Impromptu Smoothies
Frozen mixed berries, frozen cherries, frozen strawberries, pineapple juice, and–a key ingredient–Trader Joe’s sparkling limeade.
Why I have so many frozen berries randomly stashed in my freezer is a mystery even to me.
Food & Health tag
January 10th 2012
Tags: On Life and Love, 5/3/1, exercise, Food & Health, Health, jock, The Physical Matters, weight lifting
2 Comments
Tags: On Life and Love, 5/3/1, exercise, Food & Health, Health, jock, The Physical Matters, weight lifting
2 Comments
A Month of 5/3/1
Back in December, I ran across and fell in love with the idea of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. After my weights arrived, I wasted no time crafting up a plan spreadsheet and getting rolling.
Again, wow.
As a refresher, the program focuses on four main lifts–military press, deadlift, bench press, and squat–one per day. Add assistance exercises around those to complete the workout.
Core Lifts
I’ve had to make some interesting adaptations over the month. I have no bench and no squat rack, so those are the two exercises I’ve had to be the most careful with. I hunted for a way to avoid learning how to do a power clean in order to do the squat, but I haven’t found a good way around it. And really, it’s not that bad (scary picture aside), although I still worry when the weights come off my chest a bit in the process of doing a front squat. I think my elbows aren’t high enough, resulting in a lower and less stable bar.
December 5th 2011
Tags: On Life and Love, 5/3/1, Food & Health, Health, jock, The Physical Matters, weight lifting
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Tags: On Life and Love, 5/3/1, Food & Health, Health, jock, The Physical Matters, weight lifting
No Comments
5/3/1: First Two Workouts
I’ve done my first two workouts (bench and leg press) of the 5/3/1 program, and wow.
Just… wow.
I included lat pulldowns and rows as the assisting exercises in the bench workout. Mmm, balance. Wonderfully, my shoulder gave me no guff at all, even in the ensuing soreness.
(And oh, the delicious soreness.)
I think this might be a serious way for me to finish rehabilitating my shoulder. I’ve been stalling for weeks with all the light-weight, high-rep rehab exercises, and the pain levels were staying the same. I iced heavily after the bench workout, and suffered no bone spur-specific pain in the following days.
November 28th 2011
Tags: On Life and Love, cooking, doctor who, Food, Food & Health, friend, thanksgiving
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Tags: On Life and Love, cooking, doctor who, Food, Food & Health, friend, thanksgiving
No Comments
Two Tasty T’anksgivings
(Ah, ah, ah.)
One was just me and Greg, at home, with a beautiful and delicious bird, greens, mashed potatoes, and wine. Quiet and intimate, and strangely, not nearly the most complicated or stressful meal we’ve made even in the last week.
House of cooks, y’all.
My second was with Meg and my new friend (and fellow running masochist) D., both of whom are gluten intolerant/allergic/unhappy. It was a potluck (so they undoubtedly got glutened by someone, alas), complete with (more) turkey, mashed potatoes (one style with horseradish–really good!), millet dressing, apple crisp, deviled eggs, and my well-received glazed carrots.
Well, the recipe is from a cookbook of Greg’s, but it was my idea to make them.
Sweet Deviled Eggs
For many years, I was utterly confused when I ate other people’s deviled eggs. Why weren’t they sweet? What’s this weird paprika stuff?
Then I learned the secret to my mother’s deviled eggs: Miracle Whip.
Turn up your nose, cringe, flail at your love handles, whatever. The creepy creamy crack is the secret. People who would otherwise look at me like I’ve grown a second head have gobbled these things up. (That was before I knew of their loathing for Miracle Whip–I try not to serve people food that contains things they have moral objections to.)
Now, my mother isn’t a measuring cook, per se (which is fine, because we didn’t do a lot of baking), but here’s a rough recipe for the tastiest deviled eggs I’ve ever had:
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So Out of My Comfort Zone
One (of a thousand) things I’ve let slide in the last year of struggles is one of my most favoritest: dance.
