Survey results, butt aid and weekend adventures

Hey howdy, ya'll!  Happy last day of March.

So in case anyone was wondering how last week's survey came out, here is a sassy pie chart.  (Mmm, pie.  Huh?)

The top three responses were:

I eat healthy but don't exercise consistently with 23.19%
I exercise 5-6x per week and eat healthy most days with 21.74%
I exercise 3-4x per week and eat healthy most days with 18.84%.

Thanks so much to the 69 people who responded.  Now excuse me while the 12 year old boy in me laughs at that for a second.

Friday night we were going to go to the city and I gave the option to walk my grandparents neighborhood instead since it was closer and the Mr jumped on it.  As we were walking the 'hood, we discovered a small trail system that was part of the neighborhood.  Despite my spankin' new white shoes, I was enticed by the water bridge made of rocks and pretended I was Sarah going over the rocks Ludo called at the bog of eternal stench.  (Extra points for those who didn't need to Google the reference)  Even the trees looked like part of a Jim Henson set.

We came upon an old school swing and if I were 150 lbs lighter and filming a Massengil commercial, I would be tempted to swing on it.  But then I looked up and knew I would break that branch fo' sho'.  So happy swinging to the next kid who comes upon it and adults, don't think about it.

Saturday we were iced in so no road trips for us even though we really wanted to get out of town.  But it was basically a miserable day and not conducive to making it home alive.

Sunday it was time to refill old Mother Hubbard's cupboards so we headed off to Trader Joe's when they opened and got our schtuffs then on to Tar-zhay.  When we got to the final grocery store and we're ready to check out and in line to get our stuff bagged by my favorite bagger, Fred.  He's probably in his late 60's and he's the only one that bags properly.  I don't mind waiting so that the bagger won't put my cantaloupe on top of the bread and grapes.  Then some older lady comes over from the self scan and says "I can help you on the self scan" and while we're not jazzed, we figure since she's going to scan our stuff, we're willing to bag.

We go over and the woman scans her beef jerky and goes on break.  Um, say what?  Yeah, she totally left and left us to scan all of our grocery cart in one of those tiny scanners with our mother Earth bags that don't fit on the platform with the evil plastic bags.  Everything we scan has to be cleared with the head cashier because the recycle bags are heavier and moving and crap which throws off the scale and brings up an error that she has to clear on her remote.  By the time we're done, three people behind us in the original line have been checked out and are happily on their way home.  Never again.

For lunch I made grilled cheese and soup then it was time to walk for our workout.  A good 3 1/2 mile stroll around the historic district and enjoy the first sprouts o' spring.

We stopped by the dollar store because I wasn't ready to go home just yet and saw this knock off of that butt paste stuff.

Relief for the un-happy butt.  Please note the "unhappy" chafed red butt as the B in the title.  Awesome.

Dinner was a pork chop with non-Jack Daniels sauce and parisian carrots.

What did you do this weekend?

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Last kick in the mattress and what I'm reading this week

Happy Friday you sassy people!

Boy, Thursday got interesting.  Our old mattress was picked up last Wednesday and the manager we spoke with said once they received it back, they would credit our credit card.  That's never a quick process but within a week should be plenty of time.  It had been 7 business days so the Mr called.  The manager who had been jerking us around was on vacation (again?  Wow, he was on vacation a few weeks ago too.  Must be nice!) so the Mr talked to a lady in the department we'd dealt with too and asked where the credit was.

"Oh, you have to come in with your receipt for us to credit back your card."
"He never said that.  He told us when you got the mattress back that it would be credited"
She started laughing and said that sounded like him and how silly he is.

If this had been me?  I would've RAGED on her asking how funny it would be if SHE was still dealing with this nightmare one month later??  So he hung up and called me and kind of nervously laughed and said "welllll..." He tried to summon the courage to tell me the above exchange and likely held the phone away from his ear so his hair wouldn't blow back from my guttural screeching on the other end.  I have never been so mad.  Well, I have but not in a long time.  The guy has basically lied to us through every step of the process.  The Mr was going to take a half day so we could drive across town and be done with it.  Then he said screw it and called the manager of the store.  After doing some checking, she went against policy and did the credit over the phone and will send us the receipt so we didn't have to make the drive.

The lesson you should all take from this?  Always buy your mattress from a place that specializes in mattresses.  Most of them price match so they can even meet and beat a bulk store price if they carry the same model.

But enough of that, let's get to...

Beware of These 4 Food Label Claims  (Good things to know!)

Biscoff Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream  (When I crank up the ice cream maker for the season, this is one of the first ones I'm making!)

20 Ways to Get Happy (Almost) Instantly!   (I like to hold a puppy but these are good too)

Exercising On an Empty Stomach: The Surprising Benefits  (I don't know if I buy this or not but I can't exercise with anything in my stomach without feeling like I'm going to erp)

Idina Menzel and John Travolta Are ‘Buddies’ Despite Oscar Name Debacle  (This makes me love Travolta even more)

Fuel Up: The Highest Sources of Vegan Protein  (If you need to shake up your diet)

Heartbreaking final goodbye between giraffe and zoo worker with cancer  (*insert quivering lip here*)

37 Things You’ll Regret When You’re Old  (These.  All of 'em)

The 9 Emotional Stages of Spring Cleaning  (Yeah...that's about right)

You Will Never Want To Do Drugs After Seeing The Faces Of Addiction  (Share this on your social media.  It could save someone's life)

These are the movie quotes everyone gets wrong  (Oh man, guilty.  *shame*)

Neat trick instantly turns happy songs into sad songs and vice versa  (courtesy of the Mr)

If You're Not Following This Rule, You're Strength Training the Wrong Way  (Great tip and will definitely do this from now on)

Kevin Bacon Danced Up A Magical ‘Footloose’ Entrance For Jimmy Fallon  (I hated Footloose but this is pretty epic)

14 Reasons Adults Are Better Than Kids   (I laughed so hard and have watched this so many times.  So wrong, I know.  Don't care.)

