The Birthday Update

So, I have about 18 days until my birthday, which means it’s time to do the annual round-up again.  How are things overall? I know you’re tired of hearing it, but they’re pretty amazing.

-We have a garden! I am so excited. Every day I get to watch our hard work grow into something that is flavorful and healthy. I’m putting food up to feed us through the winter, even if it’s just supplementary. Basil is turning into freezer pesto, cucumbers into pickles, mint into tea, peppers into spice powders. It’s incredibly fulfilling.

-I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been:

Not an awesome pic, but you get the idea. Those little bumps on the side of my stomach? Yeah, those are muscles courtesy of kickboxing. (Capoeira and lots and lots of side kicks!) You can’t see my tummy line–that awesome one that runs down the middle–in this photo because of the lighting, but it’s there. I am really proud of myself for staying in shape, and for finding activities I love to help me do it.

I feel really good about myself, I love the way I feel, and the things my body can do.  I’m still teaching spin, MMA street fighting/kickboxing, and a variety of other weight and cardio classes (including a Sparticus workout class that’s kicking my butt) in addition to my full-time Personal Chef business. Which means my schedule is incredibly full, but also very fulfilling. I get to watch people build themselves, encourage them, be part of their process. With kickboxing especially, it’s amazing to watch people who are otherwise fairly timid really come out and find their inner warrior, so to speak.  It’s a fairly intense, aggressive class, and I’ve been surprised at the people who’ve taken to it!

-I’ve taken up fishing again. This was a bit odd for me for a variety of reasons, but I haven’t lost much in the way of my technique (though I’ve lost several lures to the amazing amount of snags in the lake nearby–I really need some weedless lures!).  And, it turns out I haven’t lost my love for it, either. I’ve been fishing literally my entire life on-and-off, and missed it when I wasn’t. The bitter memories are gone now, it seems, and the joy of the quiet, the cast, the game of it, is still there.

-I’m still volunteering, which I love. I’m teaching a community cooking and nutrition class, and speaking to local groups about health and wellness. It’s great!

-I want to do more camping. I just never seem to have the time to get away for a weekend, and thus far I also haven’t found a way to deal with the damn gnats. Ugh, they’re insane. But, that I do miss a lot. With Thadd’s schedule and mine, it just doesn’t work; and, while I’d camp in the Shenandoah on my own, I won’t camp alone in the mountains near here.

-We’re making wonderful friends here. It took a while because this is such a clique-ish town, but we’ve found people we really like a lot.

-Still into the local food movement. Over the last few years, that’s expanded to include local wines, which VA has in abundance. Some of them are truly spectacular.

-Still a Secular Humanist.

-Still no kids, and no plans to have any. I am perfectly happy loving my nieces, nephews, and friend’s children.

-My cats are doing well, and at the moment I am thoroughly catted.

-Still cooking, and the Personal Chef business is going great!

-My grandparents are aging. So far, they’re doing alright, but I know the time when they’ll need more care is coming faster than any of us would like.  Two of my nephews are grown men in their own right, the other’s not far behind, and two of my three nieces are gorgeous women that really should carry cattle prods. I am proud of all of them–I can’t believe I’ve gotten to watch them grow up. It just doesn’t seem like that many years have passed.

-Thadd and I are still happy, still in love, still together. School’s going well, and he’s got an internship at a State Lab this summer. I don’t let him talk about it much because..well, ew. Pathogens and insects in poop just aren’t my thing. But, he’s loving it.

And, that’s it. Well, not really. There’s way more to life, but this is the gist. There some bad, like college tuition really killing the budget, but overall life is far more positive than negative. It’s a good life, and that’s the best birthday gift I can ask for.

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Mixed Bag

As the title says, it’s been kind of a mixed bag here.  My business is going really well, as is my volunteer work. Thadd and I are doing great, and he’s doing fabulously well in school, even acing Organic Chemistry on his first pass. I’m teaching more fitness classes than I should, which is leaving me in really great shape, but really tired. We’re in full-on spring, and haven’t used the heat in well over a week. Everything’s green, morels are in, the windows are open, and the cats are happy.  We’ve made some great friends here in the ‘Burg, and have an active and fun social life. I even get a garden this year!

The mixed bag comes in the form of a lot of bad family news. My cousin, who I grew up with, passed away from her leukemia a while ago, and a few weeks later my brother-in-law unexpectedly passed in his sleep.  I went home for the funeral and got incredibly sick, something that hasn’t happened to me in years (I wasn’t shocked, however, given what I did to my immune system on my trip).

I’m almost back to 100% now, but I feel really set back. The garden should be in already, but won’t go in until this weekend. The house should be clean, but isn’t (and yet, I am posting here–I do realize that may not be my best allocation of time).

