Best Version

I need to stop eating so much food.  Seriously cut my portions in half.  I'm not climbing mountains.  I'm not chopping wood all day.  I'm not doing enough physically to get rid of what I consume.  I'm at three weeks of working out tomorrow and I can feel the results.  But I know I'm not doing enough to have an impact on the way I look.  Not in a reasonable amount of time anyway.

I have to get my picture retaken for my driver's license by my 29th birthday in August.  I do not want to look like I do now when I have to take that picture.

Erin at 16 years old

I know I don't look the same as I did when I was 16, that's not what I'm going for.  What I want is to look the best I can right now.  I want to be the best version of Erin possible.  I'm counting on that deadline to provide a lot of motivation for me.

A Little Overboard

Birthday Companions

I feel utterly unlike myself because I didn't buy Jimmy a birthday present.  He did get a somewhat expensive guitar a month ago that we decided would be his "present."  Plus, the fact that I don't bring in any money at the moment would have made me feel incredibly wrong to spend his money on his presents.


I would normally go a little overboard buying him anything he had mentioned wanting, within reason, the months leading up to his birthday.  We'd go out to dinner, maybe a movie, there'd be a mountain of presents to open, but we are in different circumstances at the moment.

That doesn't mean I didn't go overboard in another way.  Jim had an idea.  And how our relationship works is, Jim has and Idea and I Make It Happen.  He wanted to eat dessert all day for his birthday.  Of course, we knew this was a bad idea, but as he told me as I was making all this stuff, "I need to do this now, I won't be able to do this when I'm fifty."

Ganache Everywhere!

These are my favorites.

It started last night with cheesecake, one of his favorites (mine, too.)  But not just any cheesecake.  I made Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Cupcakes.  I also made ganache to ice the little monsters but then I figured that would be a little too rich, so I just kinda flung it around on top of them.  Jim ate one before they had a chance to cool.

So cute

Then this morning I made him Birthday Cake Pancakes.  Now, I'm not totally crazy.  I just put sprinkles in regular pancake batter.  I didn't use cake batter.  That would have been too much.  I paired those with chocolate covered strawberries and blueberries.  Jim then proceeded to slather them in peanut butter and syrup.

Happy Birthday to Jimmmmmmyyyyyyyy!

The last baked good I made were the Moon Pies.  For those of you who don't know exactly what a Moon Pie is, it's two shortbread cookies with a marshmallow filling, like a cookie sandwich, covered in chocolate.  Having no experience making shortbread cookie dough before, this was somewhat time consuming for me as I was learning as I went along.  They turned out incredibly sweet.  I mean, have-to-take-a break-halfway-through sweet.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet

Oh Lord

I did talk him into having a regular dinner.  We picked up some steaks yesterday and I had it all planned out.   But I kinda went overboard on that, too, and the steak turned out too salty.  I don't want to go into that.  It was not a proud moment for me in my culinary journey.  The only good thing about it was the vegetables we consumed.



Now the day is done.  I still have to work out.  Jim has to go to work his physically demanding job.  The only bad effects out of this experience seem to be sugar highs and lows, headaches, queasy stomachs, guilty glances down at our bellies, and as I write this a shooting pain in my left arm.  Kidding (kinda.)

So Happy Birthday, my love.  I will never do this again.

Much Too Much

Updates

Herb Update!

Mint and Basil (the water hogs)

I'm happy to report that none of our herbs have died.  They are doing well in our side yard where I go visit them every morning while the dogs do their morning duty.

  

The only one I was worried about was Thyme.  She wasn't looking so hot.  Maybe because she was too hot.

Looking a little beat to the curb

So I moved her next to the Pomegranate tree in the shade a couple days ago.  She has since perked up.  Bakersfield heat is something to fear, especially if you're a plant.

Puppy Update!

Wickett the Show Dog

I hang out with my dogs every day.  It's hard not to take a million pictures of them.  They're pretty cute.

Backyard Gazing

Bugs being a creeper

Extra fluffy after a bath

I don't need a cat.

I'd like to report that Wickett hasn't thrown up since we took him to the vet.  We've limited his food (Wick doesn't like) and we've started feeding them wet food (Wick does like, a lot.)  For a dog that hacks and gags everyday that's a pretty long run of no barfing.  I'm proud of you, boy.

Jim Update!

The Year of the Gemini Rat

Fixing things

He's still cute.

Much Updating

Day 4

Me and Jim are on a really weird sleep schedule.  Him because he is on graveyards all month and has to stay up all night, and me for a lot of reasons. I want to see him so I stay up a little late but I still want to take care of business during the daytime.  It's somewhat strange not having a job to schedule your life around.  Jim has kinda become that sun that I orbit.

I cut my finger open again last night.  It was really stupid how I did it.  I was sharpening a knife to cut up some chicken and I went to wipe away the shavings from the blade - with my bare hand.  Yeah, I know.  So Jim had to bandage me up and then help me complete dinner.  I miss cooking with him.  Dinner was great.

Today is day 4 of working out with this guy.  I'm doing o k, not trying to kill myself this first week.  Whenever I go full blast at exercise and get really sore I tend to stop and never start back up quickly.  So I am keeping my intensity at around 75% and only doing the minimum repetitions.  I have been doing the workout in the mornings so it's out of the way for the rest of the day.  I'm trying to keep it low key but still be adamant in doing them every day.  Speaking of which.  I'm going to go workout.

Much Determination

Sore

Today I worked out.  Tomorrow I will be sore but I will still work out.  Soon, Jim will suffer with me I mean work out with me.  Couples who try new things together, stay together.

Much P90

OMG

OMG IT'S FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

NOW WE GET TO TAKE HOT SHOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

NOW WE GET TO WASH DISHES IN HOT WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn You Plumbers

We smelled gas coming from our hot water heater about a week ago so we changed the fittings, changed the hose connecting the main line to the heater, Jim hit his head really super hard on the cabinets.  Still it leaked.  We talked to approximately six plumbers and had three come out to look at it.  I really wish plumbers weren't so expensive.  So expensive Jim and I decided to repair it ourselves.

Damn you plumbers for making us learn!

With prior knowledge given to me by my father, I drained the tank, we, as in Jim, took off the gas control valve and started looking for a replacement, when I think oh yeah, it might be under warranty, so I call and they say (very snootily) yes we'll send you the part, it will be there tomorrow -- for free.  So it's tomorrow, I just got the part, put it in, connected the thermocouple, the igniter wire and I'm guessing the gas line to the burner and am filling up the tank as we speak.  If I die in an explosion, I love you all and at least I died doing something.  Not as cool as a skydiving accident but not too incredibly boring.

So I'm hoping we are at the end of our water heater odyssey but you never know.  If this doesn't work than I'm calling the gas company, which we should have done in the first place, to find out where the leak is and how to fix it.  Wish me luck.

Much Gas Induced Laughter (not really)