Until I'm able to see the weather map for tomorrow, I have no friggin' clue what our weekend holds.  Boo!

Anything on tap for your weekend?

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Hometown fever and survey time

I don't know why I'm looking forward to the weekend so much, it looks like we're going to have more snow again Saturday, thereby squashing any chance of a road trip.  I'm getting hometown fever.  I need to roam the land for hours on end, invade a new town and return so late we have no choice but to collapse into bed.  I miss those days.

Dinner was lemon pepper pasta alfredo with blackened mahi mahi and green beans.  It was quite good and we both agreed we liked the addition of the mahi.  (I'll usually use shrimp or chicken if we decide to add some protein.)

Last night we did one of Fitness Blender's kettlebell workouts.  My God man, my back is killing me between the deadlifts and constant swings.  But it's a great workout and by 40 minutes we were done and I had 620 calories burned off my booty.  I'll have to foam roll out some kinks.

Speaking of kinks, the new bed seems to be working out well.  It's still not quite as cloud soft as I prefer but it's a big improvement over the foamy concrete block we were sleeping on before.  As of yet, we have not yet gotten our credit back on the card.  We're giving it until the end of today before we call the manager at the place we bought it and start badgering him to put the final nail in the coffin of that idiot experience.  So far, so good.

You know, I was thinking (I know...miracle), you guys know our fitness/eating habits but I don't know much about yours!  So I thought it would be fun to do a survey!  It's anonymous so answer honestly.  :-)

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Are you getting hometown/cabin fever?

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Hump Day ramblings

Howdy do all!  Let's get over the hump and slide on into the weekend, shall we?

When choosing cardio for last night, I decided to give Shaun T 25 Cardio a try again.  The last time we did that was when I really screwed up my legs but I also wasn't doing massages, foam rolling and any physical therapy so I hope that will allow me to get some harder cardio in less time in from time to time.  I like that in 25 minutes, it's done and that particular one goes by pretty quick.

It turned out to be a Hawaiian kind of night.  Dinner was BBQ kalua pork sliders on King's Hawaiian dinner rolls and a side of brussels.

We got hit with a bit of spring snow yesterday so I figured when spring gives you snow, make snow cones.

I knew it would probably be the last real snow cone we'd probably have until December.  The rest would have to be made with our Hawaiian shave ice machine over the summer.  Real snow is the closest thing you'll get to real shave ice made in Hawaii, not the snow cone crap we have on the mainland.  Pffft.

It was also movie night.  We rented Wolf of Wall Street and Delivery Man with Vince Vaughn.  Wolf of Wall Street was the longest movie in the history of the world.  Wow, the real guy it was based on was a flaming douche.  Movies like that really tick me off when you know other people got screwed over by a greedy, money hungry anus like that.

We saved the comedy for last and knowing Vince was in it, I would have to put on my waders.  He can be funny but he's basically the same manure shoveling guy in every movie.  I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't see "that guy" for long.  It was a really cute and heartwarming movie.  I may have even shed a few tears and it's not even that time of the month.  It far exceeded expectations and after Wolf of Wall Street, I was glad.

Tonight is a Fitness Blender strength video.  I am really loving these workouts.  They are pushing us further than our wussy on our own free weight sessions.  So even though I know I'm going to be seriously sore, it's that good sore you look forward to...kind of.

What cardio and/or strength are you loving lately?

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The 30 year old detention

Is there anyone who hears Simple Minds "(Don't You) Forget About Me" that doesn't get a little flutter inside?  It brings back a flood of a time in our lives that we long to revisit even if only for a day.  Even today's generation raves about how lucky those of us who grew up in some part of the 80's had it from movies to music.  (No one ever seems to embrace the fashion though.  I love it.  I know some of it is making a comeback but not the good stuff that requires a can of Aqua Net.  I want big hair...pronto!)

We watched The Breakfast Club last night on the 30th anniversary of the date of detention and being the nerds we are, ended up getting in a big philosophical conversation.  The Mr and I weren't in high school or even near it when this came out so this was kind of our impression of what high school would be like.  I remember I was so scared my first day of high school that I made some fake barf (gravy, ketchup and the dog's Alpo worked best) and hid it in my room.  Before the alarm went off, I made a yak sound and chucked it on the bedspread.  I got out of my first day of high school.  I don't know what I thought I would do when I eventually had to go because I was then a day or two behind everyone else who had those days to get in their groove.  

What an idiot.

I would say if I had to classify myself, it wouldn't be any of the genre's presented in this John Hughes classic. I considered myself a "neutral."  I was friends with pretty much any clique and I was a "collector of strays" according to my mother.  I was the new kid every year from kindergarten until 5th grade so I had an empathy for new kids with that look of fear on their faces.  I was given the opportunity to be part of flags and travel with the cheerleaders and jocks for the whole freshman year and I saw who my flagmates would be and I wasn't having it.  I had to be true to myself and being stuck with those stuck up bitches would not make for a fun freshman year for me.  I only knew 3 cheerleaders who were human beings not concerned with social status and the rest of them perpetuated every stereotype of the "sporto."  My high school experience wasn't one that I prayed was over fast because of bullying like some but I didn't feel like I peaked then and it's been all down hill since.  It was four years of my life and I do have some good memories but I have no need to go to reunions.  The people I would want to see don't go to them either.  It was a blip on my life radar and it resembled nothing in any John Hughes movie.

The Mr and I lamented over how much we could now relate to Richard Vernon's perspective.

VERNON You think about this...when you get old, these kids; when I get old, they're gonna be runnin' the country.

CARL Yeah?

