Up, up and away!

Only a few weeks left; I'd better get after it. I did check off trapeze lessons - which then essentially disabled me for the better part of four days.

In October, I attended a class at Trapeze School New York. During my staycation, I rolled out of bed and into the suggested attire, grabbed some coffee and headed to their set up near the Navy Yard in DC. They've moved around a bit - used to be near Chinatown - but they now have quite the tent set up snuggled in between the Nationals stadium and I-295. Fortunately, they have an outside trapeze and an inside trapeze for the chillier months. You can take a variety of classes (silks, trampoline, static trapeze) but I went for the classic flying trapeze class - what I guess is likely their most popular class. Upon arrival, I checked in, signed a waiver promising not to sue should I fly uncontrollably off the trapeze, chalked my hands and got ready to go.

The scariest part - climbing up the d*mn ladder to the platform. It was super wobbly and by the time I got up there my heart was typically racing. The best part - flying! I got to go 8-12 times and each time was awesome. I started to get the hang of it after a while, doing knee hangs and back-flip dismounts (which I assure you probably sounds more difficult than they actually are). I left feeling stretched out, full of adrenaline, and already a little sore. Little did I know that the next day I would be indescribably sore. Muscles I didn't realize I had were screaming and my abs were positively wrecked. I understood then why the woman in charge there looked like an Olympic athlete. Here's a pic of me in the air hanging by my knees - sans soreness, it was a lot of fun. :)

Two steps forward, one step back

The big day came and went. I am now 30. Life is wonderful, no,I'm not hysterical, and in fact, I'm happy to be an even number again. 29 - ehh. 30 - awesome.

These past weeks have been lovely. I celebrated with some of my favorite people (pic with friends at a small party in the theatre room in our condo building), had some good down time with the Mr. and checked a few things off the list.

Jiffy Lube, the jig is up. Long past are the days of me blindly giving you $35 dollars a pop to change each of my windshield wipers (warning: potential economical exaggeration). Grant and I ventured out to the Advance Auto Parts last Saturday for an out of the ordinary shopping trip. Happily, in the same shopping center, I also found a new pet store (which Grant thankfully got me out of sans animal) and a little pumpkin patch. Not really a pumpkin patch technically, but they bring in a bunch of pumpkins, gourds and flowers from local farms and sell them at this big stand. Very fall-ish. I got my 22" blade and my 20" blade from the auto store, looked longingly at the dog leashes and nearly bought 6 mini "decorative" gourds for $6 before hopping back in the car and heading home.

When it came to actually changing them - piece of cake! (And by piece of cake, I mean, after 10 minutes of struggle with a blasted "adaptor" that didn't actually need to adapt ANYTHING, I popped those bad boys on there like it was nothing.)

I removed the old blades...

Installed the new ones..

And tried them out - SUCCESS!

To make matters more rugged-womanly, during our windshield wiper party, Grant noticed that one of my brake lights was out. Inspired by my new streak of mechanical prowess, I went back to Advance Auto Parts, got a bulb and changed that myself as well. Turns out that isn't difficult either. The next time Stan at Jiffy Lube tries to sell me a $27 brake light - actually $4.99 for a two pack it turns out - I'm going to karate chop his face. Or I'll politely say, "No, thank you." and then go sit down in the oily smelling waiting area where they play Days of Our Lives on repeat.

I also made my long-awaited SkyMall purchase this month. You might be wondering - the Christmas-themed yeti? The cat potty training kit? No, my friends. The Happy Feet...

Not surprisingly, it's bad for your feet to be squished up in shoes, particularly heels, all day long. It can cause pain now and when you get older (ahem, older than 30 I'm guessing) can cause more serious problems. These are supposed to realign your toes/foot. We'll see. So far they are just kind of funny. According to their website, I should give a pair to the following people as gifts: "rock climber, ballet dancer, bank teller, fashion model, football player or school teacher." All my teacher friends out there, get ready for an exciting Christmas (surprisingly, I don't know many fashion models).

