YOUR BICEPS ARE HUGE! Kiss me!

(F.Y.I. – The title is a quote from the movie ‘House Bunny’ that has become a long standing private joke that makes me laugh)

 

 

 

The apartment is almost done and I have done it for pennies on the dollar. I have one or two more items to get before I’m done but I can honestly say the place is really livable and guess what? I now have to start getting rid of items that are taking up space.

 

This is an exciting premise. Its time to cast off and clean out the clutter. The boxes with stuff I couldn’t do anything but keep in storage and this stuff stayed there for years. It has not seen the light of day since I moved here so why do I need it? I’m sure there are items like pictures and memories in the mix but I find, and this is true with most peoples clutter, that’s its 80% garbage and 20% stuff you want to keep. I once had a basement so full that I couldn’t walk in it. So I applied the two year rule.

 

If I haven’t needed it for two years, it goes.

 

Think about it: two year old clothing?  Is it out of style or does it not fit anymore? Either way I know of a very few people who can wear clothing they have outgrown. They never go back.

 Lamps, desks, chairs…. Why keep it? There is no need unless they are a family heirloom and then they should not be hidden in the basement only to get moldy?

 

So I’m thinning out this and next weekend. Its spring and I think I will find someone to have a garage sale with. Between us we should have enough stuff to draw some attention.

 

 

Speaking of thinning out, so am I. I recently started the 12 second program created by Jorge Cruise. I’m now cruising into week three of it. Its for people who want to sculpt and are in relatively good health. I fence, I skateboard, and I am active in everything I do with exception to work because I’m a desk jockey. This can be a problem at times because I don’t get up and move about for long periods of time.

 

I think I hit my all time high weight three years ago at close to 200 pounds I had cheap scale so I never could tell, but honestly I didn’t want to know. It just happened. I was really doing nothing different but getting fatter. My knees hurt, my back was sore, and clothing didn’t fit.

 

I changed diet a bit and dropped a lot of weight. The shape of my face changed and I got my chin back and I kind of yo-yo between 180 and 185 with a few dips below that when I try to drop down to my ideal weight. I have never been able to keep at it consistently because it required too much work and not enough background in health.

 

This is why I like the 12 second program. It has an eight week program with 16 routines and its only 2 times a week and with cardio every day. Its 20 minutes a day and since I have a gym at my apartment, there is not rain, cold, or dead of night that gives me an excuse to stop.

 

I am at the end of my second week on Sunday. However I am floored at this point for a few reasons.

1) I weighed in yesterday at 175.2 pounds on a good scale. That’s how much I weigh. I have never been that weight in 15 years and I know I will drop more. 177 was my best and I was starving. I’m 175.2 and FULL. The difference is exciting.

2) I can see a physical change. I went to scratch my head while sitting at my desk and my arm stopped short. Just a tad. It ‘bounced.’ Now, I scratch my head a lot Its what I do when I think. This is a repetitive movement. What did my arm bounce off of? MY ARM. I HAVE A BICEP. WHOOOHOOO!!. It’s a tiny difference but it still is muscle growth and strength. I was pretty please with myself. And then my Girlfriend came over and gave me a hug and was like, what’s this? HOLY CRAP YOUR BOOBS ARE HARD! (Yes, she called them boobs. They really aren’t ‘boobish’ but they certainly are not pecks.) It was nice to have someone else notice the change and that was after three workouts and 9 days. It was given as a the perfect compliment because she knows how embarrassed I get. It made me laugh and then told me my biceps were HUGE! Hence the title of this blog. And then big kiss followed. life doesn’t get better than this.  

 

NINE DAYS! The full program is 8 weeks long and the routine is easy to follow. I eat healthy for the most part and have pizza and buffalo chicken sandwiches now and then, but honestly I have not changed what I eat. I can wear 31 inch pants now.  I’m far from perfect. Fitting into the pants doesn’t mean that the muffin top is gone, but at least its not 33 or 34 inch pants with a muffin top. The possibilities excite me.

 

Let’s see what spring cleaning does for me. Its time to shed a lot of garbage in my life.

The Ten Things I Eat On a Regular Basis and How I Survive with Style On 35 Cents a Meal.

I decided to develop an eating schedule. I’m a bit tubby right now and soft. By tubby, I mean I’m overweight, not obese. +10 pounds, give or take on any given day. I also am a desk jockey, which means I don’t flex the muscles I should. Shame on me.