VERNON Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night... That when I get older, these kids are gonna take care of me...

CARL I wouldn't count on it.

It's one of those things when you're that age.  No matter if you get along with your parents or not (it was just mom and I and we were cool), you just feel like you have some kind of insight that your parents can't possibly relate to no matter how hard they try.  To a degree, you're right.  They won't know what it's like to go to school in your day and the pressures of the current generation.  When people tell you crap like "enjoy these years, they fly by so fast" when you just desperately want to be older and have more freedom, the most you can manage is a solid eye roll and "whatever, old fart" under your breath.  You think because they can't relate to your technology or the pressures you face that they have no life lessons to pass on.  You think it's a sign of them getting old and being even more disconnected.  But what many high school kids don't get is what Hall and Oates said so well "believe it or not, there's life after high school."  High school is your whole world and life at that time and it feels like everything that happens then is the best or worst thing you could ever go through.  There's no telling a kid that it gets better or that the things they feel so deeply now will have them one day shaking their heads at the thought they ever thought it was that big of a deal.  It's all lessons you can try to tell them but ultimately they need to learn it for themselves.

There are always lessons in John Hughes movies and even as adults, we still see new things to talk about and common threads that weave together generations.  I feel so lucky to have those movies as the precursor to what I thought high school would be like.  I may not have had a dude as hot as John Bender but we all know the tough acting but lovable "hood."  I may not have had a faction of rich kids in our school but we definitely had people who thought their shit didn't stink.  We all know adorable "dorks" like Brian Johnson and they were harmless and often some of the most compassionate people in school that are now bosses of major conglomerates.  There's always the weird girl in the corner who doesn't know what to do with herself and is kind of a loner.  There will always be a jock that is out to please his parents or friends and question "why the hell am I playing football/wrestling/playing basketball...I don't even like it."  (Sound familiar Mr.)

So while high school might not have been as glamorous looking as it was in John Hughes world, it did give a little insight to what could be waiting for us.  If nothing else, it gave us quotes to make it through our own experience.

"Eat my shorts."

"Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place."

"So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social."

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

"You're a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"

What was your high school experience like?  What's your favorite John Hughes movie?

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Walking weekend

I FINALLY got my new walking shoes.  (affiliate link)  (An online shoe store dropped the ball so I got them through Amazon with my two day shipping Prime service.)  I knew I wanted to start breaking them in so when we go on summer vacay, they would be well worn in with my insoles and such.  I really sucked rocks on getting in walks last week consistently so I wanted to make up by trying to walk 3 miles around the city.  I need to get my leg muscles used to walking and a stroll around the hood ain't gonna cut it.  So the Mr put on his new shoes and we got on our way.  Of course at some point we had to stop along the weigh way to enjoy the water just a little since it was warm and a slight breeze that night.

Our new "shoebies" as my Grandma would say

We saw some nice things as we walked our almost 3 mile route...

...and we saw some downright crappy things.  Yes, those are shopping carts.

There's a clean up project going on and I hope those are the first things removed.  Blech.  In the end, we walked just shy of 3 miles and I was really struggling to keep my feet from pronating in these shoes.  I need to up my insole height to four to compensate.  I do notice a better sense of ankle support over the Brooks Adrenaline and I got a wide (though not the widest) so the toebox is big enough.  There is that new shoe "clod" sound with each step and I want to get rid of it before summer.  I swear I felt like Forrest in his magic shoes at times.

Saturday I woke up in hellacious pain.  The muscles on the top of my feet, especially the right, were very sore to the touch.  I knew I had overcompensated and worst still, I didn't stretch or do my ankle massage when we were done so I was paying for it dearly.  But I had to get back on the horse and we headed to the local mall and probably got in 3 miles over the course of the day.  I felt a little better by the end of the day but by night, we were both hobbling like we needed new hips.

Sunday, we started going through some stuff in the basement and I didn't have it in me to do some big workout down there.  I figured let's keep it up and walk again and hit the three miles.  This time we didn't have the weather on our side.  It was barely above freezing and it was breezy.  Luckily we came upon an open house in its last 7 minutes.

I think I'm in love, even with the Amityville eyes...

That room was one of my favorite in that 1800's home.  It was on the 2nd floor where the master was and I could totally live there.  I loved the sink in the bathroom too.

We did a good job and hit our 3 miles.  (I mapped it to make sure in addition to our FitBit)

On the way home, I knew I had about 200 extra calories to spare so we stopped by Dairy Queen and grabbed a chocolate kiddie cone.  Here are my favorite parts of eating my 170 calorie kiddie cone.

Delicious!  And just enough to give you the taste of it without going batchit on it.  (But don't think I wasn't tempted to do a dip cone.  Le sigh)

For dinner we had kalua pork nachos.  

It was a good weekend and lots of activity.  We need to keep it up and we'll be doing some trails too to get some hills under our belts as well.

Oh yeah, did you know it's been 30 years since the brain, princess, athlete, basket case and criminal gathered in detention?  To commemorate this iconic movie, the Mr and I will be watching The Breakfast Club tonight.  (affiliate link) 

What did you do this weekend?

(This post contains affiliate links.  Should you choose to buy through them, I will get a nominal kickback to help keep the blog train on the tracks.)

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Another useless date and what I'm reading this week

It is the end of the work week y'all, can I get a what, what...a woot...or an expletive?