For the tragic "one step back," I spoke with the Red Cross and I'm not eligible to give blood again until June 1, 2012. This particular 30 for 30 just isn't going to happen. Our trip to Mexico hit a few spots where rare cases of malaria were reported so I have to wait a bit before I donate again. Next year...

All for now, friends. Happy fall.

My favorite speech writer

In the midst of season 4 of The West Wing. They've just introduced Will Bailey and I know what is coming. Sad face. Preparing to bid adieu to my dear Sam Seaborn...

(On a side note, Toby is pregnant with twins?! I don't approve. They'll be grouchy and cynical by age 3.)

The big month...

While I have until December to complete the list, this is the month - I turn 30 on the 30th of September! Still unclear on what exactly we'll do to celebrate, but like it or not, it is coming fast. Grant usually very nicely (and patiently at this point) asks me what I'd like to do to celebrate and I say something like, "That's a really good question!" and then I forget about it within two minutes or something happens that makes me think about something else. I should really consider adding working on my attention span to this list...

In other news, I got my Eastern Market artwork! In my six years in DC, I've purchased earrings, tomatoes, roasted nuts, lemonade, birthday cards, cheese, and other random goodies from the market. Up until now, I haven't supported our local artists who offer up their photographs or paintings for purchase. After a yummy brunch this Sunday at Tunnicliff's Tavern and an iced latte from the local coffee spot, we wandered by several artists and browsed. I found this lovely photo spread of the Jefferson Memorial showing it at all four seasons. It's perfect! Grant and I got engaged on the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson is one of our favorite DC landmarks. It's matted, framed and ready to hang. The where to actually hang part is still TBD but it's set to go on the dining room table just as soon as we decide.

Non-snoozing is still a work in progress. Work has been, to be kind, CRAZED for the past two months so it's been hard to get into any kind of routine. Excuse? Perhaps, but I'm working on the snooze. I've been keeping my alarm clock on the windowsill away from the bed so I actually have to get up when it goes off. When that happens at 6:30 am, I'm all set. When that happens at 5:00 am, it's a different story. Friends tell me to have a baby and then I'll be getting up at 5:00 am no problem. For now, I'll stick with our fish, Po, and continue to nearly fall to the floor as I stumble toward my beeping alarm.

For my non-alcoholic month, welllllllllll. Hmm. I REALLY TRIED! We're going to have to bump this one to the month of October. Grant and I went home to ABQ and were wedding venue searching - one of the spots was a winery. You think I'm going to consider a venue that only serves their wine if I haven't tried it?! No. However, I did make the super delish cucumber cranberry sparkling beverage. It was delightful! Nice and crisp. I would recommend using less of the cucumber simple syrup than the recipes calls for. It was a little too sweet. I added in some additional sparkling water as well as the sparkling cranberry juice and it worked out nicely. Just play around with it. But try it! Yum.

More to come in September! Planning for a segway tour, Skymall purchase, and trapeze lessons are underway. Here's to the big 3-0!

Sans Snooze – and alcohol!

Success! For the second day in a row, I got up sans snooze button. I can't really count Sunday though since I woke up at 8:30 AM and was actually sort of awake already. But today, I hopped up at 5:30 AM to turn off the alarm and head to the gym. The good news - I loved both the no snoozing and the getting up early. I went to the gym, took a shower and got ready, ate a warm, healthy breakfast, and watched The Today Show for 30 minutes before heading out - at 7:30 AM! I'm sure I'll be completely exhausted by 3:00 PM, but it'll be well worth it. All is well for now.

In other news, August is my "no alcohol for one month" month. With this crazy heat, it's a tough month. After a sweltering 101 degree day with a heat index of 110, what is more refreshing that a freezing cold, fruity sangria?! (Water, you say? Whatever.) In August, instead of a spiked fruity delight I'll be experimenting with hugely refreshing, ice-cold non-alcoholic drinks.

One of my favorite NA drinks is the cucumber cranberry cooler at Founding Farmers. I get the darn thing and have to use every bit of my willpower not to chug the whole glass immediately. It tastes clean and smooth and oh-so-delightful. It isn't too sweet and the cucumber is a stand out. I started searching around for recipes and found this one below on an awesome blog - Cake, Batter and Bowl - that I'm going to try. You'll see it's a cocktail and calls for gin - we're just going to substitute that for some crisp, sparkling water. Stay tuned for an update - or try it yourself and let me know what you think!