 

Now I know I can’t start everything at once or it will be too much of a change and I’ll fail. This means I have to take baby steps, or at least little kid steps  

 

I found a great website where I can track the foods I eat and it logs my calories and activities all in one place; it even gives me a scorecard telling me how healthy I am eating o a daily basis and over time.

 

http://caloriecount.about.com/

 

I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out what I eat and don’t eat on a regular basis. When you get past all the spices, specialty foods and condiments I really come down to my core foods

 

Chicken, Kidney Beans, Black beans, rice, tuna, eggs, carrots, peas, bread, tortillas, and a variety of pastas. I was surprised to see just how basic my food intake was. There are a few secondary items like cheese and fruits and waffles, but I generally don’t eat them more than once in a week, if that.

 

I started out with a daily menu but realized I was wasting a lot of time making food every day and wasting energy because of it.

 

So yesterday I not only cooked up dinner, I cooked up a plan. I boiled four pieces of chicken for two different meals I was planning. The first was Chicken Alfredo, and the second was chicken pot pie. I used the broth to soak beans and rice overnight to use them for the next day. I boiled spaghetti and added peas and carrots to some chicken stock for flavor. I froze the rest of the chicken stock for another day. I made the chicken pot pie from scratch, with the exception of the cream of chicken. And I cleaned up all the cooking dishes before the pot pie was out of the oven. It took about an hour in total.

 

Here is my shopping list:

 

·        4 pieces of chicken

·        ½ cup of brown rice

·        ¼ cup of black beans

·        ¼ cup of kidney beans

·        2 cups of flour

·        2 cans of cream of chicken soup

·        ¾ cup of bertoli’s  Alfredo sauce

·        1 cup of frozen peas

·        1 cup of frozen carrots

·        3 serving of spaghetti

·        1 stick of butter

 

The chicken was frozen and I got 6 pounds of it from SAM’s Club for 10 bucks. My guess is that was my big ticket item at about 2 dollars. The rest of the food cost about 3 dollars combined.

 

I broke the food up into regular servings, based on how much a person SHOULD eat, not CAN eat. And took a tally of complete meals that I made. All of them have carbs, veggies and protein, even if its not super-duper healthy, I still made it myself, so at least I know that it’s healthier than buying it pre-made.

 

How many meals did it make?

 

Fourteen.

 

That’s about 35 cents a meal and it’s not Spaghetti-Os.

 

Next week, I will use the same items and make all new meals for some variety.  I wonder if I can improve on the food model. And get my cost under 20 dollars a month?

 

We’ll see.

Green Paint is Really Warm and Inviting After 10 Hours…

As chance would have it, I managed to get an older desktop computer for the boy’s room two days ago. It’s a Dell Dimension 3000 and will work just fine for homework and basic internet access. I’m not a fan of on-line gaming because I see how much time it takes out of people’s lives in a negative way and even though I spend a lot of time on the computer for work, and even for random goofing off and connections, I still try to get out a lot.

 

I spent a marathon day refurbishing the computer while I was working from home. It’s not that hard. XP takes about 90 minutes to install and most of the time you just hit enter 2 or three times. The rest is just waiting. It’s the same with everything else. It took about 10 hours to do and since I was linked to the desktop and my laptop is mobile, I decided to work in the really really green room all day.

 

It was very warm and fuzzy feeling in there and I found that when I walked back into my office over the course of my day I realized how cold it is in there. Not physically cold, just emotionally cold.

 

Now I know I want to hang my movie posters in the office and I have not because I don’t have the correct sized picture frames to put them in and I don’t want to use push pins. After all, it’s my place and I can be stubborn. But the walls… I never realize how emotionally cold they were.

 

The boy’s room does not have as nice furniture as the office and it certainly looks less finished than the office, yet I seriously contemplated working in there again today.

I guess paint makes a big difference.

 

So now I have to think about what paint for the office since I spend a tremendous amount of time here. It will have to be in the hallway because the office is really just an alcove between rooms. Large enough to put a couch and a TV, but I have a large executive desk and a bookshelf.

 

I truly am down to needing only a few things. I need a dresser for the green room and I need some items for my bedroom, which is ironic because it was the highest priority room in my place. I got a bed and nothing else has been appropriate. It has a side table and a lamp, but it really is pretty bare by comparison. I will think about what will work in there.

 

Just another day in the life.

The Really Really Free Market

I saw this post on Craigslist last week and decided to head out there since it was around the corner from a friend of mine. I didn’t know what to expect and I wanted to check it out before lugging stuff down there. I have made mistakes like that before.