Yesterday was one of those useless date days I spoke about before.  It was the birthday of my 5th grade crush.  Man, he was dreamy in his 5th grade hotness.  His cubby was right above mine and when we were in between classes, he would basically put his feet on the wall behind me and straddle over me to get his stuff while I was at mine.  I think that was the first time my hormones began to froth.  He was the class clown but also super nice and was a young smoker the following year.  I always knew he had some bad boy in him.  Years later in high school, he suffered a serious accident at a bonfire and was in the hospital. My neighbors knew his family and knew I went to school with him and told me.  I hadn't seen him since my freshman year in passing but I had to visit him.  I was in the burn unit dressing room with his parents who were so happy to see someone coming to visit.  He couldn't believe his eyes.   I was horrified to find out his girlfriend didn't visit (she was a bitch anyway) and none of his friends at that point and it had been four days.  We caught up a little and I cried and told him how sorry I was.  He said he was so glad to see me, how much it meant to him that someone who hadn't talked to him regularly would come to the hospital and be so nice.  Then the nurse came in to change his bandages and he said I could stay but his hands looked like hamburger so it was up to me if I wanted to stay for that.  I opted out.  I saw him one more time after that and he was healing well.  I Facebook stalked him a few years ago and saw he's married with an adorable little girl he calls his princess and his hands show no signs of that fateful night.  His favorite songs back in the day were La Di Da Di by Slick Rick and Easy E (I had to look that up.  I'm not that funky fresh) and Oh Sheila by Ready for the World.  So Chris, put on your Slick Rick and party like it's 1985.

But enough of my useless dates, let's get to...

Flutter Your Way to Flat Abs  (These are getting done on the next vacay.  Never thought of using the bands on mah feet)

17 Things To Actually Try This Year (Instead Of Just Talking About Them)  (Pretty cool list)

16 Habits Of Highly Sensitive People  (Basically from 7 on)

15 Things I Always Wanted To Say To Customers When I Worked In Retail  (There are a few not listed that I've actually said.  Man, I couldn't work retail again!)

Limber and Lean: Easy Hamstring Stretches  (Stretch dem hammies!)

16 Things Northerners Know About Driving In The Winter  (Basically anyone who gets more than 5" of snow per year.  Big time on #10)

33 Moments In A Day In The Life Of A Hawaiian Surfing Pig  (Cute pig.  Too bad the kids look a little miserable)

A Colorful Midwestern Home Filled With Flea Market Finds  (I love the mix of modern, mid century and antiques!)

Band Performs in Hospital for SXSW Crash Victim  (I don't know who this band is but what great guys to do that!)

Oil Pulling Might Be The Next Big Thing -- Or Not  (I've pulled twice, both for 20 minutes so I don't get why people "gag" 5 minutes in.  I don't think it's some big health miracle but if it means I don't have to use those damn whitening strips and make my teeth numb, I'll give it a go!)

86 Films You Will Never Be Able To Look At The Same Way Again  (I knew most of these but in case you didn't.  I'm cool like dat)

Gym tells woman to cover up because her toned body 'intimidated' others  (Okay for real?!  I don't consider what she was wearing inappropriate and the people who complained about her are lame.  Planet Fitness' "judgment free zone" should go both ways.)

Ivan Reitman Will Not Be Directing Ghostbusters 3  (Courtesy of the Mr)

Just When You Thought You Couldn’t Love Kylie Minogue More, She Starts Teaching Sex Yoga  (Something tells me this is the "Physical" of this generation but sorry Kylie, Olivia Newton John is cuter)

Mick Fleetwood Goes His Own Way: Motoring nostalgia  (If nostalgia was a mental disorder back in the day, I'm certifiable.  Because I, like Iona of Pretty in Pink,  OD on nostaglia)

Keep your diet on track  (Tips if ya need 'em)

This Infographic Shows the Phytonutrients You Need to Stay Healthy  (I was glad to see how many of them I eat!)

Health Myth: Low-Intensity Workouts Burn the Most Fat Calories  (Straight from the mouth of Mike Donavanik.  If you're newer here and missed it, here's my interview with Mike.)

Pharrell's Happy Remixed Featuring Dogs  (Sure to make you happy!)

We don't have any plans yet that I know of but I don't want to waste a weekend again like we did last weekend.  It's supposed to snow a bit and I just want to go on a road trip or something to pass some time.

Anything on tap for the weekend?

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Mattress Mess

So, remember how we were all excited about our new mattress but then we were bummed because it arrived damaged?  Well we began a stream of keystone cop movie like scenarios from there on.  The Mr and I ignored a MAJOR red flag when we bought the thing in the first place, a big red stamp that said "all sales final."  I know...I know...look, I KNOW.  We got swept up in the moment or something but it didn't stop there.  When we picked the most plush one on the floor, I told our sales lady the name on the bed and she said "really?  Are you sure it's not the Ability?"  The Mr went over and looked again to make sure, it said Encourage and she checked it three times and said "hmm, I thought for sure that was the Ability, it must be wrong in the computer."  This was another flag for me but it would come back later.

When we called about the damage, they said that we would need to replace the mattress under their warranty.  I really wanted them to come out to repair the mattress because I thought that was ridiculous that you would replace an entire mattress for a 1 1/2" hole.  So we call back, the manager there (the only person who has the authority to do anything) and he's out, he'll be back tomorrow.  The lady who helped us was also calling and trying to get ahold of Sealy for us to find out if we had to replace or could we repair but Sealy was closed due to a freak ice storm in North Carolina for a few days.  Then when they were open, the manager was out again.  They said they got a note that they are backordered by three weeks and since they found out a repair is not possible, it must be replaced, we'd be a month in to breaking in the original bed and have to start all over again.  We'd have to air it out for a few days while the foam outgassed then crawl, bounce, etc on it to speed up the break in process.  I did not have it in me.  By this time, we've had almost a week to sleep on this mattress and we're hating it.  The Mr starts doing research online and he sees that 2nd red flag I mentioned came back to bite us.  No, it actually wasn't wrong in the computer.  It was wrong on the signs that were draped on the beds.  So in addition to us getting a mattress with a hole in it, we got the WRONG mattress delivered to us.

Insert my blood boiling here.

