Amenities

The reason I changed gyms was for the amenities. In this case a swimming pool, hot tub, steam room and sauna. I'm a huge fan of saunas. Most days I don't have time to change into my swim suit and enjoy these amenities, but today being Saturday I had all the time I wanted.

I learned today that the treadmill will automatically stop at 1 hr 5 minutes. That is a 1 hr work out with a 5 minute cool down and if you aren't paying attention, it just slows down and stops. What a surprise to me to discover that I'd been on it that long.

That is what a good book does for me at the gym. I'm currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett on a recommendation from my daughter and I absolutely love it. (Soon to be a movie, how's that for a debut novel?)

After my time on the treadmill I put on my bathing suit and went first to the sauna. They have put a new thermometer in there and it was reading somewhere around 190. That was the first time I felt the tops of my ears getting kind of hot.

Then I rinsed in the shower by the pool and sat in the hot tub, it was barely at 100, it's usually at 104 or so. But it still felt very good.

Then it was on to the steam room. The steam room is a little bit tricky. Unlike the sauna where you can see how crowded it is through the window, the steam room is well, steamy. So when you walk in it takes a minute to see where people are sitting and where the open space is. And then because I hadn't been in the steam room for months, I had to learn how to breathe in there all over again. The others sit relaxed while I sit and pant and breath through my mouth. But I survived.

After I had showered and dressed I went into the shower area to retrieve my bathing suit and there were two women, looked liked a mother and daughter, they were fully clothed and did not speak English. It appeared they were asking me how to use the shower.

Really, how to use a shower? Well I humored them and stepped into the shower and showed them the pump for the shampoo and pretended to put it my hair and then I showed them the other pump and pretended to put it on my arms. I then stepped to the side and reached in and turned the water on. I think this met with their satisfaction.

I walked away thinking I really must have been on candid camera just then.

My daughter coined the term "gym drama" to describe the happenings of the recognizable strangers you see at the gym on a regular basis.

I have created my list of sauna etiquette, but so far the gym has yet to ask my opinion on it. If I ruled the sauna these would be my rules:

• No talking on your cell phone
• If you must listen to music turn down the volume
• Don't dump your water bottle over your head when you are sitting next to me
• Be gentle with the door opening and closing, don't throw it wide open and let the draft of cold air in
• Be cautious when talking about your ex girlfriend, because I find it awkward when you show up with her 3 months later and you have talked about her to total strangers
• No shaving

Happy exercising to all!

Four Day Weekend

My daughter flew home last Friday for a four day weekend. Although I see her once or twice a year, she hadn't been home since 2008. We had a great time. Here are the truffles we made. We made milk chocolate truffles and also semisweet truffles. We started them Friday and finished them on Saturday and probably made about 100 balls!
We didn't eat them all, we shared them with friends.

A quick recap of the weekend follows:
There was lunch at the Banyan Tree at Kent Station, a movie. Lots of shopping at Westlake Center, and South Center Parkway. Lunch at Panera Bakery, dessert at Cheesecake Factory, a trip to Trader Joe's.

For her, dinner and a visit with high school friends.

A ride on the Link train to downtown. A walk to Top Pot Doughnuts, Pike Place and ice cream on the Seattle waterfront.

Trudy's Florist Shop, (much better than Trudy's Tavern). This is something we do, find places around town with our names on them. Like Wally Park and Wayne's Tires.


Waiting for the Link train.
Almost learned how to use the timer on the new camera!

Topped off the weekend with dinner at Wally's Chowder House.
It was a great weekend.

The First 8 Days

Last week, after working from home for three years we all returned to the office. What a big adjustment to my schedule that has been.

Here are some of the things that have happened in those 8 work days:

Carpooled - 2 times
Ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast from the cafeteria - 2 times (how can I resist?)
Bought lunch from the cafeteria - 3 times
Put coins in the vending machine - 2 times (both times on the way out the door before driving home, a really bad habit, in case you were wondering it was a Twix and red licorce)
Skipped the gym - 1 time
Took treats to work - 2 times (brioche bread and sugar cookies)
Walked at lunch time - 4 times
Ran into people in the building that I've known for years - many times

Weekly Menus

Last week I returned to working at the office after working from home for three years. A return to putting on nice clothes, getting up early and commuting.

In order to keep things running smoothly at home I had to make dinner menus before grocery shopping on Saturday. That way I know exactly what is for dinner when I get home from work and I can look ahead to know when to take meat out of the freezer, or when I might need an quick trip to the grocery store.

This was last weeks menu:
Chicken noodle soup w/sandwiches (Cash n' Carry soup)
Chili and cornbread muffins
Leftover chili
Sausage, rice and veggies
Whole roasted chicken w/roasted red potatoes
Baked potatoes w/hamburger gravy

This is the plan for this upcoming week:
Pork stir-fry with noodles
Russian chicken with rice pilaf
Flank steak tacos w/all the fixings
White chicken chili w/tortillas, cheese and sour cream
Layered enchilada casserole
Pork chops

Plastic Addiction (con't)

I was only joking about being addicted to plastic. But it's not a joke anymore. I caught myself in the grocery store last week admiring the plastic containers with matching lids for sale on the end aisles, and the plastic Popsicle makers hanging in the cereal aisle. So I stepped away from the plastic.

And then today, today I get an email from Tupperware. Who knew I had signed up long ago to be on a mailing list? And I did it, I clicked the link. I went to the ultimate world of plastic. And I was enticed by this Insulated Tumbler with Drip-Less™ Straw Seal. Isn't that cute? And it's on sale.

