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By kilax, January 23, 2014 6:27 am

• Data got his cousin Dexter a toy mouse for Christmas, and we were really cracking up over these pictures of her playing with it! She looks like she has boxing gloves on in the first one (click to see larger)!

• Speaking of boxing gloves, check out these schweet ones my parents got me! Holy cow, they are too awesome. We are actually boxing in the class I am teaching right now, but I forgot to bring them Monday night! I will remember for the Friday class. 

• And speaking of cats, I have turned in to an even bigger dork (surprise surprise). I somehow ran across these “anti dust” cat earphone jack plugs  on Amazon and had to get them (should I be worried about dust or more about the fact that I bought them?). They don’t exactly look like the image on the amazon page… but I am still using one. Even Data is rolling his eyes at me. Hmm, maybe a few of my cat ladies need these as well? Or maybe I should share what I have. For some reason, Steven took the one out of his phone that I put in there. Hmm, strange. 

• I was really excited to try these LED Nathan PopTop gloves but I haven’t been impressed. The batteries take a long time to charge. One of the batteries came broken so I’ve asked for new ones twelve days ago (still waiting on them, but it was nice of Nathan to send some!). I went to charge them tonight and the charging port came out of the working battery. And the wires get a bit in the way when you put your hands in. I am going to keep trying though. If anything, I will just use them as gloves! Oh, but they get pretty sweaty (ha ha, that is probably just me!). 

• The song Say “Something” by A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera is so pretty, but damn, it makes me feel soooo sad. But I keep listening to it, anyway. So pretty. So sad. So pretty. So sad. STUCK IN THIS CYCLE 4-EVA!
• I am really glad I met Anne for a run last night. Not only because we had a great time, but also, because it caused me to take a different train to meet her. Huh? Why does that matter? Well, I didn’t even know until Bobbi asked me about it, but the exact train that I usually take home hit a car, in the town I live in (pdf here). It’s awful to say, but I am happy I didn’t have to experience that.  Did you know there was an increase in train vs car and pedestrian collisions in this area in 2013 (pdf here)? I read about so many of them, that I wasn’t surprised when that statistic came out at the end of the year. It’s so sad. Train safety, peeps!  
• I was feeling really bummed at the beginning of the January that I wasn’t taking many pictures and wouldn’t have much to add to my digital photo frames in the beginning of February. Then, lo and behold, I actually started doing things and taking pictures and feeling happy again. Wait, what is this? Should I actually leave my house and be social once in awhile? Does that make me happy? It appears, yes. Ha ha. 
• I was going to ask you some questions, but dang, this is long enough. I can put them somewhere else or save them for next week!

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, XXXVII, XXXVI, XXXV, XXXIV, XXXIII, XXXII, XXXI, XXX, XXIX, XVIII, XXVII, XXVI, XXV, XXIV, XXIII, XXII, XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Comments (26)

By kilax, June 5, 2013 6:11 am

Isn’t it funny how you can hear a song (or even part of it!) once and think “OMG! I have to download it RIGHT NOW!!!!”?

[“Same Love,”* “Blurred Lines“]

Or how you hear a song and at first you don’t care for it, but then you hear it so much it grows on you and OMG YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT?

[“#Beautiful”**]

Or… how you hear a song once and NEVER like it and have to change the station whenever it comes on? Heh heh heh.

[“Payphone,” ANY Avril Lavigne song]

Funny enough, one of the things I was most nervous about in regards to teaching strength class was the playlist. Tunes can really make or break a workout. And I wanted my playlist to be in the “make” category. Ha ha.

But there is a problem in that I am not a big music buff. I stick to Top 40s, Classic Rock, and a mix of 60s-80s music. At first I tried mixing these genres together for my class playlists.  But as I have become more comfortable with it, I’ve branched out a bit and done more “themed” playlists. I talked to my brother-in-law about some alternative tunes and made an alternative playlist. My sister recommended I download a new song from The Great Gatsby film and that lead me to find a lot of other new music and a new playlist.

Basically, I spend all the money I make on new tunes to teach class.

Just kidding.

Anyway. Downloading all these new tunes has made music fun again. I hadn’t been keeping music on my phone until I started teaching class in March, but now that it’s on there, I am more apt to play it when I am walking somewhere or when I am in the car. And it puts me in a good mood.

What song are you playing over and over again right now?

