Tanty

I apologise for my tanty the other night.

If you did the maths with the weeks of the month you'd probably get a fair idea why, but I was also cranky because I had free tickets to a show and my guest suggested I bring The Hun (who had been nagging to come) instead and I agreed and thanked them and then when I told him he realised he had something else on and I emailed my family and only dadsy replied replied suggesting youngest bro, and then I tried three other friends and non could make it and then I double checked with my family and finally middle bro agreed but made it sound like it was a massive hassle and I felt grumpy and took it out on the internets.

The show was okay, but then today it's come to light we probably won't be doing anything for our five year anniversary, and I was meant to go to the movies and that fell through, and blah blah blah I'm obviously not feeling myself 100% again yet.

But how about this heat, hey?

...

... at least middle bro offered to copy me a CD...

FittyPod

Had a great time in Sydney - I didn't freak on the climb, Bon Iver was FANTASTIC and I wish I lived in a house furnished exclusively by IKEA. I also bought my self an iPod shuffle - there just isn't a case to bring my 30g EnnyPod to the gym (tucking it into my pants really isn't a good way to keep it working) and it was less than $70 to get myself 250 songs onto a cute little pinky-purple clip.

I plan to put my upbeat music onto it so I can shuffle away at the gym, but thought it would be great to do a CD swap, like a few of us did about two years ago. It's easy for me because I made a CD for two people at work and currently listening to it in the car, so I already know how mine will sound.

Interested?

1. Email me your postal address (EnnyPen at gmail dot com);
2. I'll send you a CD with my postal address; and
3. You send me a CD with a CD of YOUR workout songs!

Even if you're not a gym bunny, I'd love a CD of music that makes you feel like moving.

In the event of my absence

The Hun and I are in Sydney tomorrow and Thursday - for bridge climbing, Bon Iver, Bondi Beach and IKEA. I mocked up a wedding inspiration board which I love and was planning to show you tonight, but I will leave that for another time because I got an email forward that I thought was pretty cute and hadn't seen before (and wanted to show you before it was everywhere) (ignore that last bit if these are ooooooooooooold) (click to enlarge):

I'm loving them

Things I'm loving at the moment...

• Our birdie boys! Tesla and Seymour are doing really, really, really well. Tesla has learnt to wolf whistle, which delights us beyong what should be socially acceptable. That said, our excitement about getting a handle on toilet training mustn't be socialy acceptable - we get them to step up and up and up on our fingers and then call out 'poop! poop!' and a fair amount of the time they'll hunker down, turn their belies into a little upside heartshape, and do what they're being asked! This gets a lot of praise, because it's showing that they're responding to training, but also we are having to clean less crap off the floor, couch, table and clothes. We're getting much better at reading them, and their personalities are really shinging through!

• More birds! An upside of having our own birdie boys is that the blown off seed is bringing more and more other birds into our tiny courtyard - a dozen sparrows seem to be living in the tree by the back door - I plan to buy a little bird bath/feeder to blow the seed in to to cut down on the weeds and make it a little easier for the crazy fellows to get it.

• Microwave popcorn! It's crunchy, salty, warming and inherently fun, and technically it's like a veggie, right?!
  

• Wii Fit! Mumsy let me borrow hers, and I can't wait to give it a go once the microwave poprorn has settled.

• IKEA! We're stopping off their on our way home from Sydney next week and I finally got my catalogue last night, and read it until past 2am in the morning. I've got my eye on some shelves, some bedside tables, some vases for wedding table decorations and a few hundred other things. It just seems like such a fantastic place - I can't wait to be a home owner and go totally nuts on adorable floating shelves with lighting underneath, and TV units with wall panels to hide cords and attach flat screen TVs to.

• Wedding planning! Oh yeah, it's getting close to time to knuckle down and make things happen... I have a groom, half a bridal party, a date, a venue, a celebrant, a photographer, a jewllery designer (Yay Jen!!!) and 20 Google documents crammed full of ideas.