But that wasn't all, on the same sale page was the Spring One Touch® Canisters set. Have you ever seen anything so cute? You could buy two sets, keep one and then separate the other set and give them out as gifts filled with Valentine's candy. Oh my. I want them. Or is it just the candy in the photo I'm desiring?

Just when I thought it was safe I came across these. Spring Tumblers. (I missed the fall and winter tumblers.) How adorable are these? Tupperware you are killing me! Liquid tight seals even. But alas, they are not on sale.

Did I or didn't I? Buy that is. The answer is no. Not today. Not yet anyway. The night is still young.

If you really want to take a peek, here is the Tupperware website. Whatever you do, DO NOT go look in the SERVE category. Purple plates, I tell you they have purple plates. And the hourglass salt and pepper shakers, yes you do remember those. I need those.

No more plastic, no more cupboard space, but it's so pretty and I can take it to the office, no more plastic, no more cupboard space.

Picture Taking Practice

I am taking on a new hobby - photography. I've always had it as a hobby but now I'm taking it to the next level. I just purchased a new Nikon Digital SLR camera.

I'm very excited to be learning about something new. To keep my brain working, thinking, being creative. My focus word for 2011 is imagine - so what better way to stretch my imagination than behind the lens of a camera?

The instruction manual offers plenty of reading; I took it to the gym this morning and started reading it on the treadmill. This afternoon I had time to turn on my camera for the first time and take it for a walk in my neighborhood.

A January day in Kent, rainless for the day, and still green. See my photos here.

A few things I'm excited about are playing with the remote control and learning the manual settings.

Hi, My Name is Trudy and I'm an Addict!

Addicted to plastics evidently. This is my attempt to clean out a very large cupboard full of Tupperware, Gladware and Rubbermaid. It took me two days and I have 2 large kitchen garbage bags ready for the thrift store tomorrow. I really need to stop watching Enough Already with Peter Walsh on OWN.

Every time I'm watching one of his episodes, my mind is churning to what my next declutter project will be.

When you see yellow Tupperware, you know it's old. That square angel food cake pan was a great find recently at a thrift store. I guess what goes around comes around as they say. I kept it.

Lids, everywhere. How do you keep your containers and lids matched up and stored? There must be some secret to it. I kept some in the drawer, the ones I use frequently and the other lids are stored in the cupboard in a plastic shoe bin (that I actually discovered in the cupboard).

Old yellow again, and to tell you the truth - I kept both of them.

I kept enough, I have space for it. And everything I kept has a lid. There were some items I had planned to keep but after I washed them and then realized I hadn't used them in years - they're going.

Today my project was handbags and belts. I didn't have too many handbags and I'm only getting rid of one of them. I'm not a big fan of purses, so I seldom buy them and I reuse them till they wear out.

A bad habit I have is to change purses and not fully clean out the old purse. So today I was thrilled to find a great purse in my closet and had fun looking through the "memory" papers from 2001 that were in the bag.

On to belts. For some reason in the 70s and 80s I wore belts with everything. Back then almost every single pair of pants you bought came with it's own belt. All these years I thought I had great treasures of cool, old belts in my closet.

Well today I discovered I had simply, old worn out belts, that do not fit and even if they did I would never wear them! So there is another bag for the thrift store.

Confession - I kept three of the old belts. The ones that are very wide and mostly elastic, they'll be back in style some day.

Morale of the story: simplify, live with less, it feels so good.

IMAGINE

imagine

I read a blog the other day and she spoke of a focus word for the year. I liked that idea and took some time to think about it and came up with my focus word for 2011.

imagine.

The dictionary defines imagine as:
transitive verb
1: to form a mental image of (something not present)
2: archaic: plan, scheme
3: suppose/guess; (I imagine it will rain)
4: to form a notion of without sufficient basis

intransitive verb
1: to use the imagination
2: believe

Synonyms: conceit/conceive/conjure+(up)/dream/envisage/envision/fancy/fantasize/fantasy/feature/ideate/image/picture/see/vision/visualize

I see the word in the context of forming a mental image. Creating something in my mind first, and then creating it in the world.

And in believing. If you can imagine something, then you can believe it.

I imagine this year will be a wonderful year, full of many imaginings and happenings.

1-1-11

Of course I have to post on this day. And as I write it's 11:11 on 1-1-11!

What a cool date.

Happy New Year to all.

I did manage to stay up until 12:30 a.m. to welcome in the New Year.

2010 - My Year in Review

As 2010 comes to a close, it's hard to believe that the year 2000 was a decade ago. Here is a quick recap of my year.

Business trip to Washington DC in March with a layover in Minneapolis with enough time to go see the Mall of America.

Sisters trip to Utah in April.

Family vacation to the cabin in June.

Wally and I did a getaway weekend to the Olympic National Park. We stayed at Crescent Lake, it was great.

Lillie visited us in Seattle in August.

I decided to stop coloring my hair. I want to see what my natural color is.

Wally's sister Carmen passed away of cancer.

My sister's father-in-law Lloyd Berg passed away.

Best fiction book I read this year - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Best nonfiction book I read this year - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

New fun to read fiction author I discovered - Diane Mott Davidson.

Saw Los Lonely Boys in concert.

Saw Heart in concert at the Puyallup Fair.

Met the Pioneer Woman at her cookbook signing - thanks to Melissa for getting me the ticket.

Developed the habit of going to the gym in the early morning before work. Still going 4 - 5 days a week at 6:15 a.m.

I decided I liked knitting on a loom and made hats for Christmas gifts.

Happy to still be gainfully employed and at the time still working from home.

The family is happy and healthy and looking forward to 2011.