We went to other mattress stores to test out what Sealy's website said was their softest, the Majesty.  We laid on it and it was softer but still supportive.  The bed we originally got delivered felt like a bed you had on vacation and couldn't wait to get home to get back into your own comfy bed.  I didn't feel that and remembering what the REAL Encourage felt like in the store after having been laid on for a year, I knew it was never going to get much softer.  I also hated how high the mattress was now and with no piping along the side for support when you're sitting on the side of the bed putting on lotion or whatever, I just felt like I didn't even know if I wanted foam anymore.

We've been dicked around for a week by the manager and he says their Sealy contact is on vacation.  I keep urging the Mr to tell him we've contacted the credit card company and they agree the mattress is defective and we'll dispute the charge if we need to.  But you know, the Mr is much nicer than I am.  He continually gives an inch so people can take a mile.  Well, I'd had it by 9 days in and when it looked like the manager wasn't going to call us back by 4:30pm, I insisted the Mr call him and tell him, it needs to be resolved by Monday or we are calling the credit card company to dispute the charge.  Especially since Sealy didn't seem to want to provide a customer service rep to deal with their account when their people are on vacation.  The Mr said he contacted the credit card company, they agreed it counted as defective and we have until Wednesday to get it in by their deadline so we could dispute it or go ahead and do a return.  Well, then it wasn't the Sealy service rep that was out, it would be the buyer who was out at a trade show until the following Wednesday and he knew that when he talked to the Mr the day before.

Oh HELL NO!!!!!!!

The Mr said nope, do the return.  I guess that hole was our saving grace since we had that defective loophole with our credit card company to kind of void their whole "all sales final" crap.  Wednesday (yesterday) they'd come to pick up the mattress and take it away.  After that, I then thought "we're going to be sleeping on an air mattress!" and started to slightly panic.  You know that feeling that you get what you want then you have to quickly come up with a solution?  The Mr found one of the places we laid on the Majesty had a price match policy on anything but Ebay.  So we printed an ad for the mattress (which of course costs $300 more) and their own policy.  I knew going in I wasn't paying the price they wanted for the mattress because it was going to be $2099 PLUS the cost of the box springs (which we got free from the other place).  So we go in and he confirms they do the price matching so he hands her the print out of the mattress set at the online place for $1574.  She said "oh, we don't do non-brick and mortar matches."

Well, mama was dealing with Aunt Flow, fresh off an argument, 9 days of sleeping on a rock and getting bent over by the place we bought our mattress and I blurted out "well, I'm not paying that price you're selling it for."  She said she could check to make sure and then said "yeah, we don't do online dealers like this."

I said "because your website says the only retailer you won't match is Ebay."
"Oh really?"  she said.
"Yeah" I replied and was hoping the Mr would slide the paper we printed over.  But she began typing again and said "yeah, I can go ahead and do that for you."

Great.  How long do we have to wait now?

The next day.

We didn't want to deal with that on a Saturday but agreed to have it delivered Monday afternoon then it could air out in the guest room for 2 days and when they took away the other mattress Wednesday, we could flip it on in there.  So that's what we did.

Take 2

The guy's who delivered the mattress came to take it away and he asked if we got the wrong one and the Mr said not only that but that it had a hole in it.  He apologized for the inconvenience even though he is a sub-contractor and doesn't work for the company we bought it from.  Well it was nice someone apologized even if it wasn't the person who needed to.

The wrong mattress was just plain hard and uncomfortable.  The Mr and I were talking about what a piece of crap the Encourage was and how we both felt that even though we both slept harder, we would wake up feeling sore and unrested.  We both felt a gravitational pull toward the middle and I even rolled toward the middle a few times even though the mattress appeared flat.  I also would wake up on the wrong side of the bed...literally.  I would wake up on my left side and I'm a right side sleeper.  It just screwed us up all the way around.  I couldn't get it out of here fast enough.  The new bed is much softer even in it's hardest state and I know we'll have an adjustment period with this one as well but not feeling like I'm sleeping on the sidewalk will be a major plus.

Good God man, I mean really!?  Why can't we just not have to fight for every single thing we buy!?

It's like this every damn time which is why I keep our couches and furniture for as long as possible because I don't want to deal with the inevitable poo storm that comes with it.  We are cursed or born under a bad sign or something.

Do your major purchases (furniture, cars, vacations, etc) go smoothly or do you seem to have to fight tooth and nail to "earn" it?

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Movie night reviews and loyalty bites us in the butt

Last night we had a lot to fit in.  The Mr had a work project he had to do at a certain time so we had to workout pretty early.  We did original Power 90.  (With Tony on mute of course and our own music playlist.)   650 calories burned on that one.  Not bad. We had time for quick showers then he began his project while I made dinner.

Orange roughy over thai lime rice and parisian carrots.

It was quite delish.

Then it was time to watch our movies.  We rented American Hustle and Frozen.  Whenever there are hyped movies at the Oscars that looks somewhat interesting, we're in...if for nothing more than to be able to bash it with authority.

We started with American Hustle .  (affiliate link)  I knew this had the potential to be the biggest stinker.  Here's what I loved about it.  The outfits and soundtrack.  Here's what I hated about it, everything else.  Okay, not all of it but the biggest irritation was that none of the actors were able to maintain the accents they were supposed to have, especially Amy Adams.  I wanted to smack her and ask what the hell just came out of your mouth!?!?!  At one point she had some word barf of English, New York, Australian and mush mouth and I almost checked out.  I only hung in there because the payoff seemed like it would be good.  Not good enough.  The Mr almost threw the remote through the TV at the end but we had another movie to get to...

