Well, I survived 2019. After I left work on December 18th I had a really nice holiday. I spent about the first 5 days sleeping a lot which I think was my body doing a mental reset. Work has been stressful and I guess my body was like "STOP! SLEEP!". In early december I started going to Impact Training Gym here in Tucson. I was only hitting the Saturday High Intensity Interval Training to start but then over the holiday I was able to do the HIIT and the Strength classes and didn't feel like I was a lump on the couch all break. I even did the 12 days of Xmas Christams Eve workout which was do day 1 (100# plate push across the floor) and then do day 2 and then day etc. I made it all of the way through day 9 and day 10 I just couldn't after 1.5 hours of activity. Day 4 was the killer we had to push the prowler sled up and back with 270# of weight on it. It killed me. But I did it. I can tell I'm stronger and my body is looking way better. Met with my doc on my asthma being weird and she commented that I looked better, my legs looked awesome and to keep up what I'm doing even though she agreed I need to start getting my weight down. I gained 5 pounds over the holiday but it was not fat.

pic to prove my point from Saturday...its a weird angle so I think it lies a bit but I love this and you can seen how long my hair has gotten considering that is in a french braid since I was going to have armor on later that day.


After a killer workout I went home, changed into armor clothes, ate a huge omelet and then went to the fighter collegium which was good. I did some pickups, listened to the classes, commented on the classes and tested out my new chin strap which was weird but meh. After 15 years I needed to replace it after issues getting my helmet off at GWW. It feels very different but it was good. I got hit in the head a few times and didn't really care. We had laurel's circle which was nice and then home for showers and changing for 12th Night which was middle eastern themed. I was able to eat the very tasy feast and chatted with folks and watched court. Danced a bit and was home at a reasonable hour. It had started raining while at the event and we all realized that war practice the next day may be iffy.

At 8am after constant rain all night the war practice was cancelled. I was sad that I'm missing a war practice but it was cold and wet and the household peeps in town went to breakfast and then we had impromptu crafting at our house. It was nice. When the rain let up I was able to get the lights off of the house and put away (I did the cactus last week) and then settled in to laundry and knitting. I got my Craftvent shawl half done.



And I cast on the other half and got a bit into the first lace section. Its much easier this time than the last since I know how things go and that was good. I tried to go to bed on time but read till late and then slept fitfully. Ugh. Oh, well. I'm heading to the gym to run tonight before scriptorium. My modified schedule for me to get my butt in gear is:
Monday Run
Wednesday Strength Club after knitting time
Saturday HIIT
Working Friday Run

So this week I'll get that all in hopefully and not die. I've also started tracking macros for what I eat. I had tried this previously but my apps weren't set up for that. Now since I'm paying a fee I can track things down well. Its hard and I need to eat leaner cuts of meat but I think its manageable. Every little bit helps and I'm happier. Now I just need to balance that with work and try to be more positive...it will help.

Wednesday was hard…lots of work fu over stupid things like a part mark. Seriously…grumble. But I got some things accomplished and was ready to hit the gym even though I was hella tired. It was leg day and squats went much better this time. I will up weight next week. I didn’t get a treadmill due to timing but did 20 hard minutes on the elliptical. Was commenting in the locker room that I’m not a fan of them cause my toes go numb and found out I’m not the only one. The stair climber (a K2 machine) scares the crap out of me cause 1) its high off the ground and 2)I’ve been known to fall up stairs. I should probably do it but it does take a lot of concentration to not fall for me versus my tune in to my music/podcast and tune out that I’m pushing myself way hard. Got done and then got noms before heading to knit night.

I was happy to sit and Kitchener two socks as seen here and cast on for the second sock for my MILs socks.

I headed to Micheals to pick up a matte board for the Laurel Scroll and then home very tired to work on the initials. Bridget and I decided that just me on the scroll and I got the initials base painted and can get them settled tonight while she is working on shell gold etc. I even managed to draw stuff free hand for the historated initials which still amazes me. I learned to draw only recently and now I can actually just do it for simple things and for more complex things it takes me a bit but I still do it. We haven’t gotten back to the drawing studio but maybe Sunday will do that because I need to not be painting for a bit.

So, Ben had a goodish day and that was nice. He was an angel with Mel and I hope he is up for going with me for a few errands after work. We shall see.

