Monday, March 21, 2011

Manic Monday: March 21, 2011

Another crazy week down!  If this month has any indication of what I have to look forward to in the upcoming months, I'm not sure how I'll keep life from running away with me!

My weekend plans of welcoming in spring with dinner party after dinner party, mixed in with cleaning and gardening got tossed to the winds in place of rain, a day of urban hiking in San Francisco, and finally freecycling some kitchen and bathroom items I don't have any use for (it felt good to get the clutter out, my kitchen counters and I appreciate the space).  Oh!  Can't forget my first attempt at bread making!

Anyway, I have two goals for this week: replace my tire that keeps going flat; and get my taxes done.

More on my weekend in a later post (I hope!)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Manic Monday: March 14, 2011

First a recap on last week:

I about managed on average an hour of yarn time each day. I think I missed one or two days in the week, but more than made for the lack on other days.  I even managed to finish a very important personal project that has helped me bring some closure after a recent jarring event.  Now to focus on commissioned projects.  One is almost done, the other requires more focus than a few minutes here or there.

On the running front, I only managed to get out for one day.  So this week, I will continue working on the Week 1 program of the Couch to 5K program.  I felt amazing all day Thursday after running.  Friday and Saturday I was incredibly sore.  I either am not drinking enough water or not stretching enough.  Possibly and highly likely both.

So this week, I plan on continuing to find an hour to knit every day, drink 8 glasses of water every day AND at least 5 minutes of yoga everyday in the morning and evening (both of which I can track on SparkPeople).  The stretching isn't a lot of time, and I'll likely do more but I just want to start with something small to make it a habit...eventually.  Hopefully, this time it will stick, especially since my fibromyalgia has been flaring again and taking some time for yoga, even just a couple minutes, always helps improve the flare ups a little.

So, that's what I'll be doing this week.  How are you spending your week?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

What Good Is A Plan

...If you do what I do and don't stick to them.

Last weekend, I intended to dive full on into the Rogue Festival's opening weekend.  While well intended, what I really wanted (no, needed) some beach time, a getaway.  Within an hour of expressing this to Jeff, he had a motel room booked in Monterey and mapped out surprise activities for Sunday.

We hit the the road around nine in the morning Saturday and arrived in good time (and no stops!) at the Fisherman's Wharf just in time for lunch.  After sampling every restaurants' offering of clam chowder we settled on Isabella's and shared a couple entrées. After lunch we did some window shopping, bought some candy (loved the peanut butter cups weighing over a quarter pound!), checked out a craft fair, then made an exit to lounge on the beach in Carmel.

It was a good plan.  The vehicle battery disagreed.  Before we got to the beach, we had to head back to Monterey to a Napa Auto Parts to get the battery tested after numerous electrical system failures.  Fortunately, a replacement battery took care of the problem and we were off to Carmel again, where we spent the next two hours relaxing on the beach.


After Carmel, we made our way back to Monterey to check out a very cool playground and a neighboring cemetery before grabbing some pizza at a local pizza chain.  After dinner, we settled in for the night back at our motel room.

We left for our Sunday adventure around seven in the morning, stopping at the local Safeway for breakfast and lunch options.  The Safeway was epic with a manned, full-service sushi bar, a soup/salad bar, and a buffet entrée kitchen along with the usual bakery and deli sections.  Unlike the sunny day before, a light rain fell and Jeff had some concerns for our outdoor plans that day.  I wasn't worried, even not knowing what he had planned.

We cruised down the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping a few times to take in the spectacular views.
Then we pulled into Big Sur.  I'd been talking about going hiking there for months.  I was thrilled, and despite the rain, we had a really enjoyable hike along the Pfieffer Trail. The only downside was trying to keep my camera lens from getting spotty from the rain.

After the hike, we took a crazy mountain road into Los Padres National Forest, just south of Big Sur and ended up in a military training area and got lost in a restricted area near a fort.  Look!  I found where I left my tank!
Next to Fort Hunter Liggett was Mission San Antonio de Padua, the third mission in the series of California missions.  It's in the middle of nowhere in a restricted area no less, I'm not sure how anyone would know to find it.

After the mission, we made the long trek home along the 198 through the mountains, ending up in Coalinga before taking long, eventless farm roads to the 41.  We landed in Fresno at five in the evening, and before stopping at home, sat down for a curry with my parents.  After dinner, we made it home with enough time for a quick shower before catching the last destination on the well-meaning Rogue schedule I devised to help Lydia by passing out programs before the show.

Even though nothing went according to plan, we really do have the best adventures.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Manic Monday

Since monthly goals became difficult to manage, I'm going to try biting off smaller bites until I can get something down that's realistic for me.  I'll be highlighting these moving forward as Manic Monday posts.  I'm always overambitious about my Mondays, so this experiment should be interesting.

At the start of the year, I was very excited about doing more crafting, selling some wares, and commissioning trade projects.  After some turn of events, it became difficult to focus on a single task and I have yet to get my Etsy store moving at all.  I have a couple commissioned projects that I've slacked off on because I couldn't give them the attention to detail they deserved.  It's time to get motivated again.  This week is a busy one (the second week of the month ALWAYS is my busiest), but I have at least an hour of time every night to devote to knitting and crochet projects.

On top of that, I plan on starting the Couch to 5K program this week.  I've been successful in the past beginning running programs far more aggressive than this, so I have no doubts this will be completely doable for me.  Since we have the boy this week, I plan on taking him out with me so he can ride his bicycle with me.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Why Hello Blog! It's Rogue Time

Hi there!


Been a long time!  January and February were probably two of the most difficult months of my life, for good and bad, and for the same reason.  It's been trying, to say the least.  But it's in the past now, spring is coming, and I have a million reasons to be thankful for being where I am right now.  It's a good place!  Bumpy at times, sure!  But it's still a good place to be.






Last night, Fresno's Rogue Festival officially kicked off it's tenth year.  The Rogue Festival is an independent performing arts festival with comedy, dance, music, song, spoken word, plays and a wide variety of other randomness I'm sure I missed.  Every year I make a wishlist, but to date I have yet to attend a single Rogue Festival event.  I keep thinking it's longer than it really is (it's the first two weeks of March every year) and before I know it, the festival is over.


This year, I'm determined.  We're getting the Rogue Ready passes that "allows you in to 3 Rogue Mainstage shows and 2 Rogue Cafe shows." There are two BYOV (bring your own venue) performances we want to see and don't know if they'll be covered by the pass, but for the other four shows we do want to see, the pass is still cheaper than individual tickets.  Now, we just need to figure out when the Tower Theater box office is open and selling them (because they certainly weren't after work Thursday when we tried to purchase the passes).


So what's our plan of action?  


Friday, March 4
8:45p Songs 4 Pints @ Veni Vidi Vici (supporting my friend, musician Russell Noland)
11:30p The Godling @ Broken Leg Stage (supporting my friend, actress Christina Tellifson!)


Saturday, March 5
1:00p Cap'n Scurvy's Ragnorok Hootenany Jamboree @ Million Club
10:00p Tantalizing and Titillating Tease @ Full Circle Brewery


Sunday, March 6
6:30p NoCo Rogue Show @ Cal Arts Academy Severance
8:30p Hathor Rising @ Cal Arts Academy Severance (supporting my tribal belly dance instructor and her troupe, Lydia Fortner-Walker)


What Rogue performances are you attending this year?