Tuesday, June 29, 2010

FINALLY! A pair too late.

Maybe some of my readers recall a few posts from almost a year ago. Three in particular: this one, this one, and this one. All about my glasses going missing in the old apartment and my blaming Kitty Kitty.

Well- guess what?
Denver and I did some MASSIVE deep cleaning in the apartment yesterday.
I decided to go through our magazine rack and throw out the ones we'll never touch again.
Little did I expect to find my old pair of glasses smushed on the side of everything, burried since last August.
They were a little bent, but nothing unrepairable. The prescription is remarkably close to the replacement pair's.
I definitely prefer my new pair- they're much more fashionable and accurate for my vision, but at least now I know I have back up pair in the case either pair ever go missing again. :)

Knock on wood....

I'm sure that darn kitten put them in that magazine rack. She was always playing in it. I have no idea how I didn't think to look there 10.5 months ago...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Ta Da!

Say hello to my FiveFingers!
(Thoroughly explained in an aforementioned post)







They're awesome.
:]


Just wanted to say this.


The End.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Vibram FiveFingers

So recently I've been researching the Vibram FiveFingers shoe.
They were first introduced to me by my ex-boyfriend who lucked into a free pair because his Dad owns a rock climbing store in Nevada so he got access to the Outdoor Retailers Show twice a year.
(That event really is a blast- I wish I still had an in to go to it and check out all the new technologies of outdoor adventure.)
I couldn't take these shoes seriously on the ex to save my life. I was only 16 at the time, I believe.
I'm pretty sure I humiliated him and he never wore them around me again.
Here I am, 4 years later (the age he was at the time), seriously wanting a pair or two of my own.

My friends are probably going to refuse to go out on the town with me if I'm wearing these, but I think they're so neat.
They're meant to give you the freedom, agility, and dexterity of walking around barfoot but with the protection of a minimalist's sole.
I've read and heard so many positive things about them. Most owners use them for everything from grocery shopping to running to rock climbing. They're supposed to be great for those with ill posture, bad knees, are prone to shin splints (such as I am), and so many other things.
I want a pair to go running in, though it sounds like that will be awkward at first. They supposedly force you to re-learn how to run so that you're not landing on your heel (like 75% of American runners) but rather your forefoot or midsole. This is supposed to be SO much better for runners because when you land on your heel you're actually putting the force of 3 times your body weight on that point, which can lead to bad knees/back, etc. When you land on your forefoot you use your ankle as more of a spring and reduce that force to 60% of your body weight. Isn't that incredible?

I've read so many reviews about these things that it's not even funny. I can't believe the positive results these have on 99% of thier owners. For everything I've researched before buying there's always been a decent handful of bad reviews beacause there's always that crowd you just can't please- but there are hardly any for FiveFingers. There was maybe 1 negative review for every 20 positive. And at that- they were usually just saying something like, "This aspect didn't bother me, but I could maybe see why it would soemone else," or "At first the pinky toe pod didn't work for me and it always slipped off, but once I contacted a FiveFingers employee they instructed me as to how to correctly put them on and they're great now."
There has yet to be one purely negative review that I've seen about these shoes. It's amazing.

So there are 3 styles that I have been interested in.

First is the Classic.
It is definitely the most inconspicuous of the bunch and would be great for errands or walking Rosco or anything mild. My only deal is I want a pair to go running in and these are not reccomended for that.



Second is the Sprint.
These are just as handy as the Classics and then some because of the additional straps to keep them in place during more vigorous activities, such as running. :) The classics look so comfortable though... ha.




And then there's the Bikila.
They just came out with this model this Spring. This is their running specific model. These truly sound amazing. They are solely engineered for running in the most natural way possible. With the added agility and dexterity of seperated toes and the pure feel of the ground beneath you, you're supposed to be able to run faster with a much greater balance. Plus with the improved gait these would require, each run would be much more effective and safe than what's typical.