Weekend was had by all. Well, the weekend was fast but it was mildly productive. I hit the gym for the 3rd time in the week and I changed things up. I hit the training room and did some battling ropes. It exemplifies that I have weekness on my left side in lifting weight above my shoulders. I think every Friday needs to have these to get me in shape. I then did back and core before hitting a brutal rolling mountain setting on the treadmill. I was very tired and then hit home to do housework. We were hosting D&D and the house was….special. We got the front room cleaned, the kitchen (well Mel did that) and we got the family room and bathrooms settled. It was good. I was really tired then and went to get pizza for dinner.

There things turned, odd. Little Cesears’ was having a busy time and I had to wait. It was crowded and the inefficiency of it was driving me batty. Seriously, they were filling orders for people walking out and not getting the things people were waiting for. IT was maddening. Then I got home and everything was too much too soon and I panicked. I went to sit on the couch in quiet and then the kids came in and it took me quite some time to calm down. Well, I made my salad and realized that I had needed to eat probably when I was cleaning and waiting further didn’t make me hangry, it made me panicked. Well, that was new. I ate, relaxed and food really turned the world the right color again. So, strange. Got hugs for Erika when she stopped by and yes, that was good.

We managed to vaguely remember what we were doing in the game from 6 months ago and we didn’t dink around too much. Though our characters were role playing per their stats (we all took INT as a dump stat it seems) we were also rolling like shit so needless to say we were into the adventure 1 hour in game time and half the party was almost dead. But, yanno, we had fun and know better for next game. Even with the pizza and beer flowing strongly I had a big salad with tuna on top and a tiny piece of pizza and 1 singular beer. By 1030 we were ushering folks out the door cause we all were tired too. It sucks to be old gamers (lol). Benny and Inara had crashed about 845pm. They were so cute and just babbled for quite some time.

Saturday we got up about 8, well, Ben got up earlier and I got a shower after I made eggs/toast for breakfast. We got to Oliver’s bday party. It was at Pump It Up across town and we had a really good time. I got to chat with Andrea (Cypher’s Mom) for quite some time. I was also handing out the invites to Benny’s party which is our first big party. What was really funny is Roland and I were chatting before folks got there and the staff thought I was Jenny! Lol. Had to set them straight (twice). I was sore from my workout so I didn’t chase Ben around. He was having a ball going around and doing lots of things. I did go on the slides with Ben and Cypher racing Andrea and I and I managed to rug burn my elbow pretty good.

After that Ben and I went shopping for party supplies for his bday. Star Wars in not in season right now so we got some cupcake supplies and that was it. It will workout just fine. We then hit Toys R us where we splurged on some Disney Infinity for me and Skylanders for the family. Buy 1 get 1 40% off is really good. We got home and after a snack I headed to Grandma’s Spinning Wheel for some me time. I saw with Jimmy and chatted with him on various things while I turned the heels on my sock and MIL’s sock. I also helped just a bit with folks in Vicky’s weaving class. Makes me want to get our big loom warped up. Sighs, all of this inspiration and too much stuff going on. Soon though, very soon.

Got done there and decided on a whim to stop by Lowes to look at grills and ended up buying a new Charbroil, 6 burner 58,000BTU’s of stainless steel awesomeness. The old Thermos grill has really seen better days and well, I’ve been meaning to look. They had a special for free delivery and assembly and I took it. We did find out that Ben had ate two bags of gold coins for “pre-breakfast” since they were out and accessible. He did this with thin mints a week or so ago. Sighs. I guess I need to put cereal bars out for the roaming hungry kiddo. He is 40+” tall and 40 lbs.
Got home for dinner with the boys and then a quiet night of watching Tabletop with Mel and knitting. We went to bed early and I’m not sad about that. Sunday got up and had waffles since mel was in the mood to make them from scratch with blueberries. I got changed and then went out to pull weeds in the yard. It was hella windy. Seriously windy, like 44 mph gusts but I managed to get the front yard to look less like ass before coming inside to get out of the wind. The new grill arrived and it was awesome, the Lowes guys were nice and got things shifted around and took the old one away very quickly.

I then got groceries (Dickman’s ugly steaks!!!) and then picked Ben up for a library trip before we headed to Griffin’s bday party in Rolling Hills Park. It was nice, I chatted with Bridget and Sioux, knit some and Ben played with kites and played Kubb which we may have to get a household set of.