*If I was eloquent and could put my thoughts together, I would write about how much meaning that song has.
**What’s up with songs putting the number sign in front of the title?! There is a Justin Bieber song that does this too.***
***I understand what hashtags and Twitter are. I am not an idiot. I just don’t understand why you would want a song to have one in front of it. 

Comments (38)

By kilax, March 21, 2013 6:23 am

• One of the most enjoyable parts of prepping to teach strength class (besides coming up with the torturous sets of exercises) is developing the playlist for class. I am not a music buff in ANY way, but, I think music is important for a strength workout! So I try to make a different playlist each week, to mix things up. Then I send it to Bobbi and my dad to review. Ha ha. Any specific recommendations for songs for teaching my strength class?
  

•  Goal-setting does not work very well for me. Nor does sharing goals (in the case that I do set one). I think that is why I have been successful this year with losing weight and setting two 5K PRs – I just haven’t focused on them too much. When I focus on things too much, I get all caught up in them. It’s all I can think about, and I start to self-sabotage. I know this is incredibly odd. Is anyone else mostly private about their goals… or an odd ball in not making too many? Is anyone else all about the self-sabotage? Sigh. 

Age group medal from Saturday’s 5K

• Not that I think anyone should, but how long do you think you could go without eating processed sweets (candy, cookies, all the nomz)? I did this once for 40 days (I bet you can’t guess the reason)… I am a HUGE believer in not depriving and having a small treat each day. But lately, that small treat has been spiraling out of control for me! Of course. I won’t make a goal of it, as I said in bullet #2 above… that won’t help.
• Katie at Live Half Full started a new “Take Time Tuesday” as a reminder to list out all the things we are grateful for once a week. Check out the post and link back! This week, I am grateful for freedom of speech (and the friends that put up with me). Because I sure have been cranky this week. 

• Speaking of cranky, here’s something I cannot stand – meetings scheduled at noon. COME. ON. I know people are on different eating schedules, but can we just assume that noon should be off limits? Do I have to go back to marking that time as “busy” in my calendar? Sigh. Okay, okay. I will make an exception if participants are in different time zones. Not sure why that bothers me so much. What do you think is the best time of day to hold a meeting?
• This upcoming weekend is my “free” weekend! I purposefully did not make any plans, so I can stay home and help Steven with Fake Meats stuff and get my studying on. Because… see the second bullet above. Yeah. Making the very broad goal of taking the ACE Personal Trainer exam in May is not making me study anymore. NEED. TO. FOCUS. Do you ever purposefully schedule a plan-free weekend? It may become habitual. I think we have something going on almost EVERY weekend until mid-July. It’s becoming impossible for me to schedule things!
• And one more oddball question. Do you ever have to convince yourself NOT to exercise? That’s been me lately. My alarm goes off really early, and I tell myself “No, Kim, stay in bed. You can use the rest [sleeping, not rest for my body].” 

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: XXXVI, XXXV, XXXIV, XXXIII, XXXII, XXXI, XXX, XXIX, XVIII, XXVII, XXVI, XXV, XXIV, XXIII, XXII, XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Comments (28)

By kilax, March 31, 2011 9:44 am

1. I did not want to get up to meet the Grayslake Running Club (GRC) this morning. I was just exhausted. So I got out of bed to sign in to the GRC website and take my name off of today’s run, and realized, since I was up, I might as well go! Plus, I don’t have anyone’s phone number, and what are the chances they would look online before they left to meet at 5:30? I ended up running 9 miles with them and 6 on my own. Has meeting friends to run ever been the only thing that got you out the door to do it?
2. I saw a fox this morning during my run! He crossed my path then stopped to look at me, then kept running. I snapped a picture with my phone. You can really see him, right? (no)



3. This has been my highest running mileage month ever – 145 miles!!!
4. This morning, as I was driving to meet the GRC to run, I was thinking about how much I love my Infiniti FX35 (2005 model). I’ve had it for almost two years now. I love the performance, the way it sounds and looks, but especially the little details. I love being able to control the stereo from the steering wheel. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the proximity key – I never have to get a key out to get in to my car or start it! When I have a car at work, I always forget you have to have the key out to start the car. I highly recommend Infiniti. What is your favorite car brand? Please don’t say GM.
5. Speaking of my car, I backed it in to something on March 1 and effed it up. I was so embarrassed and disappointed in myself. I can’t really say much about it now, because insurance is still getting worked out, but I can say that Steven was amazing it getting it taken care of for me, and right away. It’s all better now! Phew. (P.S. Good thing we got a tax return this year and had some extra cash!)



