My gadget world is complete:)

I have a company provided Blackberry. It has been pretty simple to stay with it rather than fork out for the coolio iPhone. I like this phone. I can use it internationally, it's set up with not only my work email but personal too. The one thing that drove me completely nuts was that my desk phone at work would email me my voice mail (cool huh?) Which was great if my laptop was hooked up, but more often than not I got the VM on my blackberry. Standing here in line with adelayed flight I obviously got an upgrade. I can now listen to said emailed VM.

I am a happy bunny.

Off to England....

I'm off tonight, Trev leaves on Saturday. It's funny how we both end up with a business trip on EXACTLY the same week. Mine's been planned for months, Trev was asked to go a week or so back. So, we're meeting up in London on Sunday evening for dinner then he's off to wherever (I think Amsterdam, but not sure) and I'm staying put until Friday. On Friday I'm heading back home and spend time with the fam. I'm glad I'm leaving tonight, it means I arrive tomorrow (flipping jetlag is crap!) and then have most of the weekend with the fam too. Because I'm only there a couple of days I've not contacted everyone....I just won't have the time. Mum's having surgery the second weekend I'm there so will definitely not have time. I'm so happy I was back two months ago as that leaves me free of guilt. Hopefully with this new job I'll have more opportunity to travel which will be very cool.

I'm still mad about the credit card, as they've now taken the account off line and i can't see what we owe, when it should be paid or anything. Very very annoying. Good job we have other cards as a back up. I do like the fraud protection though - as soon as we started using the other card (which we'd not used in a year or more) i got a phone call asking me if it was legit. That was cool.

I never got to lose the 20lb before I went to England, but I am at 16.2lb - that's not bad, right? I'm just hoping that I can keep that off...and if I lose, then even more brilliant. I've set a pact with a colleague that we're going to exercise each morning for at least 20 minutes - we'll see how that goes. Hopefully we're not out too late the previous nights so we'll actually be able to achieve this. Hope so. I will certainly exercise on the Sunday evening when I arrive - as there'll be no excuses.

It's funny, I never thought I'd ever say this, but I miss that feeling of elation after a workout class - it always feels good when you're at the end. can't say I'm too happy in the "during" phase...but it's all for a good cause. I have great blood pressure, my back and shoulders don't hurt any more, low cholesterol so it's worthwhile. I just wish, and I really mean this, that I could motivate myself without the need to organize around classes. Why can't I use an ellyptical machine and bust my own ass and break a sweat....I've tried, really I have, and I just can't. It's boring - even with the built in TV or my ipod.

That reminds me....must charge up my ipods before I leave.

Now.....have to write my shopping list for the supermarket in England:)

Aaaaahhhhh S**t

I had a really good day today (see previous post) - and while I was watching mind numbing TV I thought it'd be good to pay bills, check bank balances etc. Imagine my pissed-off-ed-ness when I log into my online bank to find 2 transactions in the past 2 days on the credit card, totalling more than $1000 WHICH ARE NOT MINE.

20mins on the phone with 3 different people my account is now closed, so the little asshole that used my card can't any more. Now I have to wait for a letter, sign it, return it and then I get the money back.

How crap is that?

My new Williamsburg

Living in Iowa for 7 years I have lots of memories - on the shopping front at least trips to Williamsburg, IA were always looked forward to. It's an outlet mall with loads of name brands selling stuff cheaper than the regular malls. When we moved to St Louis one of my biggest complaint was that was not a decent outlet mall.

After starting our MLK day off today well by going to the gym and meeting Billy, I found my new Williamsburg. It's a 45 minute drive away and is full of lots of designer places. I did deliberately miss Armani and Chanel as I don't want to visit in case I like it:) I did pop into Kate Spade, Eddie Bauer, Williams Sonoma, Le Creuset, Jones New York.

The intent of the trip was to buy new dinnerware and silverware (for the British amongst you, crockery and cutlery) - we had looked on Williams Sonoma website and our neighbour said that if you drove to the outlet shop it's 1/3rd of the price. That's all I needed to hear. So.....we now have some nice new plates, dishes and cutlery. It's so nice to use new stuff.

Other than that we didn't buy too much at all - returned stuff at Eddie Bauer and bought a couple of bits and pieces. We were pretty good at holding back the credit card.

Anyway, very happy that when people visit we now have a true outlet mall to visit.

To make u shop

Someone sent me this in email and I had to share. Be patient, once the website has loaded and watch.