Frozen .  (affiliate link) 

Very cute.  Comedy, catchy songs (except Let It Go...I want to claw at my ears when I hear that) and the like.  Obviously the formula is pretty standard Disney.  You've got your good guys, scheming bad guys and as seems to be protocol for "modern classics" a snarky person, gasp-worthy twist and perhaps a death to remind us the world isn't fair.  But overall, I liked it even if we don't have whippersnappers.

I will say from now on, I'll be checking Redbox first.  Our local video store waited until Blockbuster went out of business and then jacked up their rental fee x3.  But oh, if you buy their 1/2 price card for $10/month, you can get it at the old price.  Oh, I don't think so.  I know Redbox is eventually going to streaming but it looks like they have movies the same time as many rental stores now.  Man, you try to support the old school video stores and they screw you.  BOO!

What movies have you rented lately?

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Would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be...

(you'd better know how that ends or you need to Google the phrase!)

When the Mr came home, he grabbed an envelope off the front porch and gave it to me.  It just had our names on it and we both knew what we thought it was.

Our neighbors, the ones we brought the homemade pie to, wrote us a really sweet thank you note and invited us to a BBQ when the weather warms up.  They said it was "so reassuring to know they had such nice neighbors."  We're keeping this for sure because besides the fact that I immensely appreciate thank you notes, it says we're nice.  The neighbor on the other side thinks we're Satan's brood or something because we nicely asked her one time if she could please refrain from letting her dog bark 24/7 and even offered to help socialize her if it would help (it would attack the door and bark at dust settling much less people walking in front of the house) and she told us we were jealous because our dog was dead and hers was still alive.  Ever since then she runs when she sees us, won't wave at us unless her family is there so she doesn't look like an asshat in front of them and will burn rubber if we're leaving at the same time.  Yeah, guilt for saying something that cruel rears its head every time she sees us.  I'm glad.  An apology would be nice but I won't hold my breath.

I thought about skipping the walk because it was about 40 degrees.  I asked him if it was cold and he said not really, he didn't need his gloves.  Well, 45 seconds into the walk and I broke out my gloves.

Liar.

It was a chilly walk but I was able to go the longer route with much less pain than the first time I walked a week ago.  I'm very grateful for that.  Then we came home and did a kick butt strength workout so total, I burned about 650 calories.

Then it was dinner time.  Chicken tacos!

The Mr was quite pleased.

Tonight is movie night!  We're renting American Hustle and Frozen .  (affiliate links) 

We're coming close to the end of the mattress fiasco, I'm hoping to have an update by Thursday but yesterday got us one step closer to righting a major wrong.

Do you get along with your neighbors?  Have you seen either movie and if so, thumbs up or down for you personally?

(This post contains affiliate links.  Should you choose to buy through them, I'll get a few cents toward blog costs and you'll get some sweet schtuff from Amazon)
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Aloha Weekend eats and schtuff

 Let's get the formalities out of the way.  The Mr passed his test!  Woot!

But I wanted to do something special for him to celebrate and since we were both missing our Hawaiian home, I wanted to transport us to Hawaii via a day of our favorite dishes.  Before his test, I sent him off with a breakfast of spam, eggs and rice.

Excuse the heinous phone pic

 When he got home, I surprised him with a few of our favorite local treats.

Dark chocolate has antioxidants and macadamia nuts have monounsaturated fats, therefore...health food!

For lunch it was loco moco time!  Brown rice, burger patty, egg and egg white and fat free beef gravy.  Of course no loco moco is complete without lilikoi passion fruit juice.  It's a requirement.

I was so mad I busted the yolk on this one.  Proper loco moco requires a sunny side up or over easy egg.

The only sucky thing about cooking for every meal is you feel like you can't really go anywhere.  I tried to do as much prep as I could Friday night but still.  We had a nice sunny day and I didn't want to waste it.  Since I wanted to keep up our walks, I said I wanted to go down to the historic district to do the mile and a quarter loop.  The thing with that is, you can't really enjoy a leisurely walk just facing forward because you have all kinds of obstacles in your way...

So if you don't have missing bricks, you have raised bricks, huge tree roots pushing bricks up and one road will have a small curb while another needs a step ladder.  I can't count how many times the Mr almost face planted.  I pictured him looking like Harry.

Home Alone 2

Luckily we got home with no serious facial injuries even if we did encounter random drunk people doing their pub crawls for early St. Patty's Day imbibery.  (Spell check says that's not a word...it is now.)  I'm so glad I don't drink.  The Mr was lamenting over what idiots the girls all sounded like and how even before he met me, he hated that and drunk girls were never a turn on.  I felt the same about the "hey baby's" I'd get in bars seeing a band or something.  If I'm not good enough to approach sober, don't approach me, period.  This is why we are meant to be together.  We walked our 1 1/4 miles and it was time to head home to make dinner.

Teriyaki beef!

I have officially eaten more brown rice in one day than I've eaten the entire year thus far.  It was all good but my system doth protest that much rice and is punishing me.  Sorry, more than you wanted to know.  (Here's another TMI...I'm finishing up Aunt Flow and Sunday afternoon as the Mr was in BBB replacing the salad spinner I melted on the bottom rack of the dishwasher, I thought at least I was over the emotional hump of her stay.  Then the song "Cool" by Gwen Stefani (affiliate link) came on and I started tearing up and getting the ugly cry lip quiver because of course it's about her and Tony and he calls her by her new last name and whyyyyyyyyyyy did they break up, they were so cute and....oh...sorry.)

We totally wasted Sunday as well as far as getting out.  We felt all lethargic and despite sleeping in, I made tropical pancakes (banana, pineapple and mac nut- forgot to take a pic) and then we went into a food coma.  We attempted napping while the neighbors dog was being an asshat and just got in more or less 45 minutes of resting.  Then it was time to workout so we did Leslie Sansone: Walk It Off in 30 Days (affiliate link) burn portion.  I didn't have it in me to do some long involved cardio and this fit the bill being done in 30 minutes.  I'm SOO glad we got that.  I burned 560 cals with that and some balance exercises afterward.  Then it was off to the store to grab our produce and such for the week.