Oops.



All better!

6. I asked for a new three-tube bird feeder for Christmas because squirrels destroyed mine last year. My dad’s mom gave me this nice new one. Check it out though! These squirrels are relentless! I don’t mind if they eat the food – just please don’t eat the feeder!



7. When I first heard Jennifer Lopez’s new song “On the Floor,” I didn’t like it. But then it got stuck in my head and I had to buy it on iTunes. YOU know what is stuck in my head now? “Black and Yellow.” No way in hell I am downloading THAT! What song has been stuck in your head lately?
8. I wanted to see Burlesque when it came out in the fall, but it didn’t meet our “see in the theater” criteria. I finally came from Netflix last night though! I loved it. It was a nice, fun, cheesy, mindless movie with dancing and singing (and lots of scantily clad women). I love fun movies. And I love Christina Aguilera!



9. My brother is getting married this weekend (photo of him and his fiancee below)! Yay! Are any of your siblings married? My older brother is, but I wasn’t able to go to their wedding, because I was living in Rome.



10. And this last tidbit is kind of long! In fact, this whole thing got kind of long. Oops. I thought it would be short. Anyway.

Do you guys know what this is? Does it look like something a vegan would eat?

It’s seitan (vital wheat gluten). Steven’s actually made it before. Last weekend, he was experimenting with the texture of it, trying to make it less “sponge-y” and more stringy.

You can buy vital wheat gluten and work with that, but Steven started from scratch, with a bag of flour and water, then worked with the dough for about an hour.

Hey, Kim, do you see what is in he top right corner of the photo?

Then he spent an hour soaking it. After that, he split it up into different pieces, and experimented with cooking it different ways for a few more hours (and he also made a pizza during all of this).

On Sunday, Steven cut the seitan in to strips, coated it in flour, and fried it. Nom.

Here are two of the pieces, that he prepared differently. You can kind of see the one on the right is more stringy/meaty, and the one of the left is sponge-y – still some experimenting left to do!

Steven makes me feel kind of lazy. Ha ha. He is amazing. He will tackle any project with confidence. I would be scared away from trying something like this, but he sure isn’t!

Comments (84)

By kilax, March 17, 2011 3:58 am

I received a pair of blue tooth enabled wireless headphones for Christmas and have had a lot of issues with them.  I emailed Adam to ask him what he thought of his Sony W-Series Walkman MP3 player, because I loved my Sony Walkman MP3 player, and though I might as well stick with a brand I knew and loved.

The Sony W-Series Walkman MP3 Player

Well, Adam loves the MP3 player. And, he hooked me up. And essentially, two of you as well. He contacted his Sony rep, who sent me a MP3 player to try out, and two to give away!

Below is what I think of the MP3 player. My review has a few interesting notes in it, because in my mind, I was comparing the MP3 player to the wireless headphones and phone combo I had been using while running before.

Me wearing the Sony W-Series Walkman MP3 Player

Details

• 1.68 GB of music capacity (2 GB total)
• playmodes: Normal/Shuffle/ZAPPIN (more on that below)
• approximate battery life of 11 hours
• 1.5 hours to do a full charge (3 minute charge for 90 mins of music playback)
• USB mini-B connector
• format(s) Supported : MP3/ AAC/ WMA (DRM)/ WMT Capable
• comes with S/M/L earbuds, and MP3 holder

Pros

• comfortable/no bouncing/stays put
• water-resistant
• great sound quality
• wireless
• MP3 player built in
• quick to charge/long battery
• controls are intuitive and easy to access while running
• turns on when you “pull apart” the two headphones (see picture below)
• voice tells you what is going on (if on shuffle, changing playlists, etc.)
• easy set up, no software required (option for content download manager for iTunes)
• easy to make playlists/transfer music from iTunes & Media Player – just drag and drop!
• no “skipping” (like my wireless bluetooth headset does with the phone)
• quick song changes with jog lever (crucial – so you are not holding your arm up to your ear (while running) waiting for it to change!)
• inexpensive – it’s originally $60, but click on this link to get it for only $48.99

You just pull the two headphones apart and that is what turns the MP3 player on!