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands . HEMA also has stores in Belgium , Luxemburg, and Germany . In June of this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital. Take a look at HEMA's product page (click below). You can't order anything, and it's in Dutch, but just wait a couple of seconds after it loads and watch what happens.

http://producten.hema.nl

Coupons

We are all interested in saving money, right? Here's an article about the best website that have coupons.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm/080114/66b62497cd1c4076a2b105ecebb3831d.html?.v=1&.pf=banking-budgeting

Tracking progress

I have a new way to track my health kick progress. I'm still doing the diet and doing well - at 16lb gone it seems to be going ok. One side effect of doing this for several months is that when I want to cheat on the odd occasion I now get terrible gut rot. Now, this is good when you want to eat bad food, but I had sushi on Thursday and man, I felt terrible all day. Last night we ate at a south American restaurant near where we live and the same thing happened.

So, I've decided, using my new heart rate monitor that I'm going to record the calories I burnt. With the theory that each pound of weight is the equivalent to 3500 calories I should be able to tell when my weight will drop.

Monday - double spin 1417 calories
Tuesday - strength plus spin 1782 calories
Thursday - strength plus spin 2003 calories
Saturday - Bodypump class 550 calories

Total - 5752 calories = 1.6lb

New table

The table arrived this morning. Check it out! It was far far bigger than I thought it was going to be so it has to reside by the elevator. Now all we have to do is find some nice folding chairs and we'll be set.

One thing getting this table has done has demonstrated how crappy our bookcases are. Good job that the builder is going to replace them with some great cupboards and shelves. Very excited about that. When we get the floors redone we'll have them toned down a little and then it'll look all spiffy.

Yeah for remodelling - such fun!

A new record

OK, my heart rate monitor watch is my new baby. It's given me a new target to beat the "calories burnt" each time I hit the gym ( I know, I'm a nerd!!). Anyway today was 10mins on the stair machine, an hour training w/Billy and then a spin class. 1400 ish was my record before - tonight we have a grand total of 1782 calories burnt.

Just think about how many chocolates that is.....

A landmark

I hit 15lb lost. Well, 15.2lb to be precise - one has to be precise when we're talking weightloss as every ounce counts. Anyone who's watched their weight knows that. I'm back on the straight and narrow - especially with exercise. My 2008 exercise schedule is:

Monday - Spin class x 2 (1400 calories burnt)
Tuesday - 1 hour with trainer, 1 spin class
Wednesday - Spin if I feel like it, usually will take a day off
Thursday - 1 hour with trainer, 1 spin class
Friday - off
Saturday - Spin class plus Bodypump (strength training class) (1400 calories burnt)
Sunday - Yoga (if i can be bothered)

I'm bummed there are no pilates or ab type classes that i can take. That said, Billy makes damn sure he kicks my ass in that department so I think we're good.

The cool thing is the heart rate monitor. To think that doing the 2 spin classes last night I burnt 1417 calories in less than 2 hours is awesome. That is a full day of food.....mind you, with that you'd think I'd be dropping the weight, but oh no it's not happening that way. Tonight I get to find out how many calories I burn when I train with Billy and then do a spin class.

On Friday I'm doing Saints and Spinners at Grand Central so we'll see how I feel after that.

I'm in England for 2 weeks shortly and I'm determined I will fit in 20mins cardio exercise in the gym each morning I'm at the hotel. while it's not a lot, it's something to remind me to keep up with the diet.

I've stopped writing about my eating because, quite frankly, it was boring me to pieces so i'm sure it'll bore any reader too.

In this day and age....

My gym is a constant source of humor. It could have its own reality TV show. One of the biggest things that is a source of discussion and also blogging on a local website is that the gym itself does not have a website worth anything.

You may say that it's not a big thing. However, when you want to know if a class is canceled, or what the latest schedule is wouldn't it be easier to go to http://www.skyclubfitness.com/ and look it up? After the drama of Billy nearly leaving last week, I was not best pleased when I turned up for a class at 10am (Bodypump - strength training) to find that the instructor was "late". By late, I really mean "didn't freaking turn up at all". I was not a happy camper. I did manage 20 mins cardio on the stairmaster, but I do get bored when there's not someone there checking I'm doing something.

Anyway, while getting a massage from Wesley on Saturday (who now works at the same gym in the spa) he said that they've put the schedule online. Now....wouldn't you think they would have told people? You can check the website out above....but it's really just a front page with a bunch of PR from when they were building the place. In the past week they've added little buttons at the top - and there's one that says "class schedule". I'm soooooo happy about this. They have even changed the mission of the gym at the bottom, giving the new President's name. For a stickler like me though....you'd have thought the statement would have been gramatically correct with apostrophes in all the right places? Spot the error.... what wallies.