So we may not have a tan, a lei around our necks or sand in our flip flops but our opus (bellies) got full of some good local food until we can get back.

What did you do this weekend?

(This post contains an affiliate link.  Should you buy through it, I'll get a few cents to keep the blog lights from flickering.)

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Aloha Friday and what I'm peepin' this week

"It's Aloha Friday...no work til Monday...doobie doo, doobie doobie doobie doobie doooooooo!"

In case you think I've been partaking in doobies, you can hear the song here.

Now that you've hopefully had your dose of aloha for the day, let's get to

The best wake up alarm in the world is a dog and a laser pointer  (Courtesy of the Mr)

15 Small Changes for Faster Weight Loss

Why Is Pee Yellow? (And Other Pressing Bladder Questions)  (In case you were curious)

13+ Things A Funeral Director Won’t Tell You  (Not a pretty topic but good stuff to know)

 9 Things Never to Say to a Woman Who Doesn’t Want Kids  (Yes.  All of these.)

14 Fast Food and Restaurant Employees Confess the One Item You Should Never Order  (Not a problem!)

Don't Go There: How My Weight Became a Non-Issue in My Relationship  (This was an interesting read.  I remembered feeling this way before the Mr and I were on the same page a long time ago to a certain degree)

Kevin Bacon Schools Millennials on the '80s  (The attention span thing is a crack up)

Target Poorly Photoshopped A Higher “Thigh Gap” Onto A Junior’s Swimsuit Model  (1.  I pray the person was fired for promoting thigh gaps and 2. I hope the person was hired then re-fired for their 1st grader attempt at Photoshop!)

10 Diet Problems (and How to Avoid Them)

Household Weight-Loss Items

Amazon Raising Prime to $99 per Year  (Mama's not happy about this one but it's still a bargain for us right now especially if they look to add more services in the future.)

Delaware Grandfather's Wise, Hilarious Obituary Goes Viral  (I think we should all do this.  They're so generic and this really shows what kind of awesome person he was!)

25 Exercises You Can Do Anywhere  (Like where you are...drop and give me 20!)

16 Dogs Who Tried Their Best But Didn’t Succeed  (Aww, you lil nuggets.  Keep trying!)

89 Simple Swaps That Could Change Your Life  (Right on, yo)

Surviving Whole Foods  (SO true!)

The Culture Shock of Ichabod Crane  (If you aren't watching Sleepy Hollow, this compilation of Tom Mison's best scenes from the show will convince you.  If you already watch, get your SH fix with this great vid!)

I'm pleased to say that I did Turbo Fire 45 for the first time this month and I noticed several parts that really hurt and made me cry were much easier to take this time.  So definite improvements and incentive to keep up with the 50 kinds of rehab and deep tissue massages.  (2-3x week on the legs by the Mr and daily chiro taught "ankle rakers" that hurt like a mother but untangle the tendons and nerves.  Bleh)

The Mr has a test he has to take tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed for him!  I also have a potential surprise but I can't tell you because he's proofreading this!  :-)

What are you doing this weekend?

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All over the place

I've gotta give you guys a big thank you.  You are so supportive when I post about my grandma and the roller coaster I'm going through with that, so thanks again for being awesome with your comments and emails.

I think I'm about ready for Spring.  I don't mean that in an "I'm bitching about the weather" whiney kind of way but in the fact I need more moisture in the air.  My hands are dry, my nose is dry, my feet are dry...I'm basically just dry.  No moisturizer or coconut oil confection can cure it.  I don't mind the Spring rains, which we had yesterday morning until 40 mph winds decided they wanted to usher in a winter storm to slap around the people who are counting down to Spring and think the weather will magically improve.

I'm a little bummed we weren't able to get in our walk yesterday because of the weather.  I know we can't really walk outside today either so I might have to throw in a Walk Away the Pounds and get in a mile.  We have been doing primarily Fitness Blender.com workouts for the past two weeks.  When I am doing strength sessions, I tend to not push myself as hard as I should and need direction.  These have been great for variety and I am soooo sore.  My back is tight and I don't think I've ever done so many friggin' squats.  We follow up the workouts with a good stretching session to try to lessen the soreness the next day but you know, sleeping on a new mattress doesn't help with that either.  Things are still developing on that front so I'll update when we have something that doesn't resemble God's personal comic strip that has become our lives.

I got a heads up on my Facebook that Collage Video is going out of business!  BOO!  I loved to preview my videos there before I bought them.  So if you've been holding off on getting some DVD's, now might be the time to swing over there and see if you can score them at a deep discount while inventory lasts.  I'm looking at one or two WATP's for when we're not getting our butts handed to us with other workouts.

Today is gonna be a yummy food day.  I'm looking forward to it!  I know that's weird to end on but I just checked my food diary for today and planned some good stuff.  Leave me alone...it's all I have right now!

Share something as random as the crap I word barfed here.  If you need a question to answer, do you look at your planned food and do a little happy dance?

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I should've done it more

Yesterday, the Mr had a full work day and two movie rentals to grab, so he didn't get home until 5pm.  I suggested we swing by my Grandma's house to check on things and we would do our rehab walk in their neighborhood.  He agreed.  As he was starting up the cars, I was inside and noted how the house now was completely devoid of her scent.  No more White Diamonds lingering in the air.  I went to the bathroom and saw there was a purse size bottle left behind with one squirt left in it.  I took off the cap and inhaled the fragrance.  The Mr came in and saw me and rubbed my back and said "White Diamonds?"  I smiled and put it back.

