RTT: How Brussels Sprouts Are Like Schnauzers

• This week, Keely has geeky waffles on her Random Tuesday post.   Click the purple button to see them.
• No matter how much I play Tetris over the years, it still brings back memories of college and my roommate Heather’s computer.  (Neither my sister Heather, nor my friend Heather I’ve mentioned several times, nor even my friend Heather who blogs here.  I’m serious when I say we were overflowing with Heathers in the Georgia Tech Chorale in the early 90’s.)
• Have you realized it’s only 18 days ’til Christmas?
• Crap, it’s after midnight on the East Coast.  Make that 17 days.  Yikes.
• Two awesome words: Pirate Snowmen.
• Tonight, I roasted Brussels sprouts.  This will only seem like a remarkable event to you if you understand the state of the Brussels sprout in my parents’ household.  They are forbidden.  Both of my grandmothers apparently mangled and overcooked the darn wee cabbages so badly that my parents have lifelong Brussels sprout issues.  Jason has never been a fan, either, so it’s no surprise that, until tonight, I had never tasted one.  Roasted properly, they’re not too bad.  Nicolas proclaimed them, “fine,” and Kalen even loved them.  Jason’s still not a fan.  (Don’t tell him, but I’m going to have to make them once in a while.  I don’t like green beans and manage to eat them now and then.  So there.)  Here’s the recipe I used.
• So what was it that induced this strange hankering to try the little green balls of death?  I lost three pounds this week (28 since September!), I was in a great mood, and I had a great conversation with my dietitian wherein I promised to try more veggies.  Plus, I stopped by Trader Joe’s, and they were sitting there, clean and fresh, in a one-pound bag, looking very cute.  I hate cabbages (sorry, I’ve tried them – yuck), but they’re more enticing in miniature.  Much like schnauzers.  Only in a tasty way, rather than a companionable one.  I think I’m rambling here.
• My knee is apparently healing nicely.  For the first time in more than five weeks, it was nearly pain-free.  (A big part of that good mood mentioned above.)  It would have been entirely pain-free if I hadn’t turned my dang ankle and fallen on my knees today.  (Twice, even.  On the same stair.  Grace, they name is Aimee.)  Still, I have hope for the near future.
• On a related note, I’ve been frustrated that my knee has kept me from the treadmill and bike at the gym for over a month now.  Obviously, I’m still losing weight, but my weekly average would be much better if I could get some cardio in there.  (I know, swim laps – they just don’t do it for me.)  On a whim yesterday, however, I sat down on one of the rowing machines and gave it a go…with nary a twinge in any joint, even after ten full minutes at it.  I’m so excited by this discovery, and my trainer is enthusiastic as well.  The doctor even suggested today that I consider looking into taking classes next spring at the local rowing club.  How much FUN would that be?
• Since I’m in the midst of getting the holiday cards rolling, I’ll leave you with a sneak peak:

What, too sneaky?  Sorry, haven’t sent them out yet.  Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for some of you…

RTT: It’s Too Cold for Commando

• This is “one of those weeks.”  You know, the ones where you look at your calendar on your way to bed Sunday night and it looks really doable, and you feel like you’re going to be quite accomplished, until you realize your kids are still going to want to eat – three meals a day (the nerve), and one of those things on the calendar that only takes up two hours of space actually has about fifteen hours of necessary prep work, and if you don’t do some laundry NOW no one will have underwear or socks in which to accomplish anything?  Yeah, one of those.
• Still, I’m not stressing.  Busy, yes.  Stressing, no.  I honestly don’t know where the laid back approach to this week is coming from, but hey, I’m not fighting it.
• As of last night, I’ve joined the 10’s.  Teens?  (What do we call this decade anyway?)  Jason got his Windows Phone 7, so I got the practically-new, but-now-out-dated, Windows Phone he no longer needs.  A smart phone!  Woot!  Unfortunately, it seems to be outsmarting me already.  I can’t figure out how to do most of what one is supposed to do on it.  I shall persevere, however, and figure the darned thing out!  Next week.
• Okay, dinner’s in the oven (albeit a bit late).  Now to get something in the washing machine, so we don’t start an Annual Winter Commando Season tradition.  While I’m doing that, why don’t you go click that purple button up top?