What I found was a really nice group of people trading things they didn’t need for things they did. I didn’t get there in the first hour but I plan to next time. I will also bring some chairs and other furniture because people do need things. There were so many items that we had a lot to donate to the Rescue Mission afterwards.

Food not Bombs, cooked a free vegan stew and I found a few CDs I wanted. I will look for blankets next because I really need them.

If more people were like these people, the world would have fewer problems, I’m sure. So I’m doing my bit… I’m advertising it for them as well. Go out and see what they are doing. Bring stuff. Help people. Be a good neighbor.

The Really Really Free Market on 4th and Castle

This Apartment is Beginning to Look Like a Home

 

 

I haven’t had time to write and I’m a bit under the weather right now… just a cold and sore throat, but I’ll take some time to blog about the items the items I have acquired over the past few weeks.

pretty sweet Computer Desk, Eh? it was free!

This is the desk My Daughter and I pulled from the dumpster. Well, in front of the dumpster. Someone wanted it to be taken, so why not us? It’s a computer desk and does not have wheels. Personally I think it looks better without them. I had to reinforce the desk on the side because it wouldn’t stay together. It is solid now, but not as much as I would like. I’ll take more time with it later on this month. It has nothing on it for the time being, although I’m sure it would do well for years without me doing anything. I’m just being anal. There is also a Bamboo shelf in the picture that I got for 5 bucks off of Craigslist a while ago. It used to hold my DVD’s but I have a place for them now. I think with the green paint, the bamboo is a good fit for the room.

This is a longer shot of the room

This is a longer shot of the room. The bed was my daughter’s and not used for years. The mattress was free and only used four times by a grandchild before they outgrew it and moved away. Again… Craigslist.

free TV for video game play and a bit of privacy for the boys

 

This is a smaller TV I plucked from out of the dumpster. It works and will be good for the kids to play video games on. I will assume more TV’s will show up as the country goes digital next month. I’ll find one that is a bit larger and fits the TV stand better.

The door swing fully back, but i can hide the TV when i don't want to see the technologyNow you see it. Now you don't. TV GONEThe Technology is out of sight and out of mind

This is an armoire I got at the Salvation Army. It is made of real wood and looks handmade, honestly. It was about $100 but I grew tired looking for a TV center people were giving away. I was planning on building one myself anyway so the money s squirreled away went to this one. The armoire I wanted to build would have cost me more in wood by itself.

This shot is the couch I got for free. The lag was broken and I fixed it. The wine rack top was loose and I tightened it was also free. The clock just needed a good cleaning and was from the napping cat for pennies. I think it looks nice.

Once this Chair was welded, it was in better condition than the ogiginal executive chair I purchased many years ago, and it matches my desk better as well!

This is the executive chair that was chucked because the post broke its weld. I tried to weld it myself but I suck at it. I went around the corner to a chopper shop and paid I guy 20 bucks to weld it for me. It works great now, and I have two chairs now, so I don’t need to find one for the boys’ desk.

These chairs remind me of the dining room table from my youth. They may be just as old too.

This is the set of 6 chairs I got in a curb alert off of Craigslist. They need a little TLC, and I would like to paint them but it’s really not necessary… They just need to be tightened down a bit… nothing for free ever is perfect.
My place is now beginning to look like a home and not some random collection of furniture where people keep their stuff on. It took 3 months to get this far and I’m almost done. Then I can even be choosier about what I’m looking for and perhaps give back to the dumpster gods some of my fortunate finds and someone else can benefit from them.

Algernon and Duffy, and Dog.

 

A very good friend and his fiancé gave me a present this Christmas before heading off to visit family. It happens to be a lucky bamboo plant submerged in a complete biosphere. There are two frogs and a snail in the plant and the plant itself is submerged in water and rocks.

Please meet my new friends, Algernon and Duffy, and Dog.

I have always like lucky bamboo anyway, but I have never received it as a gift.

I plucked this from a website (Fastfengshui.com) about lucky Bamboo:

The Lucky Bamboo
Over the past few years “Lucky Bamboo” has become one of the most popular Feng Shui accessories on the market. If you don’t yet have a Lucky Bamboo plant, once your friends and family find out that you are interested in Feng Shui you’ll probably receive one as a gift someday soon. In fact, Lucky Bamboo is said to be luckiest when it is received as a gift. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy one for yourself if you want to, though; just think of it as a gift from you to your home or office…

Bamboo is a symbol of luck and success because of its rapid growth, strength and fortitude. In this newsletter issue’s article, Stephanie shares some things she has learned to ensure that your Lucky Bamboo continues to bring you good fortune for a very long time.