I am still incredibly happy. Life is pretty rosy, and with local fruits and veggies coming in, I am pretty stoked. Yep, I am total food dork. I’ve missed fresh, crisp produce! I just hope the bad news is over, at least for now.

There’s Nothing More Random…

Than me posting here. Does anyone even still read this? I spend all my time updating EE, and this just kinda gets lost.  There’s going to be no rhyme or reason, so let’s just get started.

First up, the shallow stuff. New hair:

(Photo Credit: Rick Myers Photography. Email me for contact information).

Yep, I got it all cut off. And yep, I love it. I thought I’d miss the long locks at some point, but it’s been several months and thus far, no regrets at all.

Next, up, Chefing business: Better than I could ever have hoped. And, in cool news, one of my blog articles got picked up by some pretty heavy-hitters in the food world. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, but I’m really enjoying the ride! Food politics is what I spend most of my non-cooking time dealing with, in various ways. I write about it, I lobby, I teach.

Fitness business: Awesome, as always. Still teaching the hardcore spin classes, and next month I’ll be doing the kick-your-ass kickboxing/MMA classes, too. In between those, I get to do something a little less adrenaline with my pilates mix class. In theory, I’ll start running this month, too. Because I have so much spare time to organize the running club…

So, this brings me to something I think is fun. Petty, to be sure, but fun. When I was…oh, about 23 or 24, the guy I was dating said I’d be frumpy and fat by 30 (this guy also cheated on me and knocked up his underling at work, as I later found out. Classy, huh?).  I hadn’t though about this in years, until he emailed me several months ago (and only thought about it again today as I was cleaning out my “archives” inbox).  Currently, I get guessed at about 28, never over 30, and I don’t use botox. I look as good in a bikini as I did when I was 25, if not better. Now, none of this is as important as what really make me what I am, which isn’t that I look good in a bikini (it’s how I live my life that makes me who I am). But, it is a bit of chocolate icing on a pretty luxurious cake. A bit of gloating, I admit. I like being healthy more than I care about being hot, but him being wrong and obviously sorry about it (hence, the email a few months ago) did give me a tickle.

Relationship business: 5.5 years and happily counting. Lots of cooking, baking, and fun stuff together, when we squeeze it in around his school and my work! We need to get some more pictures together, which is tough because one of us is usually behind the camera. This was the last one we managed to get:

Not the most awesome photo ever taken, to be sure. But, it was cold, and sleeting, and we were busy handing out cookies to other hikers. And yes, we hiked in those hats. It was a day for cheese.

We still love VA, though we pretty much both hate the town we’re in. Unfortunately, we’ll be here for another year or so while Thadd finishes up his degree. Then, thankfully, we’re out, hopefully to someplace less conservative. In the meantime, there are mountains and mushrooms and waterfalls, so I can cope. I’m still short. Thadd’s still tall. We still make each other laugh. And that’s all that really matters, right?

 

 

Changes. Again.

So, I am having some weirdness, the cause of which I am not quite sure. It could be one of several things, and now it’s time to try and figure it out. So, back to the strict diet again to see if it makes a difference in my symptoms. Great, right before vacation. Blech.

0 Severe cutback in grains.

0 Serious uptake in veggies.

o Much more fish, nuts, avacados. Much less red meat and pork.

o No soy.

0 No sweets.

0 Minimal/no alcohol.

All this, and possibly a three-day fast. Hopefully, that’ll help me figure out what the h*ll is going on. I am hoping it’s not my adrenal meds that are throwing me wonky, but it could be. I’ll keep you updated.

Annual Birthday Update

Last Sunday was my birthday, and I wanted to do an update to remind myself where I am right now.

This is a few months ago, but you get the idea. The last few years have been absolutely amazing. For those of you not following my other blog, this is my pat-myself-on-the-back post for the year   Here goes:

-I have an amazing partner. We’ve weather many storms, and things are truly spectacular. We have so much in common, we’re more committed with each day. We’ve had to work very, very hard to get here, but it’s been worth it. I love him.

-I still live in heaven. No, really. I can see mountains almost everywhere I go. It’s incredible. I get to hike, hunt wild foods and mushrooms, see bears, and all kinds of other fun things on a regular basis. I look out onto a river every day when I walk out onto my front porch.

-Business is booming! My Personal Chef clients are wonderful, and I am fortunate that they enjoy my services. I get to do nutrition counseling, as well!

-I’ve taught at an Internationally-known MacArthuer Foundation Award winning urban agriculture organization, and I’ve just been asked to teach and present at their annual conference.Yes, paid. How cool is that?