RTT: Snow, Gifts, and Holmes

• It’s a snow day!  For everybody.  The boys are home and playing happily, I handled my dietitian appointment over the phone (and cancelled my therapist and physical therapy appointments), and Jason’s working from home/looking at Black Friday ads.  With all this fluffy whiteness outside, it feels like Winter Break.  All we need is some egg nog (not on plan) and Christmas carols/movies (not happening before Thanksgiving dinner is cleared from the table).
• Speaking of ‘on plan,’ please cross your fingers that my home scale matches the one at the club.  If it’s right, I lost 4.2 pounds this week, bringing my total lost to an even 25 pounds.  I KNOW.  And that’s with adding bread back into the diet and going out to a nice restaurant for Jason’s birthday.
• We saw Harry Potter on Saturday night.  Loved it.  After the Lavender Brown fiasco of installment six (her portrayal ruined the movie for me), it was nice to be back on track.
• We’re doing Thanksgiving at home, just the four of us, this year.  I’m looking forward to it.  I love seeing extended family, of course, but as that’s not an option right now, this feels right.  It reminds me of holiday dinners growing up, when it was often just Mom, Dad, Heather & me.
• The boys have discovered a fun new game – snow shoveling!  They have kid-sized shovels and think it’s such a great time.  Heh.
• Dancing With the Stars – What do you think the chances are of Jennifer winning?  I adore Kyle, he’s been my favorite since Week 1, but I can admit that Jennifer out-dances him.  And their competition.  By a half mile, at least.  I hope the results reflect that.
• ‘Tis the season…to be updating Amazon Wish Lists.  What’s going on yours?  I started a separate Board Game Wish List for the family, and lists for each of the boys.  It makes shopping easier for long-distance grandparents and aunties.  One list is somewhat Lego-heavy; the other is very Sherlocky.  Any guesses as to which is which?
• Speaking of Sherlock.  PBS.  Wow.  We are loving these.  Holmes & Watson in the 21st century.  And Watson is a strong, smart, adventurous character.  Love him.  Love them both, actually.  No, not true to the stories, but a great modern adaptation.  There are only three episodes in the first series (season for us American-types).  I hope they make more, and soon.  Ooh, it looks like you can watch them online for a while!
• Now, go click that purple button up top and see how random we can get.  It’s good for you.  I said so.

RTT: The Lemony Chicken is Making My Stomach Growl

• It’s Tuesday!  It’s the 12th!  Yes, that means TWO posts today, you lucky readers, you.  Unless you just pop in here from Keely’s for Randomness or from Chad’s for 12 or 12.  Then you probably won’t even notice the other post.  So forget I said that.
• Yeah, I know.  I’m doing well these days if I can manage two posts a WEEK.  I was stressing about it there for a while, but now I’m just letting it go.  This whole spend-three-hours-at-the-gym-every-day deal is eating up the time.  And I’m okay with that.  Even if the antibiotics did halt my weight loss this week.  Dammit.
• Today, I made this chicken.  It is cooking as I type, and it. smells. glorious.  It also looked quite pretty when I put it in the Crock Pot this morning.  I took a picture.  You have to wait ’til I post my 12 of 12 tonight to see it.  I hope you can handle the suspense.
• When I was at the gym yesterday, I noticed a couple of those really buff guys in the free weight room* giving me encouraging smiles.  I told my trainer that it was a nice change from other gyms I’ve been to where the encouraging smiles are lacking, and the smirks are poorly hidden.  He replied, “Well, to anyone who works out regularly, it’s obvious you have great form and know what you’re doing.  So that might be part of it.”  I might have actually blushed, but thankfully, I was already beet-red from my workout.
• My sons are amazing me.  Kalen has had four or five piano lessons, and he’s doing great.  Nicolas has had three trumpet lessons and three weeks of band practices, and he’s zooming through the songs in his book.  My dad, who was a trumpet player for many years, admitted to being impressed at his progress, too.  I suppose there’s a reason neither of them has been interested in sports.  Looks like I’m not a soccer mom — I’m a music mom!  (Phew!  Even with folding chairs, recital halls are much more comfortable than Seattle-rainy soccer fields.)
• Have I shared that Jason is doing this program, too?  He, of course, is down nearly 20 pounds, but as my dietitian reminds me every week, I am NOT allowed to compare myself to him.  Because he’s a guy.  And guys, when it comes to weight loss, suck.  Jason also reminded me that antibiotics and monthly visitors do not contribute to weight loss.  Which also sucks, but is true.  Watch out next week.  I plan to rock that scale!
• Purple button.  At the top.  Press it!  Or, if you’re Southern, mash it!  Go random; you’ll never go back.