Got home from the party and I was beat but excited to use the grill. I made kabobs of mushrooms, peppers, radishes and yellow squash and grilled up the steaks and some Wisconsin brats. The steak, of course, was a hit. Then after Benton got showered and into bed I relaxed with getting his laundry done and making a trial run of white cake for his bday. I’ve never made white cake. Unless from a box mix but I learned that 1) I should have aerated the dry ingredients like Alton says I should and 2) I should not make buttercream at 930 pm. But its tasty though dense. All good though. Benton had a piece on Monday night and loved it.

Monday was weird at work. I got stuff done but the motivator has been hard to engage this week. Had a lovely discussion on things with friends and that helped me a lot in many ways. I’ve been trying to come to grips with some of my depressions/low issues I’ve had, especially since it seems in my head a switch has just flipped over to “happy”. Its really weird but all I can think is I’m not letting my life run me, I’m running my life and any vitamin imbalance I may have had is finally leveling out. Dunno, it’s a theory but I’m not going to test it. Things are working, I’m happy, I’m back at the gym, I’m being productive mostly and yeah. Better, not perfect but better.

Monday’s gym day I did arms. I realized when I did battling ropes on Friday that I have a lot of weekness in my left arm/shoulder. So I went back to the old pyramid routine of pullups/dips/chin-ups/pushups which basically builds as it goes so the sequence is (1/3/1/3, 2/4/2/6, 3/6/3/9….up to 7/14/7/21 where you then go back down the pyramid). Well I did the 1-2-3-2 for that day and then did bicep curls before doing core work. My planks are getting better, I still hate them but they are better. Then I did intervals on the treadmill with running versus walking on the hard interval. First time I’ve ran in a while. Felt really good. Got home and Mel had dinner ready and it was good. Scribble was quiet but research and scheming happened. Plus watching Bridget and Ashley geek out on fanfic was faboo.

Tuesday, well the motivator is still hard but I’m pushing through. Got home with the boy after getting some final groceries to see that mel had nerfed my dinner plans by putting the meat I was going to use in the freezer. Sighs. But I made do. I made turkey burger that turned out okay, though the next time I need to oil them just a bit to not stick. Instead of doing the things I needed to like laundry (eek) Mel and I had dinner, drank a guineess and watched youtube. Sad but true. I can tell my body is still getting used to me beating it up at the gym. I think this is just par for the course. I will be good after it tonight and get the laundry going when I get back from knit night.

So after not making it all year, I managed to get to the gym. I took it slow and I'm already feeling muscle soreness. My scale at home is out of juice and yeah, the one at the gym confirmed I'm now as heavy as I was at 9 months pregnant. Sighs. Well, I know where I need to go and what I need to do and I need to buckle down and do it.

Been doing good on the eating better and back to two beers a week....cause yes, I like beer, it likes my hips and belly way too much. I've indulged too much. So, here is what 2015 was supposed to be about which was taking care of me. The thing I love about our work gym is that its non-judgy, the regulars smile at you and the staff welcomes you back if you've been absent. Very positive atmosphere and its a good facility. I need to remember that....my worst enemy is me. Even a bad workout is better than no work out.

So, I hit the gym...it was only about 40 mins of weights and a bit of cardio but it was good. I was shaky when I was done but good. I then headed to the Southside Costco for essentials like flour, half & half, snack food. The Southside Costco is a strange beast. I feel like it needs to be about 50 foot wider in some dimensions cause the process flow is crappy. You get jammed up at the checkout and it just feel cramped everywhere except the freezer section which is 4 forklifts wide between the freezers. Just weird. But the nice thing is it’s on the Southside which means it has more ethnic varieties of things and I was able to find stuff I can’t get at my normal Costco. I got out and home by 715 to find half of the younger Hrafn members working tablet weaving and Will parked in my spot. LOL. I got things unloaded, made myself a high protein, high veggie dinner and then headed to scribble. It was small to start with we got in a groove. I think 3 scrolls got finished including this one which is way cool that I did:


I finished this scroll and then started another which will probably be finished next week. It’s a really quick paint when am only doing white vine work. I haven’t done work like that since Justin’s Laurel scroll when I did the laurel wreath to look like bone.

Thursday work was absolutely crazy. I've gotten put onto an emergency issue and I realized I got chosen for this so I could tell the program "No, you smoke crack". Seriously. Yes, I'm probably being a bit conservative but its better safe than sorry where my job is concerned and its for the greater good of the hardware and the user schedule be damned. Anyhoo, got home in a rush on thursday night, plus a huge storm I drove in to get the boy. Got stuck at daycare while it blew over and then finally home. I had enough time, barely to get the boy settled, bottles washed and prepped and me fed before we headed out to go to house practice at the dojo.