Cucumber Cranberry Cocktail

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

1 cup shredded English cucumber, plus 6 slices for garnish

1 cup gin (or sparkling water!)

1 cup sparkling cranberry juice

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Directions:

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat for 2 minutes or until liquid is boiling and sugar has dissolved. Stir in shredded cucumber and remove from heat. Allow simple syrup to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour, and strain out cucumber.

Combine 1 cup cucumber simple syrup with gin, sparkling cranberry juice, and lime juice and stir until well combined. Serve over ice and garnish with extra cucumber slices. Makes 6 servings.

Serial Snoozer

Oh, that extra 9 minutes. There is very little that can get me out of bed without hitting the snooze. Except for waking up late when I’m supposed to be at the airport or waking up at 2:00 AM to a fire alarm going off in our building, I always hit the snooze button. And I don’t mean I hit it once or twice. Three – four times per week, I am consistently guilty of hitting the snooze for at least an hour. Grant does the same – I’m confident our neighbor want to punch us both (fortunately he plays the guitar LOUDLY until 2:00 AM [until the fire alarm goes off] so we consider it even).

It is difficult to find reliable research about the ol’ snooze button (but there are a lot of blogs out there with strong opinions). I did find a NY Times article by Martica Heaner about snoozing which shares that, “Although scientists have not specifically tackled the question, sleep researchers agree that short bouts of sleep are far from ideal. The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short, said Dr. Edward Stepanski, who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. And a teeter-totter effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns.” Additionally, “sleep-deprived snooze-button addicts are likely to cut short their quota of REM sleep, impairing their mental functioning during the day.” Yowza. I’d like to keep my mental functioning at a high, please.

So, I’m adding this to my list. When I go to bed, I have the BEST of intentions – “At 5:30 AM I’m going to leap out of bed, go to the gym, and really take advantage of the morning hours!” Reality - “BEEP! BEEP! Snooze Snooze Snooze BEEP! BEEP! Snooze Snooze Snooze BEEP! BEEP! Snooze Snooze Snooze. You get the idea. My goal is to be snooze-button-free, by the end of 2011. If I’m going to sleep in, set my alarm according to that time (or not set it at all!). If I’m going to get up early, I’ll set the alarm and GET UP. This is an epic challenge for me. Let the games begin…

Eggcellent!

This month I set out to take on the incredible, edible, egg. I am an undeniable fan of all things brunch - fluffy waffles, crisp mimosas, scrumptious coffee cakes - I love it all. However, few things can trump a well-prepared eggs benedict - particularly if there is a crabcake snuggled between the english muffin and the egg. Because of my love of brunch and my longing to be able to make this delicious dish at home, I added the poached egg to my list.

Over the course of the past several months I've gotten lots of advice; use a ladle, use vinegar, stir the water, use some newfangled thing they sell at Sur La Table - the list could go on. I watched several videos and finally decided to take the plunge. Here's the real revelation - it's just not that hard! Even the first try went spectacularly well. Here is my unsolicited advice...

1. Fill a medium to large size pot with warm water. Put on the burner and turn to medium. It shouldn't boil, but should just perhaps release little tiny bubbles along the bottom.

2. Add some white vinegar to the pot. No specifi

c measurement here. Just eyeball it and pour a little in.

3. Take a slotted spoon and start sternly stirring the water in one direction. You want to make a mini cyclone.

4. Once the water is moving, crack your egg and drop it right in the center of the cyclone. It should grab the egg and hold it together, perhaps spinning it a few times.

5. Let that bad boy cook for a few minutes before pulling it out with your slotted spoon. You can jiggle it a little which should give you an idea of how runny/hard your yolk is.

6. Make sure you drain it well with your slotted spoon and then drop it onto your prepared english muffin with whatever other yummy accompaniments you choose.

7. Voila! Dig in. :)

Learn how to make a poached egg - CHECK!