afraid of people judging me for things I say/think/feel/believe (and trying to fix that by posting), but I would say that the biggest obstacle is me. I bully myself. I’ve already talked about how I have issues with the way I look and how I’m trying to fix that, but I also have a bad habit of second-guessing myself and tearing myself down. Dunno how I’m going to do it, but I do want to change it. The only reason I’ve really picked up on the fact I’ve been doing it is during conversations with certain people when they call me out on it (M. is pretty good about telling me to stop it) or I call myself out on it after they do the same thing.
-I need to figure out what makes me happy (people, hobbies, places, etc.) and just do it. Self-reflection is only good and helpful to a point. Sure, I can sit here and blog all day about things that do and do not make me happy. But unless I go out and take action, all I have really accomplished is wasting my time.