This was the first time I'd picked up a stick/helmet since I believe, GULP, gulf wars. Yeah, I suck. I spent a bit yesterday looking for reference to me fighting past then and I couldn't. If I didn't talk about it in my journal, I guess it didn't happen. Which is sad in some respects. Tourney fighting is by no means my favorite but it is a big thing with the culture here in Atenveldt. I know I can get better and training is where we can do that. What I had not expected though was how my body was so out of shape for stances etc. I was kinda shocked, mel was too when I told him, how much my core and hips hurt. I've been working out since I got back to work but what I have been doing while good is not a good analog to getting my body back in fighting shape after a baby at least where my core is concerned. Everything I have been doing have not been a lot of twisting movements and I now need to work the obliques in that way. Plus, even years of martial arts have given me the ability to have a good stance but since the baby my hip shape (tilt, spread etc) have changed and that was a bit disconcerting to me. I thought I knew where I was placing things and they weren't where I thought. So, when I got home I was in pain and very fragile. Plus, Benton was crabby and I know that I will have to get a sitter for him during practice since I was too distracted checking on him during drills to really give it my all. Lesson's learned and that is okay. Just need to get Loralei on board for Thursday babysitting for a few hours twice a month.

So, friday dawned and I had things I had to get done before we left for town. I managed to get things going and we were out the door on the way to Prescott by 1045am. Our drive up was good and mel let me sew on my dress on the way. I got everything sewn on except the trim and the final strap since I needed to try it on to get the strap length correct. I ended up having to piece the strap together since my first strap was too short but it was all good. We tooled around downtown Prescott and hit some neat shops and the local yarn store before hitting up the Prescott Brewing Co for dinner. I had the lovely prime rib special. OMG. I have not had a steak that good since I left SD. It was better than Morton's in Chicago. Got back to the hotel and I worked on my dress. Mel was in rare form and was relentlessly picking on me. Sighs. Too much or too little beer in his system...not sure which (lol).

I got the dress finished up just at 10pm and then I got ready for bed and couldn't fall asleep. I had a really, really hard time. I finally drifted in and out of sleep but I'm pretty sure I only got a few hours and none of it was sequential. Benton was sleeping too deeply and I had to keep checking on him to make sure he was breathing. (Paranoid mom). Benton woke up with some coughing but he ate really good and we headed to the breakfast down stairs. I luv Holiday Inn. I luv their continental breakfast and we fueled ourselves up and then headed back up to the room to shower and change for the event.

I still haven't seen any photos of the weekend yet otherwise I'd show off the new dress and I was in "taking care of my fighter and son" mode all day Saturday so I didn't even think to pull my camera out for someone else to snap our pictures. I know there were tons of cameras going...so if anyone has links to pictures please comment below.

Last weekend mel had a really good day fighting and it got his head into the fight. This weekend he did just as well. He semi'd which is the second time he has done that and he lost to Craven who won the tournament. You can't ask for better than that...well, except winning the whole thing but honestly he's just coming back from being out for 6 weeks and us being crown for the first Estrella with a date move and a site move sounds like more work than we intended for a first time. I'm happy, he's happy and I'm really glad its Craven and Elzbieta...they will do a great job. Mel had some of his best fights I had seen. His fight with craven was lively and nail biting. I can't wait to see the video of it if it was captured. Again, if anyone has links please comment below.

Benton was okay during the day. He was warm and not wanting to nap much. I left him in the care of Ari and Loralei a few times so I could watch the tourney or handle a few things but he was just not wanting to miss anything. We got back to the hotel and got showers before heading with the rest of the house to the brewery. It was way too long of a wait for food. I guess next time we all need to put in separate table reservations cause it got messy. But we finally got seated and then got drinks and food. Benton fell asleep just before food and that was good.

Saturday night we all fell asleep just after 10pm and then we all woke up at 130am. Benton was coughing and then mel and I lay awake for a while. I'm still not sure what was up but I think I was just not comfy. We slept in a bit on Sunday morning but we got moving and checked out and to site on time. I had to run the artisan's display. Pictures are here. I'm still putting in descriptions and left my entry sheet at home.