Cons

• no radio
• no screen interface (but this did not bother me – the voice in the MP3 player lets you know what modes/etc. you are selecting)
• computer connectivity issues – this is probably JUST ME and my POS computer, but the computer did not recognize the MP3 player as a drive for the longest time – Steven had to fix it (and I still kind of have issues) – you can see the directions he used here

Don’t Know

• there is a feature I didn’t check out that much – ZAPPIN – quickly scans songs so you can find the one you like with the tempo you desire
• operating temp – the manual says it operates from 41°F-95°F – I run in very cold temps in the winter, and hope it works…
• durability over time – I have only used it a few times

Overall? I love, love, LOVE this MP3 player! And am not surprised. Sony makes great products!

Sony W-Series Walkman MP3 Player Giveaway Rules

1. I will give away two (2) of the Sony W-Series Walkman MP3 Players
2. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me when you would use this MP3 player, and what you would listen to on it.
3. To get an extra entry, “like” Sony’s Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/sonyelectronics, and leave an additional comment letting me know you did.
4. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Wednesday March 23. I will use random.org to select the winner. I will announce the winner on Thursday March 24.
5. This giveaway is open to all readers.

Comments (17)

By kilax, February 8, 2011 5:24 am

Where/when do you listen to music?

I used to rarely listen to music. In the car, for sure, and then sometimes while running/exercising. But I never listened to it while walking to work or riding the train, even though I wondered why so many people I would see walking around in Chicago had headphones on. A lot of people do!

I asked for wireless headphones for Christmas, in hopes of avoiding this while running:

I know that doesn’t look like me messing around with the headphones, but it indeed, is me.

I received the Plantronics BackBeat 906 wireless headphones, and decided to experiment with listening to music on the train and while walking to/from work. Surprisingly, listening to music really pepped me up on my walk to work! I found myself arriving in a good mood! Imagine that!

It actually shouldn’t be a surprise. There are countless studies out there about how music energizes us, helps us exercise better (it can reduce your perception of pain and help with your tempo), and helps us get certain tasks done more efficiently when listening to certain music.*

Do you purposefully use music to energize you?

I always feel like I am behind on music, because I read blogs where the authors are really in to music, but I basically just listen to whatever is on the radio and some of my favorite “blast from the past” songs. I don’t research music much, or know what is going on with current trends. I am not interested in new artists. And even though we have whole-house audio, I don’t take very good of advantage of it. Me so lame.

I should mention, in case anyone is ever interested in purchasing the wireless headphones that I have, that the bluetooth adapter is not reliable. At all. It broke within the first day I had it, then I got a new one, and it worked intermittently. So, we went past the bluetooth adapter route and bought a micro SD card for my phone, so I can use the music player and bluetooth from my phone to connect to the headphones (which work to answer calls too). So far it works, but skips (or does something that sounds similar to skipping) when I walk. It should be interesting to see how it works when I am running.

*Studies say that listening to certain types of music help people perform tasks better that they are already good at doing, but that music can distract from tasks we are not good at. I don’t know about you, but I cannot read/work and listen to music at the same time.

Comments (8)

By kilax, September 4, 2009 4:49 pm

If you could instantly learn to play any one musical instrument extremely well, which one would you choose?

I would choose the piano, so I can play fun songs like this (make sure to listen to the audio!). I hope to take piano lessons someday, before I get too old and lose all of my youth and vigor. I bet I would be good at it.

I played the violin for 9 years (from the 4th-12th grades of school), but right now, I can’t remember the last time I played it. I get urges to get it out and play from time to time. Steven has a cello… maybe we could join an orchestra (after practicing for awhile). Would that be dorky?*

*Not that it’s stopped me before.

Comments (15)

By kilax, July 27, 2008 10:55 am

One of our top priorities today is creating a few Cruisin’ CDs for when we are driving this around next Saturday:

Of course, that is assuming the Gallardo has a CD player. I was surprised when the Ferrari didn’t have AC, so you never know…

We need some suggestions for good “Driving” music. Here’s what’s on our list so far (in no particular order):

1. “Low Rider”
2. “La Grange” – ZZ Top
3. “Panama” – Van Halen
4. “Disco Science” – Marwais (Snatch Soundtrack)
5. “Spirit in the Sky” – Norman Greenbaum
6. “Latin Girl” – Black Eyed Peas
7. “Harder Better Faster Stronger” – Daft Punk (and I must say, I liked this band BEFORE Kanye West sampled them)
8. “Can I Get A” – Jay Z
9. “The Joker” – Steve Miller Band

So, you can see… we have a varied musical tastes. I really REALLY like classic rock, and will probably put a bit more of that on there.

What are your suggestions for good “Driving” songs?