Kitchen update

So we got a more accurate quote on our kitchen - $10.4K. $3.4K of that is just our countertop, and no, we aren't going with Granite! ( we're going with silestone, which is quartz) Holy cow. I can see why most people take out equity loans to do things like remodel their kitchen.

Life is short, have a nice kitchen.

Boredom.

What do you do to get out of feeling "bored"?

It's kind of a rare feeling for me, thankfully. I think I usually just wait it out and let inspiration come of it's own accord. But when you are bored, that can feel like an eternity. Boredom can be a sign of transformation happening in our subconcious. I hope.

My weekend/Vacations

... was lovely. We had a couple of friends over from England. They were on "Holiday", and made their way to New York (stayed in Times Square), then on to Las Vegas (stayed at The Mirage), then to the Bay Area to see us for a couple of days and then they backtrack themselves and flew back to Las Vegas today for a couple more days, then back to NY for a couple more days, then back to England. How exhausting, but they've seen more than I have and I live in the U.S.! Our visiting girlfriend confided in me yesterday saying "I'm so sick of flying." I suppose variety and adventure is the spice of life, but my goodness a vacation to me is for relaxing and unplugging from my day-to-day anything. And email during vacation is just used to gloat to friends about what a wonderful time you're having on your vacation! My hubby also likes to "do" stuff while on vacation, and getaways. I can appreciate it while I'm "doing" it, it's just the effort to mentally prepare myself to"gear up" to do something is not what I look forward to while on vacation. I'm more the meandering type, taking what comes and appreciating "it" for what "it" is, when "it" comes to me. Hmm, maybe it's a guy thing? I think inherently many men equate a sense of self worth with what they have accomplished, and if they "do" stuff on vacation then it's been a successful vacation. How different those darling man creatures are! But I suppose it all depends on the kind of vacation one wants. Sometimes people need to nurture their sense of adventure, and so they would create an adventurous Holiday, like trekking through the glaciers in New Zealand.

I look forward to my next vacation, which has to happen before the end of April of next year. It can't be too spendy though, 'cause the Monster Kitchen is coming and the price is already above what we were "hoping" for, and we haven't even figured in the countertop yet! ;)

ta, 'til later...

Physiology and Home Depot (?)

Hello World! So I got my butt up out of bed this morning and ran on my treadmill like a good human. I notice that I will sweat more if I haven't ran in more than four or five days (hey, you're the one who came to *my* blogspot! ;). I am very interested in human physiology. Our bodies are so bloody amazing (no pun intended) in all the things they do without our conscious knowledge. It's probably one of the reasons I can do such a thing like believe in a God. If I can have access to the means to become aware of all of the things my body does without my being conscious of it, what else happens that I am not conscious of? How can I become conscious of those things?

(wax off)

I go with hubby to Home Depot tonight to finalize our kitchen design and get some figures as to how much it's going to cost to redo our kitchen. I'm excited, especially if it's less than I think it will be ;). I have started thinking about if people ask me what I'd like for Christmas this year, I might ask for stuff for the dining table which sits right next to our kitchen (I know, I know, how mundane.). I can imagine this beautiful new white kitchen, with our lovely pale wood laminate floors, and then this plain table with plates and silverware we've had for four or five years now. I have a few things to dress up the kitchen table: 2 sets of placemats, four tablecloths (two of which are pretty old), two pretty silver napkin ring holders (but only two!). I get tired of looking at the same old "home accessories". It's kinda like feeling like I never have any cute, stylish clothes to wear. Anyhow, I have good taste and so does hubby. I know, because on Halloween the neighborhood teenage girls told us our house was "tight" as they peered through the front door and admired our lavender walls and chrome and halogen pendant lights. I really enjoyed explaining to my English husband, who is not necessarily acquainted with teenage American slang, what they meant by "tight" :). But he can curse you up and down in Cockney and not know what hit ya! He is a very witty bloak, and charming to boot, as anyone who meets him will attest to. ;)

'til next time...

Where does the time go?...

Ya know, often times I can appreciate my husband's "seize the day" mentality. That's where he and I really balance one another out - he gets me off my contemplative butt, and I keep him from jumping off cliffs just to "see what happens". Deep down he knows restraint is a good quality to maintain balance, and deep down I know that when I do jump off cliffs with him, we find ourselves flying together.

So lately I've noticed that, especially since the time change on Halloween, I have been getting up around 5:15-6:00am depending on if I'm on the treadmill or not, getting hubby off to work by 6:30am, getting myself off to work by 7:50am, getting home from work at 7:00pm, dinner is at 7:45pm, and I start to watch some tv or a movie and I start dozing off and am ready to go to sleep by 9:00pm, sometimes sooner! Yikes! Is there something wrong with me? Does my body still think it's 10:00pm? My mother, who is almost 64 goes to bed at around 8:00pm, could I be subliminally mimicking her for some reason?! Yikes again! And yet when you look at it, I'm only sleeping for eight hours. "Is that so wrong?"

So, since I really don't want to be in the habit of going to bed that early I told hubby that I would try to do some light but physical activities/chores immediately after dinner. I think it's right after dinner when my body wants to shut down and melt into the couch. And it's not like my dinners are extra heavy or anything, the usual Asian or Indian cuisine with some other varied meals, nothing's really changed there.

I also need to find some time to study for my A+ exam since bossman is gently "encouraging" me to do so, and I would be thrilled to have it too. Plus it will look good for me if I do that, since we have a budget at work for training classes and they want to spend it on us and invest in our knowledge, and damnit I want to feel worthy of it.

One more time: It's all about focus and right effort. The obstacles will be there, forever. It's up to ourselves to ignore them and "just do it", and "seize the day", and all that other "DO!" stuff. ;)

Fitting exercise in

Well, I've been trying to be diligent for the past couple of months about using my treadmill in the mornings. But I have a small window of time in which I can do it - 5:30-6:15am. The bed was too warm to get out of yesterday morning, and since I carpooled home with hubby last night I had to leave with him this morning at 6:15am and so I didn't run this morning either. I have been logging my progress on the treadmill and how often I run, and while my level of difficulty is increasing steadily my frequency is not. I'm probably averaging about three times a week which I do not feel is adequate. I am easy to distract from my goals. I don't run in the evenings since I get home at 7:00pm as it is, and I don't want to eat dinner late (bad for the digestive process). So I think I've come to the conclusion that exercise is something that I have to do as often as I can, since it seems there will always be something that comes up to get in the way of making time for it at some point. And I only spend a half of an hour on the treadmill, twenty minutes of it running up inclines of 3-4 degrees at 4.5-5mph. Not too shabby... and better than I was doing two months ago.

Tomorrow is another day. :)

Wow, I'm bloggin' man.

So I've decided that I wanted to try something new this morning and so I created a Blog account. My best girlfriend has been blogging for a little while now and I love to read her posts. Besides, I am a believer in the written word, especially of one's own thoughts. I think journaling in some form is an effective way to organize one's thoughts, and it helps to train mastery over the English language which I admire, another admirable quality that my best girlfriend has always had. :)

Anyways, time to get ready for work now.