Just the other day, we were at Coldwater Creek.  She and I had gone there one time while on a shopping trip and a lot of the clothes remind me of her.  I went to the sale rack and I found this sweater

It's very simple and perfect for under one of her brightly colored solid cardigans or jackets with a necklace.  I turned to the Mr and said "doesn't this look like her?  She would like this, don't you think?"  As I was contemplating buying it, I felt all joy drain from me and I hung it back up.  "Except she doesn't know what she likes anymore.  She doesn't know what she thinks is pretty because she doesn't know what pretty means.  I have to get out of here" and we quickly left before I became a heap.

I went to her closet as the Mr turned off the cars and I looked through her clothes.  I could picture her in different outfits hanging up but she'd never know how to put them together on her own again.  We locked the place up and went on our walk.  As we were rounding back toward the house, the Mr said he was glad for the day I took her out for lunch and shopping.  He knew she had fun and I did too.

"I should've done it more," I said.  "I used to get so frustrated when she'd call 5x a day about stuff that was trivial and I didn't have time for in that moment.  Then one day the phone stops ringing and you'd give anything for one of those questions."

"It's easy to think we have all the time in the world with them until one day...you don't.   You didn't know and we all do it." he replied.

It's true.  We all do it, thinking we have all the time in the world with people.  Our lives are all so busy that we forget what really matters sometimes.  Give your time.  It's so little in the scheme of things and one day, you'll wish you had.

If you could spend one day with someone who is no longer with you, who would it be and what would you do?
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Walk this way

Over the weekend, I made the decision that if I'm going to have a walking vacation this year, I can't try to rehab my legs with my normal 'work from home' lack of movement.  When I was going through physical therapy with the chiro, he said that the podiatrist's advice of resting and staying off it was the worst thing I could do because my muscles needed to adjust.  Even when I was at a sedentary office job years ago, I was still up filing, going to people's desks, going to the bathroom and lollygagging around and was generally just more active.  Since we all know that sitting is the new smoking, I need to work to make changes to get up once an hour.  I can't go from probably walking less than 1000 steps (minus workouts) per day to walking 10,000 steps or more on vacation and not expect to have serious consequences that could ruin our trip.

In addition to my rehabbing, yesterday I began setting a timer to go off every hour and I had to be up 5 minutes doing something whether it was doing dishes while marching in place to sidesteps and stretches to little workouts online that are 5 minutes long at the top of the hour.  The scary thing is how quickly an hour goes by and then you're like "crap, no wonder I could sit for 3 hours straight and not think a thing about it."  I have tried this before and would slack off but I hope to make it a habit.  This is something I need to do for life as part of my routine so I don't shave 2-4 years off of my life sitting on my butt.

When the Mr got home, we walked around the neighborhood and after a mile, I was pretty sore, stiff and in general pain.  Yeah...definitely need to build up walking.  I'm thinking in the winter, we may need to go to a mall or someplace where snow isn't a concern so we can keep up walking or I may be dealing with this every year.  This time last year I was in the middle of heavy physical therapy with the chiro so this is the first year coming out of winter on my own.  I'm thinking I'll go in for a "tune up" of sorts in January, March and May to try to head off any problem spots that I can't quite work out on my own.  Always learning I guess...whether I want to or not.

It can be so easy to not do the things you know you need to do but just don't feel like doing them.  I have the time in my day to incorporate them so I need to...no excuses.  I'm tired of excuses.  I'm tired of dealing with this leg/feet issue.  I'm tired of feeling stagnant.   I think these will go a long way in making progress.  I hope I'm not fooling myself with that thinking but I won't know until I do it.  I'm just chomping at the bit for my new walking shoes (affiliate link) to arrive so I can get more ankle support as I up my walking.  The ones the podiatrist recommended last year when this crap got underway suck rocks.  When it comes down to it, mesh is horrible for support and I'm tired of the wind blowing through my shoes, dammit!

What, if anything, are you putting off doing for yourself that you need to buckle down and just do?

(This post contains an affiliate link.  Should you choose to buy through it, I will get a few cents to keep the blog lights on.)

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Pups, Pancakes n' Pie

This weekend was pretty low key.

We did make it to a pet store to play with dogs and per usual, it fell asleep on me.  I'm the canine nap time whisperer.

He was a cutie.  

We walked around a mall a little bit until my feet started giving me issues.  I decided that I'm going to add walks in daily because I will never strengthen my legs if I'm sitting most of the time.  Even if it's only half an hour.  The Mr will walk with me the days he comes home early and I'll walk the hood when he has full days. My arches are trying to really tighten up on me so I'm giving myself a week of walking and continued rehab and then it's back to the chiro for a tune up and direction on how to beat this version.  

Sunday, I was inspired by my friends Kauai trip to make a Hawaiian favorite for breakfast.  Banana macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup and 2 slices of bacon.

Lunch time it was supreme naan pizza (cheese, red pepper, green pepper and onion) with some fruit.

We had some new neighbors move in a few weeks ago.  I have always wanted to bake a pie and take it to new neighbors.  It seems like an old fashioned thing to do but I think it's a tradition long overdue for a comeback.  I made an apple pie with oatmeal crumble.

You have no idea how much I wanted to slam my face in that thing.  But I wrapped it up while it was still warm and we went next door.  The woman and her little dog was home and while we were talking to her, her husband pulled up.  They seem very nice and sadly they have met some less than friendly neighbors here.  It amazes me how people are more than happy to show their ass as a first impression.  Hopefully our gesture of goodwill has reassured them that not all of us in the 'hood are jerks.  We got a bbq invite when the weather warms up and a few thank you's for the pie since they're from the south and that's what they do there too.  Edit:  It's been 4 years living next to them and these people are flaming a-holes.  I should've slammed the pie in their face.

How were you welcomed to your neighborhood, if at all?  What did you do this weekend?

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