As it would be, I would love to obtain a pair of the Bikilas to run in and a pair of the Classics for every day use (other than work- I don't think I could pull them off there.. ha). Only thing is I want to try one pair out for a while to make sure I dig the style. I just can't decide if I want to get the Classic or the Sprint... The Bikila is still pretty hard to find in stores and is so new that there are only rwo color variations. I think I'd like to get one of the other two and wait until the Bikila has a few more options to choose from.

The shoes, as you can see, are a tad on the pricey end of the spectrum, but never once was that a complaint in the reviews. Every person who mentioned price at all said that they are worth every penny and then some.
Plus, they're machine washable- cool, right? haha.

There you have it, though. Pretty odd/neat, right? haha.

Will you all still be my friends when I get these? hahaha.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Once upon a Friday...

Once upon a lovely Friday- one very much like today-
an adorable 7 year old girl told me at work, "Ma'am- I've waited a long time to tell you this- you're pretty."
Later that wonderous day, a coworker told me, "You have the cutest nose in the world. The profile of your nose from the side is just so darn cute."

Oh the things people say when I don't wear my glasses (rarely ever happens).


Denver and I are going to Lagoon tonight with his sister and a friend. I'm excited. It'll only be for a few hours, but it'll be for free, so works for me!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Subway's Breakfast

Gotta say, Subway's breakfast is pretty darn tastey. This morning I got a 6 inch pita bread breakfast sandwhich that had cooked egg whites, provolone cheese, green peppers, onions, and salt and pepper for 2 bucks and it was delicious. If I can get out the door 10 minutes earlier every day.... :)

Sidenote: I've kept my goal with the daily stair climbing so far. Granted that's only 3 days, but that's still over 300 stairs for me right now in the past 70 hours. Not too shabby. My heart races like crazy every time. But I know I'll eventuallly get to where I'm barely even breathing faster from it.

Happy Friday Eve! :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Stairclimber

So stairs have become my new focus lately when it comes to working out. I can't run to save my life right now so I'm starting out with stairs.

I just ran up and back down all of the stairs in my office building while I had a spare minute.
There are 5 floors.
I counted them on the way down and there were 96.
That's quite a few stairs.
I was a tad out of breath after and my legs were trembling a little.
It felt good though.
I'm making it a new goal to do that every day. (well, at least Monday-Friday)

That plus the healthier eating habits Denver and I have been working on lately seem to already be making a difference. I've lost about 3 pounds. Not that I'm itching to shed pounds- but that still shows progress.
:)
I want to get back down to what I was when I graduated- which was more muscle mass than anything.
So we're looking at me shedding about 7 more pounds, but mostly in replacing flabby grossness with awesome muscleness.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Oh Thumper.

Lately I've been pondering a lot about my health.
Exclusively, my heart.
I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to working out...
I haven't gone running in... let's just say a few months. And at that, it had been a few months since I last ran that time as well.
I really need to make a habit of it, again.
I would really like to be in better shape-
Mostly I just want to build up my heart's tolerance again.
I don't even know what's up with it anymore.
I had a procedure done 5 years ago for the SVT I had.
A year later when Thumper was still giving me issues (though not nearly as severe) we went to a new doctor who told me my heart's fine- I just have a faster heart rate than normal. And to eat more salt in my diet...
I didn't buy his blabber.
I don't see how a heart rate of 200 is normal for running up a flight of stairs.
I don't feel like I'm in terrible shape- most people think I look rather athletic-
200 bpm is not normal, in my opinion, for such a tedious task from a 20 year old...
I'm 20 years old....weird.
Anyways.
When I first got the ablation in 2005, I started running as soon as I could. I still remember the first mile I ran afterwards being the fastest I've ever ran that distance in my life- and I hadn't ran in about 2 months at that point. I ran at least a mile every day there for quite some time.
Then I got lazy...
And the hard part with Thumper is the longer I go without frequent cardio the worse it gets- the easier it spazzes out and the more chest pains I get from caffeine or exercise.
That, in turn, makes it so much harder to get back to where I can run a mile, no problem.