To digress, not sure I told you about my latest gadget. I bought a heart rate monitor to use when I'm in class. It tells you how many calories you're burning. The best one last week was ¾ of the Bodypump class (hadn't figured out how to turn it on!) and then a spin class. I burt 1336 calories. Does that sound a lot? I'm now totally addicted. My 20 min cardio session burt about 320. See? I'm now even more of a nerd than I was before.

Two sad things. Firstly, my friend BJ's Dad is very unwell and has been in the hospital. All the family have traveled to see him in the past week and he's being moved to a care facility. My heart is with her and her family - she's well supported but I feel lost being so far away. Second, another friend Sharon who I met at the gym had some really sad news over the holidays. Her 17 year old son was killed when he fell off a roof. I was wondering how she was doing as I hadn't heard from her...I saw her at the gym and she told me. My heart goes out to both of them.

On a brighter note, I'm off to the UK in less than 2 weeks then I'm skiing when I get back. For Trev's birthday I think we're going to go back to Iowa for the weekend so it's going to be a busy 2 months.

Have a great week!

A nostalgic moment

Ever wondered where Trev and I first "got it onnnnnnn"? Check out this link

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/bars/pub-22813561-details/Princess+Louise/pubReview.do?reviewId=23431143

The Princess Louise pub in London was the location. I'm saving your eyes from reading the minutia details of that day all those years ago, but it's nice to know the pub is still in existance.

Ok, nostalgia over.

That was the week that was

Phew! It flew by so fast my feet didn't touch the ground. I can't believe that in 2 weeks I'll be in England again, albeit for a business trip. What a crazy world. Between trying to keep up with my fitness routine, not eat crap, the building work at home and loads of other stuff my feet haven't touched the ground.

So, here are some of the stories and dramas of the week. Monday was boring...

Tuesday - the lady who cleans our house (I know, I know, I'm spoilt....blame Mum for that - she taught me that it's better to have someone clean the house and one less dinner out than not - it gives you more quality time!) only speaks portugese. She has a tiny amount of English and it's very hard to converse with her. So, I thought it'd be cool if I used a website (http://www.freetranslation.com/) to write her a note in portugese so I could talk to her properly. Well that went fine, I translated my message, wrote it out. Funniest thing.....I then got a screed of a letter back - all in flipping portugese. No blinking idea what it says. I thought the easiest would be to type in her writing into the same website - but oh no....it's that scrawley kind of writing that you can't really read. Hahahahahahahaha. So now I'm tracking down someone at work who speaks portugese.

Wednesday - remember our neighbours are staying with us right now so Wednesday night Jackie and I meet up for dinner in the city and a few drinks. I'm an old fart, I admit it. I only drink more than one on a weekend - I have to get up early and I don't like the headaches. Well...we finished dinner at my favourite sushi restaurant in the city (Aoki) and then I took her on the bus to where we live. Got off the bus and headed into a bar for a drink (it was probably 9pm by this time) - well, not quite sure what happened but she got quite drunk. showed her home, and then she ran up the stairs to our neighbour and had him come down for a drink. It was hysterically funny, although in my mind more like a Saturday night than a Wednesday one.

Thursday - this is when ALL the drama began. My usual readers know that I'm hooked on fitness, having a trainer, spinning etc etc. Billy texts me around 9.30am that he got fired. Aaaaaaggggghhhhhh - my whole day was shot. Our gym is "drama central" - and the only reason I stay there is for 1) Billy the trainer and 2) Carla the spin instructor. I spent the majority of my day trying to figure out what happened - he said he got fired, when I called the gym they said he quit. Calling the gym was not good. I asked to speak with the manager - apparently a new guy called Gareth is the manager. I explained that I'd just spent a crap load of money on 50 training sessions and that with the best trainer gone that I wanted my money back please. I explained that Billy was the only sane thing in the gym in the times of the management issues last year etc etc. I think the guy had zero experience. His first words were "we want to keep you what can I do?". My response was "get Billy back". He said that he'd arrange for another trainer - hmmmmm he obviously doesn't understand the relationship thingy. Idiot. anyway then another manager called me and I explained again. The weird thing was they kept saying he quit and that his behaviours were not OK - when I talked wiht Billy he said he'd be "indefinitely suspended" - now, I'm not sure what you read into that but I know that if my boss told me that it's the equivalent of being fired. My world was at an end on Thursday night. I missed my training session but did go to the spin class. I asked Carla where else she taught on the basis that if I can get a different gym then all would be fabulous once more. Drama was over by Friday - Billy talked with the head manager dude who fired the other new manager and hired him back. All is well at the ranch.