I haven’t been to belly dance class since at least last summer, haven’t learned any new moves or choreographies, and have barely practiced on my own.
I told myself that “when everything was more under control”, that I’d go back.
Well, that “everything” got under some sort of “control”, but then recovering from that was exhausting, and then healing stuff that’s been askew in my life forever is too all over the place.
The thing is I know not to wait for life to get to back to “normal” before living it. I’m already living it, however it comes. Live it like I want it to be.
So when a buddy said, “Hey, let’s try this West African dance class,” I said, “Sure!”
I’m Going to Iceland!
My passport has arrived. My Amazon cruise fell through due to concerns of sketchiness. Where was I going to go for my first trip out of the country?
My colleague has picked a marathon… in Iceland. I need no such excuse–I’m just going to Iceland because it’s Iceland.
End of August, five nights, right before DragonCon. Lagoon and coastal tours are already planned, and restaurants are being picked.
I can’t even read the street names on the maps of Reykjavik. This is going to be awesome!
APW 2013: (Mental) Ableism
(This is fourth in a series of posts about Atlanta Poly Weekend 2013.)
Now for a downside of my APW 2013 experience: ableism.
I didn’t perceive very much physical ableism except for an awkward-as-hell “lame” reference in the closing ceremonies. I don’t think anyone even laughed. Then again, I know I’m also less sensitive to physical ableism than mental, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.
For the mental ableism… it was everywhere. Therapists there used the word “crazy” and people talked about their “crazy, bipolar” exes. One person even said their ex was so crazy “they shouldn’t have been allowed to date.”
March 26th 2013
Tags: On Life and Love, apw2013, codependence, Growing into myself, polyamory, relationships One Comment
Tags: On Life and Love, apw2013, codependence, Growing into myself, polyamory, relationships One Comment
APW 2013: Codependency and Identity
(This is third in a series of posts about Atlanta Poly Weekend 2013.)
I was utterly delighted at how many panels and discussions touched on questions of identity and codependence. I mean “identity” here as a self-discovery and self-listening process, rather than the external application of labels.
I’m early yet in my own exploration of codependence and the unhealthy behaviors I’ve harbored for many years. One of the things I’m focusing on is (re)discovering my own life patterns and identity. It’s a large component in why I moved into my own apartment.
When I saw a 5-7 adult family (with kids!) at APW, my first thought was, “Holy fuck, how do they stay themselves?”
APW 2013: Degendering
(This is second in a series of posts about Atlanta Poly Weekend 2013.)
Puck: Hi, I’m Puck.
Me: I’m Melissa.
Puck: What’s your preferred pronoun?
Me: Um? “She.”
Puck: Mine’s “they.”
I’ve never been asked my preferred pronoun before.
APW 2013: Opening Ceremonies
Jackie wished she could have gone. She’s poly, too: she loves everybody.
APW–or “Ay Pee Dub”, as the kids say1–is Atlanta Poly Weekend (SFW), and I went to it for $50 and half a hotel room.
Holy. Shit.
Pleasant Mobile App: Guidebook
I’m going to a conference this weekend, so I’ve been preplanning all my time slots (double- and triple-booked, of course, as I do). My last conference was DragonCon, and it used a DragonCon-branded mobile app that was built using Core-Apps’ EventLink and FollowMe platforms. It really struggled to keep up with the heft of DragonCon–every load of or task-switch to the app checked the servers for event info and friends’ statuses, I don’t think Twitter postings worked, and the app crashed pretty frequently on my iPhone 4, particularly when network conditions were bad.
I really, really hope DragonCon switches to Guidebook this year.
The conference this weekend is much smaller than DragonCon, but Guidebook is already a much smoother experience just for preplanning. The UI is clean and unbranded by the con itself, I can have multiple cons (or museums, or schools, or associations) in my guidebook without having to have separate apps for each. It’s quick and easy to see my personal schedule, and the app is fast and feels lightweight.
I want to see more apps this cleanly designed.
Irrsinn.net by Melissa Avery-Weir is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The fiction segment of this site is driven by Elf Sternberg's Narrator system.