So the current focus in my life is rebuilding Thumper's tolerance.
At least to where I can run a few miles without it stopping me.
Saturday morning I took Rosco to Murray Park to run.
This was a failure.
I need to train that pup to keep to my side. He gets too excited and likes to zig zag in front of my feet and randomly stop to look at me. He's a pro when it comes to tripping me, for sure. so I ended up heading towards the stone bleachers by the baseball diamond. There was noone around so I took him off the leash and ran up and down the stairs. He did really good at staying near but also focusing on where he was going. It took him falling off the stairs twice to realize he shouldn't watch me as we ran.
I had to stop so many times, it was embarrassing. It felt like Thumper was going to explode right out of my chest.
Every time it was bad I wanted to stop and go home, but I'd wait for it to calm down and go again. This cycle repeated itself over and over again.
It feels like I've got some pretty decent shin splints now, but I'm glad. That burn feels good.
That burn represents pregress.
Let's see how long it takes me to accomplish my goal.

Monday, June 7, 2010

What a Wild Weekend

Last night was pretty wild. There was a storm- it looked like a tornado was coming with how oddly colored the sky/clouds were, but there was little wind. It started raining, and there was a TON of lightening and thunder. Denver and I were heading to a gas station with his little brother last night and were about 50 feet away from a lightening bolt striking a power pole right in front of us. The Thunder made me scream cuz it was so close and loud. It was so weird being that close- it sounded like a gunshot- you could feel the boom. Sparks went flying on the power pole and then all the nearby traffic lights went out. When we got back to Denver's mom's all the power in her neightborhood was out. We saw the bolt that hit the power pole! How crazy is that?
Then on Denver's and my way home we passed a canal that was majorly flooding- a lane of traffic had been closed because there was so much water and there was tons of people sand bagging yards. This morning I guess the flooding's worse and 5300 south by my house is closed all together from all the water. One of my coworkers just called in saying her finished basement has over 2 feet of water in it... The flood straight up busted her window and filled the place. He lil sports car is stuck in the flood... so crazy. Normally our snow would have started to melt a month ago but we had an usually cold May and randomly here we're getting two 90 degree days in a row after 60 degree weather. Yesterday was SCORCHING hot and today's going to be worse, but there are at least over 500 volunteers helping out today so helpfully there won't be as much damage. Here's a link to the KSL news report on the flooding. Here's a bunch of the pictures posted on KSL of the flood waters. Crazy stuff. Many buildings and bridges are heavily damaged. This is all Little Cottonwood Creek that's become a raging river. Crazy stuff...



Denver bought a new car over the weekend. It's a 2007 Volkswagon Passat- 2.0 liter turbo- V6 engine- tiptronic shifting- 40,000 miles- black exterior/black leather interior.
This is what is looks like: (Not his actual car. His hubcaps are cooler.)
This is what it looks like while he's driving: (Again, not his actual car.)

It's a sweet ride, for sure. And it's nice that he now has something reliable. We were afraid his Grand Cherokee wasn't even going to get us to the dealership. We're lucky he found something he loves. Only thing was, he got rear ended within 24 hours of owning it... We were on our way to his mom's house last night when it happened. Luckily it was just after the light had changed at an intersection so I'd just barely taken my foot off the break and onto the gas. I'm sure there would have been much more damage if it hadn't had that give. There wasn't enough damage for the cop to file a report, so we'll just have to see what'll happen. Boy was Denver angry... I kept telling him it could have been worse, but at that point I'm thinking he was wishing it had been worse so that the cop could've filed a report to use against their insurance... oh well. At least it wasn't a life.

I SWEAR I will get pictures of the trip and of Denver's new car up soon- his laptop just doesn't like me and the itnernet freezes every time i try. I'll have to find another way.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and not too many people were effected by this flooding. :(
My prayers go out to whoever was hit by it.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pictures to come!