*Yes, I work out with my trainer in the free weight room.  Me, an overweight, 30-something, stay-at-home mom — in the free weight room!  I love it and feel so strong in there.

RTT: Wherein I Fall into Autumn

• I have a voice again!  Turns out, I also have strep throat.  Which I’ve been unknowingly spreading around my family and my kids’ school and the gym for the past however many days.  In my defense, I haven’t even had a low-grade fever and honestly thought it was a cold.  I need to practice my innocent look for when people around me start coming down with sore throats, though.
• Tuesday is my weigh-in day, so those of you who just pop by for Random Tuesdays are going to get to watch my weight plummet as I go through the program over the next few months.  This week, down 4.5 pounds, for a total of 8.5-ish.  You may commence with the happy dancing on my account.  Oh, and I can take my jeans out of a hot dryer, put them on, and zip them up with nary a breath held.  That, my friends, is real progress.  (My arms and shoulders are so sore from working out, however, that I can’t open a jar of applesauce.  Ah well, small victories.)
• It’s Fall!  I know, September 23 or some such day was the official start.  In my mind, though, it comes with October.  I need to pull out all the fun Halloween decorations.  Unfortunately, with the house a wreck, there’s really nowhere to put them.  First things first, I suppose.
• Whereas October 1 means Fall! Halloween! to me, to Jason it means Bring out the Christmas music!  Seriously.  It’s apparently genetic, since one of his cousins mentioned something similar on Facebook recently.  Still.  October??  It’s only because of my very strict must-Trick-or-Treat-and-finish-Thanksgiving-dinner-first policy that the Christmas movies aren’t pulled out around now, too.  I have my priorities, you know, which include raising my kids to value the importance of spookiness, dress-up and giving thanks.
• I’m joining this.  I ordered my sketchbook over the weekend.  Who’s in?  You certainly don’t have to be an artist…I can’t draw worth anything and am turning mine (I think) into a hand-lettered storybook.  Everyone from very accomplished illustrators to moms and kids coloring may participate.  I encourage anyone who wants to share any creativity to jump on in!  My mom and sister have ordered their books, too.  I’m even more excited now that they’ve added Seattle to the tour.  I can’t help but think it would be a really fun project for homeschoolers.

RTT: True Randomness

• I’ve been doing this exercise:

• I don’t think anything can adequately convey how much it can hurt, but I’ll try.  Derik (my trainer) said, somewhat jokingly, “Most of the women I start on this say childbirth hurt only slightly less.”  Yes, well…I had a c-section.  The epidural wore off in the middle of it.  Okay, imagine that pain.  Believe it or not, this exercise did come sort of close to that sharp, excruciating feeling the first time I did it.  There were tears dripping off my face onto the gym floor.  The cool thing, though?  The second time I did it, a couple of days later, no problem.  Sure, it was really painful, but exponentially less so than the first time.  It was even less painful today (the third time).  There is hope, especially since doing this on a daily basis may help relieve some – or a lot – of my knee pain.
• I am now reading The Hunger Games.  Wow, it’s as fabulous as everyone says it is.
• I just got a great email.  In 2005, Jason and I drove from Atlanta to St. Louis to see one of the last games at Busch Stadium, before it was torn down to build a new Busch Stadium.  While there, we planted a letterbox with a very cool stamp, if I may say so.  Upon arriving home, I lost the clues for the box.  Oops.  *Time warp to 2010, almost exactly 5 years to the week after that trip.* Someone found the box, rescued it, looked me up on letterboxing.org, and emailed me tonight.  I do hope the box is intact and that we can get someone to replant it in that area.  Trust me, this is very exciting news for a letterboxer.
• Kalen has a raging ear infection.  It’s so bad that doctor actually recoiled from his ear when she first looked in.  Apparently, both ears are fire engine red on the inside.  Of course, he feels miserable, but he loves the pink amoxicillin (who doesn’t?) and the break from school to watch Star Wars movies.  What is he most upset about?  Missing the first Lego Engineering class after school tomorrow.  (That “24 hours free of fever” rule.)  I can’t say as I blame him, especially when I think about how much that class cost.  Oh, and, I guess, the Legos.
• That should do for some random.  Plenty more available if you click the not-so-ugly button up top!

RTT: Celebrity Watch

• So, Dancing With the Stars, in my nutshell world:  The Hoff?  Major disappointment.  I had hopes.  They were dashed.  ~*~  Breakout?  Kyle Massey, who my boys recognize from The Disney Channel, and who I now officially Adore-with-a-capital-A.  ~*~  Cringeworthy?  Margaret Cho, who had a beautiful beginning and fouled it up with slapstick.  (Margaret, some advice: Don’t try to be Cloris.  Cloris couldn’t dance and HAD to slapstick it up.  You have real dancing potential.  I know you’re being funny to overcome your discomfort with your own beauty and grace, but you have both beauty and grace, so OWN IT, GIRL!  Louis, some advice: Do NOT let her convince you to go that route again, or Len may come across the judges’ table and strangle you.  Should that happen, I will cheer him on.)  ~*~  Cringeworthy, part II?  Florence Henderson.  Ouch, but LOVED when she flashed the world her sports bra.  ~*~  Simply gorgeous on the dance floor?  Tie: Brandy, Jennifer Grey and Rick Fox.  The season has definite potential.
• What?  I should get a life of my own?  Sure.  I met with my personal trainer for the first time yesterday.  I like him.  He is very nice, but he is going to push me.  Hard.  I’m sore, and the only thing we did yesterday was some stretching.
• I made these meatballs last week.  I was concerned they might be sub-par, given that I was working with ground turkey, but I needn’t have worried.  We all agreed they were the best meatballs we’d ever had.  The best meatballs we’d ever had…made with ground turkey!  Doesn’t seem possible, does it?  Try them.  You may not agree with us, but you’ll probably at least like them.
• Book recommendation: Middlesex.  May not be everyone’s cuppa, but I found it riveting and moving.
• Game recommendation: Dominion.  When it comes to games, this is an easy one:  If it’s won the Spiel des Jahres, we want to own it, because the games that win it are GOOD.  Dominion won last year.  Ooh, I just noticed that Scotland Yard, one of my sister’s and my favorites from way back when, won in 1983.  Cool.
• Randomizing is fun!  Find more of it here at Keely’s.