Lady Caoilfhionn won all 3 prizes. She is such a talented lady. I sat and listened to her talk about her arts the entire display as she spoke with folks who came to see it. I taught arsenda how to knit and in general I had a good time. Benton was again a bit hot and not liking his teeth. We gave him some tylenol and that seemed to settle him in the afternoon and mel got him to take a nap for about and hour. After court we packed up with lots of help and then headed home. Mr. Benton fussed until we got onto the interstate and later we should have realized it was cause the sun was hitting him. He got a bit sun burnt from his mirror and I feel pretty bad about it. He wasn't the worse for wear, wasn't ouchy about it or anything...just pink. We got him home and got him a cool bath and lots of lotion.

I was so tired on Sunday night that I don't even remember falling asleep...just waking up to the alarm and snuggly kitties. The girls missed us and butterfly got reminded that she was not the alpha cat. They were both uber snuggly.

Well, that is the weekend. I'll hopefully have more pictures and things to link to later.

Since giving blood on Monday I have been uber tired and I have not been going to bed ontime like a good monkey. So, by the time Wednesday afternoon came around all I wanted was a nap. I did not succumb to temptation like I did on Tuesday I headed to the gym. I did not do cardio...still feeling off but I did bang out a hard workout on my legs and my abs. I was dripping when I got done and that is good.

I headed to knit night and had a nice time spinning and I got my two spindles worth of spinning plied per the cayswann method. I'm not sure what that is called cause people were asking me. I utterly confused people with it until I started plying and that was kinda funny. But I got them plied...they are about 6-8 WPI which is pretty bulky...but yanno..I'm spinning and I will have a use for this I'm sure...especially since I've only finished 2 oz of the colorway and I have 2 more to go. I then I worked on my mitts before it was time to go. I got home and was a bit lazy. I cleaned the cat box and watched tv and I headed to bed on time and I was asleep about on time too. Go me. The funny thing is that Patricia Biggs in her book I'm reading has a very good description about the uncanny valley. I'll have to excerpt it cause its that good.

So today is virtual friday I have to work a bit extra since I didn't get paid for a meeting yesterday and I'm going to have lunch today with a friend. So I will be getting home late. Eh, I have projects to work on and that is okay. I hope to finish up all of the base sewing on all of the garments and get going on working through the seams and getting the loom warped up for the trim. Lots to do in the two weeks that I have left. That is okay. I'm good with the schedule and its a lot less stressful now than it was. Friday and Sunday are going to be uber productive and I hope to get a bit more spinning and HP game play in. So, have a happy thursday.

( spinning )

Wow, I so did not want to get up this morning. I'm tired cause I've been busy and I've been working out hard and its tiring me out. That is a good thing though. Thanks to Thyra I got through my slightly boring work day and then it was on to the gym. I modified the work out so I wasn't blown on the pushups. I did good and increase my reps on some of the exercises and I got all of the pushups in for the mod'd sequence which was also good. Got done with everything and was dripping.

Got in the car and kept warm with the heater. The wind and the rain made it very cold. Got home to a home cooked hot split green pea and bacon soup and I had a big bowl, showered and then knit while watching hockey. I'm now half way done with my heel flap. Then it was on to scribal.

We did a lot of good work but still more to do tonight...its kinda in the ugly stages but soon will be much better. Almost all of the base painting is done and the two miniatures are almost complete. I got to paint plaid! That made me squee. All good. Had a new gal from Northshield and she seemed to fit in fine. The kids were in rare form too. Markers and Mason...not a good combo. I headed home and mel was just tucking into bed when I arrived. I got my protien shake and headed to bed and read High Whorling for quite a bit. Its a very, very easy read and the author is very opinionated about top whorl spinning. I'm gonna try it out and see but I can see pro's and cons to both methods and I watch my husband spin faster than most people do on top whorl with his bottom whorl. course Ivan is a bit of a fiber freak so dunno...we shall see. Its good reading though.

Today working is a bit busy I think. I'm at the old job, staying by the phone to make sure I am available when I our team in VA calls. It was freezing this AM. I had about 1/4" of ice on my car and I actually got my scraper out to deal with it. Got into work and its much warmer but I was also running pretty late. I was way to comfy in bed. Hope we can get some good progress on the scroll tonight, hand off to Sioux and get it back Thursday for pen work. That means I will have friday for my projects, I hope. I have a sock to finish. Which means work hard today, get my sock to the heel turn and scribe the night away. All good. I've got the bandwidth this week which is good.

Oh, the beer icon is shown cause I really want one...but I can't until friday (being good)..its just there to remind me of my goal...I know, its only Tuesday but still, ya gotta have a goal.