I promise I will get the pictures up soon from our Memorial Day weekend camping trip. I got plenty of good ones. I worked on uploading the 200+ yesterday onto the laptop, but didn't have enough time to sort through what I wanted to put up on here. (There is no WAY I am taking the time to post all 200....)
I would put them up tonight, but the apartment is still sort of a mess from the lack of unpacking from the trip... Rather, mine and Denver's room is a disaster. We haev the living room and kitchen clean to keep our roommate happy- whch means everything's just thrown into our small-enough-when-it's-clean room... so that definitely needs to be taken care of tonight. Then tomorrow I'm dedicating my time to sorting through all of the clothes I no longer wear and either getting rid of them or storing them for later. I will admit that I have too much clothing... Denver's made a rule that I now have to get rid of something for every new thing I buy... and let's jsut say I've gone on a bit of a shopping spree lately. :D So I need to hold up on my end and make some more room in there. I can't wait for the day when I have a home with a closet that can accomodate my wardrobe... That'll just be dreamy.

Anywho.
It's Thursday and it feels like Wednesday because I didn't work Monday and I love that.
I have no huge plans this weekend. Hopefully I'll get some time put in with my family. I've been hanging out with Denver's a lot lately, which I do love, but I also miss my own.
Saturday morning I have a baby shower to attend for my friend, Jes Wilson, who now lives in Alaska and is in town for her brother's graduation. I'm excited to see her lil baby bump! I love prego bellies. Absolutely adore them. :)

Anybody have some crazy cool plans this weekend?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend

I don't know about you guys, but my weekend rocked. Den and I eash got a day and a half off of work and went camping with his sister and our friend, Ben. Ben hooked us up for the trip with four wheelers and a secluded place to camp out.
He was worried Den and I wouldn't be impressed because he knows we like the forest scene and the place we were going was just a dirt hold to go four wheeling. I loved it. Any of the forest campsite we would have gone to would have been packed for the holiday weekend and I love getting AWAY from crowds, so this was prefect. I'm not even sure where it was- Rawley Dugway or something- like 40 minutes past Tooele.
I was kind of a hole in the ground- but it was a peaceful hole in the ground. We saw a few other 4 wheelers while we were there but we only passed them maybe twice while riding and there was no one camped out by us in view or earshot. I never saw anyone else camping anywhere. It was so quiet and nice. The rolling hills under the sunset and the wildflowers everywhere were just amazing.
Denver and I wore helmets every time we went riding- which I'm glad for. At one point he tried to ride through this big puddle but his 4-wheeler started hydro-plaining and he caught an edge and it flipped over and he hit the ground. He was fine- EXTREMELY muddy and he broke his phone that was in his pocket, but no injuries. If he hadn't had that helmet on I'm sure he would have had a killer headache the rest of the day.
I drove my own 4 wheeler a lot of the time- which I was really nervous for at first because I've only ever been a back seat rider in my experience, but it was fun. It was nice to be able to control it myself. Ben, Taya and Den were all pretty good on jumps because they're more experienced and I would just trolley on behind them, slowing down before each jump and catching no air. haha. I'm sure I looked lame, but I was not about to push my luck considering my lack of practice.
On Sunday we went for a crazy long ride through the winding canyon behind our camp. It was gorgeous. I could not believe how many wildflowers were all around. There were pink ones, blue ones, purple ones, red ones, yellow ones, white ones... It was so pretty.
Ben and Taya climbed up to some "cave" at one point and tried to get Den and I too, but we were too sore and tired by that point and sat back to watch them do it. I was suprised to see they made it to it considering the steep climb- but if you tell Taya she can't do something, she'll do whatever it takes to prove you wrong.
Rosco, my almost 4 month old puppy, hated the trip. The ground was too thorny for his uncaliced paws and it was too sunny and hot for his thick black fur. I felt bad for the lil guy. We had to pull little stickers out of his paws a few times each day. Plus we had to leave him chained up alla lone while we left to go riding for hours... He did good, albeit.  He was sure excited once we got to Denver's Mom's home and he had soft, cool grass to run around on though.

The whole trip was awesome. It was so nice to get away from reality for a few days and just enjoy good company and nature. I didn't enjoy the mosquitos... (I have over 20 bites right now and everyone else got 0-2 bites total... story of my life.) But all the bites were worth the great time.
 It makes it hard for me to go back to work and leaving Denver after getting to spend so much time with him. I was so sad when he had to leave for work last night... Back to reality...

Reality Blows...

I'll post pictures of the trip tonight or tomorrow. I got a lot of good ones. :)