RTT: Sunny Day, Chasing the Clouds Away

• I’ve been seeing memoir after memoir in the media lately that I want to pick up and read.  This weekend, we saw Shappi Khorsandi on The Graham Norton Show, and her book, A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English, intrigues me quite a bit.  This morning, Amy Yasbeck was on The Today Show, promoting her book about her life with John Ritter.  Tim Gunn’s Little Life Lessons… is a must-read, if only because I adore Tim Gunn.  (In our household, he’s known as Uncle Tim.  I like to pretend I know him for real.)  And, of course, I’m looking forward to buying and reading Two Kisses For Maddy.
• None of those are affiliate links.  I don’t make a dime off of ’em, unfortunately.
• I am really beginning to understand how much I’ve taken ultra-involved PTA parents for granted in the past.  This is a lot of work, folks.  And I’m not even doing one of the “harder” jobs.  Support your school’s PTA!  They need all the help they can get.  Trust me.
• This morning, I was ready a little bit early.  So I put clear nail polish on.  Before walking the boys to school.  This is not normal behavior.  I have no idea what came over me.
• This makes me giggle.
• The sun is shining brightly outside.  We spent some time on the playground after school today, as we always try to do when the weather allows.  Because too soon, it’ll be this:

RTT: Feels More Like Random Monday

• Look!  Keely made a new Random Tuesday button!
• We were thrilled to usher in the college football season this weekend.  (My apologies to several of you.  I know you care not one whit.)  A great win for Georgia Tech on Saturday, and an exciting game between Boise State and Virginia Tech last night.  I have a bit of an affinity for Boise State, since we’ve played a couple of bowl games on their blue turf in recent years.
• I just got off the phone with the intake coordinator for a program I’m beginning…tomorrow, apparently!  Intense dietary counseling, personal training, counseling, etc. with the goal of complete lifestyle change and a turnaround of my health and fitness.  And hopefully 100(+?) pounds gone.  I am exhilarated, excited, and so nervous my stomach’s doing flip-flops just from talking/typing about it.  I think this is where my obsessive nature is going to be focused for a while.
• I promise not to turn this into a health and fitness blog.  There’s nothing more irritating than the unasked-for preaching of a reformed whatever (smoker, fitness nut, evangelist, fountain pen user).  Besides, the idea of me becoming a health and fitness nut is so extreme I can’t begin to imagine it.
• I’m so excited that The Preeclampsia Foundation‘s annual gala fundraiser is being held in Seattle this year!  I’ve always wanted to go, and this year we are.  If you can’t go, please consider donating.  It’s a cause that needs a lot of support.  Not everyone who has preeclampsia gets the happy ending we got.
• Okay, I have about fifty errands to run today (give or take a few dozen), so get thee over to Keely’s and check out some more randomness, mmkay?

RTT: Hellooooo, School Year!

• So, you all know I jump from hobby to hobby like a toddler on a sugar high, right?  Only without so much energy.  Or any energy, actually.  Get this:  I’ve been hobby-free all summer.  Sure, I’ve knitted a bit here and there on the baby blanket I started last spring.  (The child WILL get it before she goes to preschool.  I promise.)  And I knitted a hat/scarflette combo for myself.  But that’s it.  Really.  It’s like this summer was a giant hobby black hole.  I can’t say it’s going to pick up anytime soon, either.
• I saw this video on Dooce’s site today.  I could have written her post about it, right down to the goosebumps.  I canNOT dance.  I really wish I could.  I so enjoy watching people with true dancing talent.

• Okay, summer, you’ve made your point.  I’ve interrupted writing this post three times already to put out fires (i.e., tell the kids to STOP ALREADY) or remind them that We Have To Leave To Go To the Chiropractor in TEN Minutes, So Get Your Shoes On.  ~*~  Whoever invented summer break was genius.  Make it just long enough that the crazies hit the kids a week or two before it’s over, completely obliterating any parental sentimentality that might make us wish for a longer summer break.  Brilliantly played, summer break inventor person.
• Is anyone else really curious and really excited to see Jennifer Grey on the new season of Dancing With the Stars?  Is anyone else going to get misty when she’s not dancing with Patrick Swayze?  Am I a hormonal nutcase?  (Hint: the answer to that last question is likely a yes.)
• And, c’mon…David Hasselhoff?  Awesome.
• Speaking of, the boys have discovered the original Knight Rider on Neftlix.  It does an 80’s girl’s heart good to see her boys enjoying a bit of Kitt and Michael Knight time.