-I’ve got fabulous friends–those who I’ve known for many years, and those who I am still getting to know.

-Local food is my main diet: meat, dairy (raw milk, yay!!!), produce, fruit, even fish. Soon, legumes and grains will be added to that. I get to play on farms, keep in touch with my farm-girl roots, and play with goats

-I am in the best shape of my life. In addition to hiking and generally being active, I teach spin, p90x, yoga, and some other stuff. I swim regularly. I look awesome in a bikini. I love how I feel–strong, energetic–and how I look. I get guessed at 24-27 by strangers. Thank you, grams, for the genetics!

-I am still a total nerd. Sci-fi books and movies, podcasts, RPGs, and even food. Total. Nerd.

-My kitties are doing well. I suppose they’re “middle-aged” now, but they love where we live (lots of windows and birds!), and spend a lot of time happily chasing ghosts.

-I get to volunteer with urban and at-risk youth, teaching them cooking and nutrition. I love watching their faces light up as they eat good, wholesome food they’ve prepared.

So, what’s bad? There’s always negative things in life: my grandparents are aging, and there’s a lot that goes along with that, most of it difficult and stressful for everyone involved. But, they love me, and I love them, and I still have them to love, and that’s what’s important. I miss my friends in MI, but I do still get to see them once in a while. Not as often as I’d like, but courtesy of the internet, it’s pretty easy to keep in touch. I haven’t won the lottery; but, since I don’t play, I can’t say that’s totally unexpected.

The good outweighs the bad, by a lot. I never thought I’d be here, even though Patrick assured me that everything would change after I hit 35. He was right: a place I love, doing something I love, and doing well at it. It’s been a good year. I am looking forward to 38.

(crosspost from LJ)

I’ve Got to Get Better at This!

I have totally let this go. Sorry about that. This means you get another list update, instead of something more thought-provoking. I am sans thought-provoking profundities at the moment anyway, so that works out well.

-I am training for The Warrior Dash in October, along with Thadd and some other friends. I’m really excited–it should be a great time, and a good test of all that I do these days to keep fit. Hopefully, there’ll be video, so you can laugh at me as I fall in the tires, slide back down the hay bales, and singe myself on the fire. Of course, that means you’ll also be able to laugh at Thadd as he gets stuck in the tunnels.

-I’m doing a fair bit of fitness training now. Next week I have 6 classes, all but one of which is spin. If I wanted to crank it up for my bikini, apparently this is how it’s gonna get done. This week it’s a P90X cardio session, which I am mixing with cardio drills for some really high impact, high fat-burning fun (we’ll see if the class agrees with the “fun” part).

Regarding  those last two points: It’s kind of weird to be in the best shape of my life physically at almost 38 years old. I feel younger now, in many ways, than I did at 25, and I am certainly healthier (even though I was in decent shape then).  I wish I’d discovered this kind of active lifestyle about 15 years ago. I can’t imagine the kind of shape I’d be in, but I do know it’d be ass-kicking. Or, I’d possibly be crippled, because I’d probably have gotten competitive about kickboxing, instead of just doing it for fun. Either way, it could only have made where I am even better, and where I am is pretty darn great.

-Business is going well. My resume is fabulous, and I am finally having time to get back into some volunteer work.

-This coming weekend is wine, music, and friends. I’m looking forward to spending more time with our friends Dave & MJ, who we don’t get to see as often since we moved. Since we all like wine, we’re doing some tastings local wineries, some of which are also doing music events for the 4th.  Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to spend some time with Keith and Addison, too, and it looks like we’ll be doing a cookout with the Bourdon family next week.  Apparently, there’s lots of grilling in my future.

We miss our MI friends a lot, and I am pretty sure we won’t be seeing them this summer; but, we are hoping to make a trip to MI sometime during the holidays.

-A looong day of hiking Friday. With mushroom hunting, we hope. We’re shy on chicken-of-the-woods, and also it’s getting to be time for chanterelles.

There are some other things in the works, but nothing I can talk about yet.  Overall, life here is still really great, which is probably even more shocking to me than it is to others. The first 30 years or so of my life were interesting, and not always in good ways. This is a nice change.

Continuing..

Head over to EE and read all about my time at Will Allen’s Growing Power last weekend. There’s pictures of goats!  They’ve asked me back in June, and we’re working out the details to see if it’s possible.

In other news, I am now teaching cardio for the police academy once a week. This week I kicked their asses with kickboxing. The retired Marine (he was like 25) had problems keeping up But, overall, they seemed to like it and all gave it a good go. Next week I may do cardio drills with them, just to mix things up.