• Vegan friendly friends! I have a new work friend that came here from Brisbane and he is completely delightful. He is always so friendly, and upbeat, and fun. AND he is a great cook and loves to make things that I can eat - he made the worlds most FANTASTIC vegan mudcake the other week and shared the recipe with me. I will get his permission to share it with you if you are interested, but I can not WAIT for an excuse to make it and share it with others.
  

• Fun family nights! Last night mumsy, dadsy, middle bro, youngest bro, youngest bro's gf, myself and The Hun went to see a small local theatre production that was starring a family friend and one of my martial arts students. It was a really good peformance that everyone enjoyed, and then we headed out for a fantastic indian meal in Dickson! It was just a really, really good night.

• Fun family! Middle bro has made such amazing progress over the last 12 month or so. Not only has he shown amazing mindfulness and self control by giving up alchohol, he has lost close on 50kg, he has a fantastic level of fitness, he is proud of his appearance and he is having a positive influence on many, many people. He is housesitting for some friends for 6 weeks and he is showing even more maturity by maintaining his outlook, and his attitude to everything is just continually improving and he continues to amaze me. I am really, really proud of him.

• Me! I've been trying to be more concious with what I'm eating, and I've lost a kilo on average this week. I'm liking the way it's made me feel - cutting down on my portion sizes, keeping my fruit and veggies up, and feeling positive. And I've looked at myself in pics from last night, I've looked at my reflection, and I'm seeing the difference that concentrating on my health is having on my mental AND physical apperance. I'm in a good place at the moment. And I love it.
  

How predictable

First trip back to the gym, spent in terror that I might be getting dizzy...

I did 15 minutes at 126 heart rate (fat burn for 26 yo) and 15 minutes at 110 heart rate which felt like a fair bit of work until I realised that it was the fat burn rate for a 60yo. Look at me, going the distance.

It's going to be a tentative crawl back into the gym - my spewaphobia is just that severe. And while I understand the convulsing should be the most terrifying, I technically wasn't there for that so it doesn't seem all that real to me.

In better news I've been watching my weight this week and dropped 1.5kg... hooray for stinking hot weather in Canberra!

Wedding tradition

From here, and about to be crossposted on Facebook:


Ah ha ha!!!

Unhappy New Year!

This sort of story absolutely terrifies me...

A Canadian woman rushed to hospital on New Year's Eve for what she believed was a kidney stone gave birth to a baby boy instead, local media say.

"This is some kidney stone, isn't it," the woman, cradling the newborn in her arms, told Canwest New Service. "We're still in shock. We just can't believe it."

Juanita Stead, 36, said she did not suffer morning sickness or put on extra weight during her pregnancy, and continued to menstruate and so she had no idea that she was pregnant.

A hospital X-ray on New Year's Eve for back pains revealed the truth.

"The technician looked at me and said, 'My dear, you're pregnant with a full-term baby.' And I said: 'No sir, you got the wrong woman and you're looking at the wrong screen. There is no way I'm pregnant," she said.

Nicholas was born soon afterwards.

Coincidentally, the birth of the couple's first child, two-year-old Cameron, also caught them off guard.

Stead knew she was pregnant with Cameron, she said, but he arrived two months early.

"I felt like I had to go to the bathroom and out he popped, right into the toilet," she said. Her husband scooped their first-born out the toilet and put him in his mother's lap until an ambulance arrived, she said.

It's like those stories that you read in Dolly - 'I went to the toilet and pooped out a baby!' - that terrified you in school, then amused you in your early 20's, then terrify you once again...

Lisa the creepy vegan

You might be aware that The Hun and I have been working our way through Six Feet Under (hint: If you want to watch it yourself, there will be some spoilers here now).It's been a bit of an obsession, as in,I came home from work early last Friday just so that we could watch five in a row. We've just finished season three which was a bit of a snorefest. We only half-watched the first few episodes because we hoped it was just a dream. It wasn't. The rest of the episodes in the season can be summed up as: Someone dies, Nata and Lisa fight, David and Keith fight, Funeral, Fin; or Someone dies, Lisa is missing, Nate drinks, David and Keith fight, Funeral, Fin.

While the season wasn't that exciting (which was REALLY dissapointing because the first two seasons had us on the edge of our seats!!!), it was the character of Lisathat bothered me the most.