Friday - nothing happened - had a few beers with our neighbours.

Saturday - had a 10am class booked at the flipping gym. Once again the instructor doesn't turn up.

Today I'm off for a massage in 30 mins - I can't wait. Hope you didn't get too bored reading.

Trip to St Louis

So here are some pics from our trip. We spent last weekend in St Louis visiting friends. Paul and BJ moved from Cedar Rapids to St Louis last year - had a great time staying with them. The pic of Paul and Trev is great - they were testing a new bottle of Scotch:) There's also a pic of us at dinner with both Paul and BJ at one of my favourite restaurants in St Louis, J Bucks. Then the last pic of of girls' night L-R Caroline, Debbie, BJ, Amanda, me, Nikki. That was at PF Changs. I have to tell you this trip was a gastronomic session from the moment I arrived to the moment I left. The weather was awesome too - 75 degrees. Amazing eh? The other amazing thing was that my weight is the same as before the holidays....getting back down to some serious dieting now though! Happy New Year!

Yeeeeehhhhhaaaaaa

Ok, so it's the holiday season. I've been trying to diet (I did lose weight, but not much at all) but only some of the time. We're in St Louis this week visiting friends and it's been even more difficult to diet.

Imagine my surprise when we're in the shopping mall and nip into Eddie Bauer. Now, my jeans/work pants are a little on the large side right now, but the plan was to keep it that way for at least a few more weeks. Well, couldn't resist the "big sale" signs. Tried on a new pair of jeans - 2 SIZES SMALLER.

My weekend is set.

For those big butts, the EB Shaped Fit is awesome.....the waist is one size smaller that the hips so it fits better.

I'll post a pic soon enough - got a new hair cut last week also - now a chin length bob....looks awesome!

Only in England

One thing that really irritates me about travelling to England is that the airports have different rules about what you can carry on the plane as hand luggage. The plan was for 2008 to relax the rules and make it like every other country. Yeah....well - check out the link below. Can you believe different airports and airlines have different rules?

I'm traveling to Gatwick via Continental in a few weeks.....only 1 bag for Gatwick....but no idea what the rules are for the airline. Oh well. Stupido.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506199&in_page_id=1770

New Table

OK, so we had a big dining room table and chairs that we'd bought when we had the condo in St Louis. It was nice, but took up so much room. I'm going to sell them so they're all dismantled in the hallway. It's replaced by a modern gateleg table (see pic). All I need now is some "nice" folding or stackable chairs. I don't want the crappy chairs, but may end up with that. Have to say though for the 3 times a year we eat food at the table this is a great compromise.

It was the easiest purchase at a store. Found it online but couldn't order it...stupid or what, drove to the Staten Island store (about 15miles), walked it and said "I want to buy a table that I saw online"....which was met with "that's great, would you like to look around the showroom"..."no thank you, just the table please". The lady showed us the wood the table would be made from and then promptly ordered it.

A perfect way to order stuff. Even Trev was impressed!

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a good new year. We went out to The Melting Pot with our neighbours Nick and Jackie. Here's a pic of us at the dessert course....yummy - chocolate!

So we did "The Big Night Out" at the restaurant. You start with cheese fondue with veggies, apple and bread to dip in. You then break for a quick salad then it's onto the meat and fish with more veggies that you cook in broth. Yum-oh. Finishing with a chocolate is perfect.

Eating update

So, it's the end of the holidays. I made it. And I managed to lose just over a pound since Thanksgiving. It's not quite what I'd hoped for - but I didn't gain and I've eaten and drunk anything I've wanted. I've followed the protein/carb rules about 75% of the time, which isn't bad.

Last night I blew my diet - went to the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant) with our neighbours. Today I've been good (more or less).

Tomorrow we start in earnest. I leave for England on the 24th and I'd like to be at 20lb lost before I leave. I will continue to work out, the plan being:

Mon - spin
Tue - training with Billy, spin
Weds - spin (or a day off)
Thu - training with Billy, spin
Fri - day off
Sat - spin, Bodypump class (strength training)
Sun - yoga

There are no pilates classes or Bodyflow classes that I can make, but I figure if I can 3-4 spin classes a week then I'll be doing myself good. We'll see how it goes.