myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

I recently saw these two videos, Dead Fantasy I and Dead Fantasy II, on mors site and I like. I’m a fan of Final Fantasy X, and after what they did to FFX2, this is fun to see. It has multiple episodes, but I’ve only seen the first two. I’ll try and find the third one. For some reason, embedding the videos in my blog seems to break it (it even breaks in myspace). Not really sure why, but hey, if I can figure out a way to include them, then I will later.

So I just started my first workout as I begin trying to lose weight yet again. According to our physician, yoga and pilates are the way to go. I’m not a fan of home workout videos. I prefer looking like an idiot in an aerobic class because they I try not to look like an idiot. It’s more of a motivation thing. Doing it at home just seems silly and I get more self conscious than anything. I found this especially true with Billy Blanks Bootcamp workouts; plus he would go really fast and it’s more of a kickboxing and I can’t do that with Ian around.

Anyway, the first yoga workout I tried was Sara Ivanhoe’s 20 Min Yoga Makeover - Flat Abs. I’ve only done it once (Ian woke up half way through it), but I thought it was good. The workout didn’t use a fast pace method, but more of a slowly working the muscles idea. I was able to do this on the floor and I didn’t feel to self conscious since I wasn’t making these big gestures. I felt that I was actually working my muscles because it was hard to slowly do some of the techniques and that’s mainly because I am so out of shape. I’ve done a lot of the techniques before and I know I used to be able to do them, so it is a wake-up call knowing that I can’t do them now. The biggest thing I need to remember is to continue breathing as I’m doing the exercises. Even though Ian woke up 5-10 minutes into the workout, I was still able to do some of the techniques while he was up and around. It was kind of hard when he decided to climb on me, but he was climbing on my stomach and those were the muscles I was working at the time, so I think that worked a little.

Overall, I think I can do this DVD. I’m going to keep doing it once a day (at least) until I have to return it to the library.

My 10 year reunion is this summer and I really want to lose all the weight I’ve gained in the last 10 years. So, I’m going to try again. I talked with our physician and she recommended doing yoga and pilates as an exercise and I’ve heard raved reviews about Weight Watchers. Unfortunately, I can’t afford Weight Watchers. I really want to do it, but Jesse isn’t allowing me too. So I’m going to try and do it on my own. I have the basic idea, so I’m going to work with that. I am definitely going to need everyone’s help to keep me on track.

Here are the Good Health Guidelines… as ‘prescribed’ by Weight Watchers. I found this list on one of my forums.

1. Eat at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables (5f&v) - a serving is 1/2 cup, except for leafy greens which are 1 cup
2. Choose whole-grain foods
3. Include 2 servings of milk products per day
   1. a serving of milk, yogurt, pudding is 8 oz
   2. a serving of cottage cheese is 2 cups
   3. a serving of hard or semi-soft cheese is 1 1/2 oz
4. Drink at least 6 glasses of water each day (6h2o)
5. Have some healthy oil each day (2 tsp.) Healthy oil include olive, canola, safflower, sunflower or flaxseed oil
6. Make sure you get enough protein - recommendation is to get a serving or two each day
7. Limit added sugar and alcohol
8. Take a multi vitamin-mineral supplement each day

Another practice I have found useful is keeping a weight log (it’s after midnight, so I’ll starting the weighing in the morning). Basically, I’ll weigh myself in the morning and at night, plus I’ll include how much I exercise during the day as well as how far I walk. By seeing how much I gain, lose, or maintain during the day, I’ll be able to stay away from foods that make me gain weight on a daily basis. It’s a bit of a mind game, but it kind of works. At least for me. Plus, maybe by making it this public, it’ll help me keep on track. Keep your fingers crossed and pray for me.