Lisa is a vegan. And when she was introduced I was REALLY hoping she would be cool... she was on such a cool show! But instead, she came with a whole bunch of stereotypes. She was a bit of a loner, she carried on about food a lot, she was soft spoken and alwasy eager to keep people happy. Then, annoyingly, as soon as she had a baby, she was all like 'oh no, don't worry about making me a fish-free salad, I need the protein'. Nice one, writers. Like us vegans don't get enough of that protein BS without you including it in the script.

(On a side note: check this awesome quote I read here today: "“There is enough protein in plants to grow an elephant, horse, or hippopotamus. Certainly there is enough protein to grow relatively small people.")

So, not only was she a crazy vegan, she was a real doormat for Nate (one of the main characters). They were friends in school but it turns out that he used her. He'd rebound to her and she would just hang on that, she later recalled these moments as some of her happier times "remember when that girl stood you up and you got wasted and then came to my house and we had the best sex of my life....". She kept shirts that he left at her house like decades ago, she was basically stalking him (and I'm pretty sure she was trying to entrap him with that baby of his she had). Basically, she was pretty pathetic.

And yet.

The similarities are a little uncanny.

Hello Enny the crazy vegan. Hello the girl who pined after a boy for a long time, based on the feeling they would be together in the end.

There's some truth to that Seinfield quote about how if there was someone exactly like you in the world, you would despise them.

Update to the previous post

The doctor said it was nothing to worry about - it would have been overexertion and probably some dehydration.

But if it happens again, then to come back and they'll look into it more. GAWD, I HOPE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.

On the plus side, I am officially the most hardcore person I know, so that's something...

Not a good way to start the year

Do you know what's more embarassing then getting all ready and sweaty in the gym?

Getting red and sweaty in the gym, feeling a little dizzy, starting to stand up then deciding you can't really, then sitting down on the floor near the wall, then trying to get your brothers attention, then him just getting angry because he's already on the next machine and he thinks your telling him to change machines and he has no problem with the machine he's on, then him pulling his headphone out and yelling at you that he can't hear you and you can tell he just thinks your f*cking around, then him finally coming towards you so he can hear you say you think you need some help, then taking your shoes and socks off because it's so hot, and reaching around to maybe losing your bra straps because it's so hot and it feels so tight, then realising you feel sick so you spread your towel out in front, then a staff member comes because your brother told them you needed help, then answering the staff member that your symptoms are that it's hot and you feel dizzy and that you think you're going to vomit, then the staff member fetching you a bucket, then you ask him if you can just lie down and go to sleep, then him saying no because then the room will spin and you'll feel worse and it will pass soon and that you just need to relax, and then you realise that you can't see or hear anything, and then all of a sudden you're aware that someone is holding your headback and you've managed to throw up all over yourself and the floor and not in the bucket, and then you start to feel a lot better even though it sounds like you're underwater, and then you think you hear the girl say that you've shat yourself and the guy replies that it happens, and then there are three staff getting an oxygen mask out for you, then the girl gets you a bottle of cold water, while one guy makes small talk and the other questions your brother so you can fill out an incident form, then you're taking deep breaths through an oxygen mask and feeling it tickle your nose, then you're apologising over and over for throwing up and causing hassle and freaking out that you may have shat yourself, then your bother points out that one of your martial arts studens is walking past, then they give you a tshirt to put on over the new singlet and shorts that you bought just so you could get back in to the new year and lose those 6kg for your wedding, and then you feel a fair bit better and get up to go home and stop in the toilets and find that thank god you didn't wreck yourself and the girl must have been nothing that at least you didn't sh*t yourself and when you're in the car your brother tells you that you passed out limp and started convulsing before you vomited on yourself, then you thank him for helping out and profusely apologise for getting vomit on his towel and promise to return it good as new, then you drop him home and your dad wonders allowed if you have some kind of heart problem, then you get to your house to tell your fiance and he is angry worried because you're just not the type to have the fire to battle through exercise until you make yourself sick, then you assure him you're going to the doctor at 9am on Monday anyway so you will definitely bring it up.

That is.
And I still have a headache and feel funny in my throat.