Apparently, the frogs feed off the bamboo, and their poop feeds the plant (technically a grass) and the plant puts oxygen in the water. The snail cleans up the Algae. It s a maintenance free system. Perfect for me.

I also had he hardest time deciding what to name the frogs and snail. It took me more than 24 hours. I didn’t want to be cliché like Kermit or make literary references like Romeo and Juliet. I must admit, I had no luck in picking out lucky names for my new, easy to maintain, family.

It came to while I was buying eggs and butter at the store today.

The two frogs names are ‘Algernon’ and ‘Duffy’, and the snail is named ‘Dog’.

 

Dog is Hidden somwhere, but here are Algernon and Duffy

 

I have no reason, it just simply felt right.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I’ll Take a Free Komplement When Can I Get One!

I have become more actively seeking storage options for as I have begun to get sick of the piles I have in the back room. I had gotten some metal wire shelving a few weeks back in front on someone’s house but the brackets were missing, and when I stopped at home depot, I found them to be a bit pricey to buy outright.

My plan was to go to Habitat for Humanity this weekend and pick up a couple used ones for a 50 cents a piece and put the shelves up. They were not perfect for my needs being only a foot deep, but at least it would get the bleach and laundry soap out of the way. What I really needed was floor to ceiling shelving that was about 2 feet deep and I had been contemplating building them out of 2X4’s. I hated the idea and the look and knew it would cost me cash do it anyway, which is why I have been holding off.

My plans went up in smoke when I had to work this weekend due to the whole system tanking and in need of TLC. No getting downtown, so it would need to wait another weekend.

Then two things happened. Since I work from home and on line I commonly check craigslist for free items I might need. After all my needs are pretty basic at this point. I found two things. Someone was giving away a free armoire and someone had a bucket of used screws and bolts. I called and he said it was mine; I just had to go get it, which is exactly what I did.

When I got there, Adam (the guy who was getting rid of it) showed it to me and I was surprise and even elated. It happened to be a ‘Komplement’ Armoire, which is really portable closet in the best sense.

I knew it would not work for the television; however, it would work very well for the Laundry room. Notice the segway? It seems every time I start to really burn brain cells about what I really ‘need,’ stuff just shows up.

The armoire is the one on the center right with the hanger bar, but it has more shelves. The Nature of IKEA modulare and built to suit.

Now…, there are a few things to know about IKEA furniture. Roughly Translated, IKEA is Swedish for ‘heavy as hell.’ IKEA furniture is also very European. It’s very functional and space mined. There is not one cubic foot of this furniture that is wasted. And since I am trying to make the most of my space, I was elated when I saw it. I initially thought it would be the standard TV armoire that people normally have. I hate my TV and hate seeing it as a focal point for my living room so I jumped at the change to get a piece of furniture to hide it.

It took a while to put it together and I was looking through the last remnants of my odd screw jar to put it back together. That is the second thing to know about IKEA furniture. It’s really easy to screw it up when building it. The people who had it before me had rigged it to work, but it was really shabby looking. One look at the picture on the web and I knew what went wrong. It took about an hour to fix it and now it looks right and I threw away the junk wood they used to make it work. That burned up the rest of my day and I couldn’t make it to Habitat for Humanity. I knew it would be another week before I could get brackets for the wire shelves.

My biggest sense of frustration is not having the hardware to put it back together. When you get stuff for free, there is always something wrong with it. It always needs fixing. It’s always incomplete. It always needs screws.

That brings me to find #2:

A big five gallon pail of used screws. Free. I know what you are thinking. I know what I was thinking.

“If I can get a pickle jar’s worth of screws I can use out of it, I’ll be happy”

When I got there, I was a bit dismayed, but took them anyway. It was going to be work sorting out the junk, but that’s life sometimes. You need to sort through the junk to find the gems.

The first thing I found were the brackets to hold the wire shelves up! YESSSSssssss

That made the trip worth it. Plus it had a lot of screws. I have to set a few hours aside to get it all straight, but the trip was worth it.

Life is just funny that way sometimes.

Dumpster Salvage Rights…ask and Ye Shall Recieve

Note: Some of the Hangers are still in the packaging. They were never used and they were thrown out! I'm getting more and more surprised at the waste in this world!