And, I got a case of food poisoning from Quiznos. Yeah, I know I don’t usually eat fast food; but, I didn’t have a lot of choice on my way home from Milwaukee. My flight was too early to get breakfast anywhere, and I didn’t get home until dinner time. I couldn’t carry enough for lunch, so I opted for a sub. There’s a longer story here, but suffice it to say that I still can’t really eat and it’s been two days. Dehydration, blech. It’s subsiding, fortunately, but I was damn miserable yesterday.

Speaking of which, I am off to do a menu plan for this week!

The Big Announcement

(crossposted from EE)

The airline ticket is in my hot little hands, so I feel pretty safe making the annoucement:

I’ve been invited to teach by Will Allen at Growing Power, Inc May 15th & 16th. I’ll be teaching introductory cheese making with fresh goat’s milk for their “From the Ground Up” workshop series. This is their first-ever cheese class, and I am honored to have been invited to teach it.

I met Will at the recent Growing Power workshop at Lynchburg Grows, and had the chance to talk with him briefly about the food we provided and what went into making it happen. Will, a former basketball player turned farmer, and his foundation were recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, which is a Big Deal.  This nationally (internationally, actually, as it seems there’s been reports on his work in several countries–thanks google!) recognized non-profit’s stated miss is: “supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities.  Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.”

This is pretty exciting for me. A paid teaching opportunity here is wonderful, and I will definitely be blogging it. I’m hoping to possibly even do a podcast, so stay tuned!

Sleep? Yes, Please.

What have I been up to? It feels like everything except sleep. I need a nap. Which I’ll get probably never, but that’s summer here and who am I to complain? So, what’s keeping me busy?

Thadd’s family was here for a week. We did a lot, including wine tasting (which you can read about on EE).

We went to Brenda’s Bad Ass Ride this past weekend, and while everyone with a bike was out riding it, I spent several hours trapsing through the woods in search of morels. I didn’t find any, but I did find a slew of ticks. Fun. It appears that the morels hadn’t popped yet, since I was looking in a place that was rife with them the past two years–maybe next weekend. Before then, I need to get some more Deet. Seriously.

We got to spend some time with Jim & Bethany, who will be moving soon (I am making a Very Sad Face here, we’ll miss them a lot; but, we can’t wait to go visit them in their new place!). Also, we did some wine tasting with Dave and Mindy, and managed to eat a great picnic lunch while getting pleasantly toasted on the rather heavy pours of a vertical tasting. Thank heaven’s we packed food.

Thadd and I (and, it turns out, several friends), are going to be training for the Warrior Dash, a 3.5 mile obstacle race course that includes bogs, rappelling, tunnels, tires (which are supposed to be knee-high, but on me will be waist-high), haybales, and a few other things I am forgetting.

I’m prepping for the First Annual (I hope) All-Women’s Backpacking Trip. 4 states in 4 days, to happen June 10-14th. I need to start training for this, too, but I really need a few women who want to train with me. There are too many crazies for me to hike the Blue Ridge Parkway alone like I did in SNP.

There’s a big announcement that will be made soon, hopefully later this week, on EE about something I am doing in May that is pretty seriously cool. So, pop over there regularly and look for that. And, of course, I am still cooking for a living!

I am now teaching 2 steady spin classes a week, and subbing for other instructors regularly, at Gold’s. I’ll start teaching at the Y as soon as they need me (hopefully subbing in the next week or two?).

I am sure there are other things I’m forgetting. Mostly, it’s just summer. Summer is always busy because Thadd and I are outdoor-type people, and this is the best time to be outdoors. I can sleep in the winter.

Dear Tech Support

Please READ the email I sent you. The one from the form on your site that I had to send because your tech support phone number is not working. I ask you to read it because I can only assume that you didn’t, given the totally nonsensical response you just sent that indicates not only did you not read it, you may in fact have no effing clue what you are talking about. Unfortunately, since I cannot fix the problem from my end (since it’s your server, moron), that’s not exactly helpful. I can’t make it any clearer than the simple sentences I sent this last time:

-Yes, I can send email. It is recieved.

-Yes, clients can send email to me.

-Yes, emails sent to me do appear on your server.

-No, your server will not release those emails for JUST THOSE TWO email addresses to a mail client. The other email addresses release mail to a client just fine.

-Yes, the settings for ALL the emails in question are the EXACT same as they are for the one that works.

-Yes, this DID start happening at exactly the same time you ran your last update!

This isn’t a free service. You’re not doing this because you’re bored, or it’s a favor to a friend. You’re doing it (or rather, you’re SUPPOSED to be doing it) because I pay for it. Get stoned on your own time. Fix my email problem on my time. Keep these things separate and we’ll be fine.

Thank you.