As a lot of people are aweare, we’ve been house hunting for about a month now. Each time I look at a house, I try to imagine what we would have where and what we would do to the place. I know Jesse and our Realtor may think I’m crazy about setting up each house as we see it, but that is what is going to make it a home and if I can’t envision us living there, then why would we buy it? Either way, as we’ve gone through the houses, the same things keep coming up. Things I want to do in order to make it ours. That includes how to decorate the individual rooms, anything we need to buy for the house, or anything we need to build. Here’s what I want to do to our new home, wherever that may end up:

• Ian’s bedroom: Yes he is going to get his own bedroom. He needs to get out of ours. I’m not really sure what I want to do yet, but I do know that he’s going to need his own shelves, something with baskets to more easily store his toys, and a paint job. At one house, I noticed that hte owners had painter their child’s room in two colors - the walls were a green and the trim was yellow. I wouldn’t use the same colors as they did, but it did give me an idea of what I could do with Ian’s room.
• Jesse’s office: He wants his own room where he can escape. At the moment, the plan is to build a room in the basement of whatever house we get. We would prefer an unfinished basement so we can pick where the office would be and finish the basement ourselves, but we’re not being that picky about it.
• Basement: The house has to have a basement. For one, it’s additional space that doesn’t get included in the square footage of a house; and two, it’s an area that we can build to suit our needs. Currently, the plan for the basement is to divide it into three sections: Jesse’s office, laundry & storage room, and the the rest of the area to be used as a family/play room. Someplace for all the DVDs, video games, and most of Ian’s bigger toys.
• Kitchen: I like the cook, so the kitchen has be to function and have plenty of room. At the moment, I can’t really say what would need to be done since it would depend on the house we buy.
• Washer & Dryer: Must have. According to our Realtor, we can always ask to include the washer and dryer in with the rest of the appliances, but if we don’t end up with any, then that’s fine. I can make do with a laundromat for a couple of weeks, but we would end up buying new machines fairly quickly. When we do get the machines, I want to spend some money on them. I’m not saying we’re going to get top of the line, but I don’t want a pair of cheaps ones as well. Something in between that will do big loads (I would rather do one load of laundry than multiples) and is energy efficient as well.
• Dining Room Table: I want a dining table. We currently do not have anything. When we eat dinner, it’s either sitting on the couch in the living room or standing up in the kitchen (depending on what we’re having). I want to be able to sit down to a meal with Jesse and Ian at a real table.
• New Furniture: I’m sure this one is way down on the priority list, but I would really love to get new furniture. Something that is ours and not dug out of the trash or given to us by someone else. I’m not saying our current furniture is bad, but it’s not all that comfortable. The couches are great considering they only cost us $200 for the both of them, but after sitting on them for too long, you end up with a sore butt.
• Wired: Jesse wants to wire the entire house up with ethernet (in some form) plus have wireless throughout the entire house.

I’m sure I’ll continue to add to this list, but that’s all I can think of right now. At the moment, we do have a house we’re interested in. Nothing has happened with it yet, we just saw it yesterday and we want to see it two more times before making an offer. But if I had to go on my gut instinct, something tells me we will be making an offer within the next week. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Comedy Central ran the movie premier of Waiting tonight. It’s a movie that I’ve been wanting to see and we flipped to it. It’s only been on for about 15 minutes now, but we’re already thinking we should have rented it. We’re getting the feeling that it’s going to get cut and bleeped enough that the DVD release is going to be a lot more funny.

So far, this movie is a classic example of bad humor. Not bad in the idea of “oh god why am I watching this”, but bad as in “oh god that was bad” all the while laughing my butt off. The conversations these guys have, it’s amusing to listen to and yet I’m still wondering wtf. I do have to admit one thing, if you like eating at restaurants like Logan’s, Chili’s, Bennigans, then there may be parts you want to skip. However, I’ve worked at a couple of those type restaurants and I can say that I’ve never worked in an atmosphere like this one. At the moment, it’s one of those movies that is funny in a bad sort of way and I can’t look away, but I’m still looking through my fingers.

So it’s bordering on an hour into the movie and it’s starting to remind me a lot of Clerks. Same kind of humor, but it’s not done by Kevin Smith. However, the movie does have some incredible actors: Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder), Justin Long (Mac & PC commercials), and Dane Cook.

Just finished the movie and overall I like it. It still reminds me a lot of Clerks, but there’s a bit more to it. It does end up having a moral at the end and it’s kind of amusing to see what everyone goes through. I actually think it would be fun to work at that place. There is a rumor that there is a Still Waiting coming out sometime this year, but we’ll see. The movie is great. You have to see it.