It’s been a little tight this past week with rent and all, but I managed to get a bunch of stuff done. I will take a picture of the fireplace in a few days. I have a glitch with the camera at the moment, especially since I want to take a good picture of it.
But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
I was hanging up my clothing and getting it all organized and I only have so many STRONG hangers and I have a lot of heavy stuff. In fact I don’t even have enough of the weak hangers to get all my shirts hanging (I have no wardrobe at the moment. All my clothing his hung or on a shelf)
Anyway. I was thinking about some basic needs of mine. Nothing extravagant, and I don’t think I have been focused on that lately because I have been able to get by without them.
So this is on my short list of things I need.
A plunger, a small garbage can for the laundry room, a broom, a two-step ladder and hangers.
What did I find this week at the dumpster? All of them! The Plunger looks like it was never used, but I still bleached it. I also was in a small blue garbage can…again… still with the stickers on it…New. There was a broom there too! There was a Rubbermaid ladder there and about 100 plastic hangers. So tonight I will re-hang all my clothing that requires it.

 

This is a good reminder to appreciate the simple things. I know I do.

 

 

Faith in Layers

Among other things, I am a makeup artist.  I teach classes on effective makeup techniques. One particular class I taught this month was on “Grocery Store Makeup” where I took common items from the food isles and made some really believable makeup effects. The last one being a nine inch slit throat on my 15-year-old victim. When it was done, it was hard to tell, even up close that I had not really slit his throat.

 

But it didn’t start out that way. It initially looked like a bunch of snot all over his neck. One of the hardest things to teach is that the layers don’t all go on at once. I’m not drawing a slit throat with red and black markers. I am putting a layer of false skin and opening it up, pulling it wide and bending it over. Half of the colors I add are counter-intuitive. They don’t make sense as the building blocks, but after I add color and blood, it looks just like the real thing even up close.

 

It seems that I need to take my own advice. I have been working slowly on the fireplace and have just about completed it. I have painted the base Gooseberry maroon and finally added the glaze to make it what they call in the faux paint world ‘smooth’ leather. I have also built the basic cover of the fireplace mantle and it makes a world of difference. I still and a bit freaked out because it’s a little darker than I expected.

 

I don’t have my farm window yet and that annoys me. I found one at habitat for humanity but they want 25 bucks for it. That’s a bit pricey for a window that wont be used as a window. I may be forced to fabricate one to work with the mantle, but that annoys me as well. I really want to find a genuine nasty, paint chipping off, weathered wood window.

 

It’s hard to imagine the window in front of the faux finish right now. I placed a few different picture frames on the mantle an that made me feel a little better, but the paint is so intense by itself, it may overwhelm the fireplace all by itself. I don’t want to do that. I will not repaint it a different color. I will just need to be content that I have not finished all the layers yet. The window and the light sconces will need to be added first and I have not found them yet for the right price. I already feel over budget with it, but I know it’s worth it. It will be the most expensive area of the room and $50 dollars. The glaze was a learning process and I learned that I needed far less of it than I made and eventually had to waste. Next time I will do better. The Bathroom is another Faux Finish and I will try and use the remainder of the glaze I didn’t waste.  Hopefully my instincts are right.

 

O already know I have to paint the rest of the room because the fireplace is such a ‘WOW], the rest of the room looks disgustingly bland and out of balance. Its hard to sit on it when I know what needs to be done, but don’t have the cash. Hopefully I will come by some of that this month.

 

Regardless of all of that, it’s still scary. I will take pictures when its done, and then again when I paint the rest of the room.

Redoing Bistro Chairs for pennies on the dollar

 

The other day I manage to pick up a two seat bistro set with a matching table for super-duper cheap. There was only one problem with it and that was that time had taken its toll on the seats themselves. The grill webbing that makes the base of the seat was rusty and falling off.

 

 

I sat and thought of ways I could replace the seat sections. And came up with the following items to ponder.

 

1)      The seat webbing could be replaced, but I would need a welder

2)      The seat webbing could be covered up and something could be bolted to the top by drilling holes in the metal and screwing it down.

3)      I could cut out the webbing and put wood UNDER the seat and make it look intentionally wooden, but I would have to clip and file every rusty edge that was exposed and it still might pinch or poke.

 

I finally decided on a fourth possibility and decided to work with a combination of options two and three.

 

I found wood at Habitat for Humanity and Home depot and cut several pieces to shape to be placed on top of the chair seat itself. This would eliminate any possibility of getting poked with rusty parts or pinched with the chair edge itself.

 

I then put braces on the bottom of the chair and bolted them into place. I speculated if wood screws holding it from the bottom would be enough, but sturdiness prevailed and I opted for bolts that would be visible from the top in an aesthetically pleasing way. It doesn’t look like a patch to cover up a chair that was falling apart. It looks like I wanted it to look this way. So I’m pretty happy about it.