One our way to work this morning we came across this scene. I think we ended up driving by soon after it happened as the road wasn't closed off at that point (however apparently they did close off 1st ave for quite some time), the cop car was still intact though in the side of the building, there was one or two other cop cars there and the bicyclist (and his mangled bike) was still on the ground in front of the semi. It was quite the surreal scene. Then came the parade of police cars and fire rescue vehicles.
Initially I was slightly annoyed because we were doing something like 15 mph down 1st Ave, which isn't normal. Then we saw the cop car in the side of the building, which was a bit of a shock.
Apparently both the bicyclist and the police officer were injured and taken to the hospital. Here's hoping they both end up alright.
If you live in the Seattle area and are looking for some awesome yoga/athletic attire, you might want to check out the lululemon warehouse sale, going on right now! The address is: 1530 1st Ave S, right across from Safeco Field.
I'll be heading over there this afternoon as it's a few blocks from where I work and in all honesty I could do with some new yoga pants.
I used to tease Shawn for reading the Sandman comics (of course he tried to tell me they're graphic novels but I wouldn't buy it). Not that I'd ever tried to read them of course, and I was just being judgmental about an adult reading comics. In fact my teasing wasn't so much out of cruelty but more affection, in that kind of "you know what they say about girls who tease boys" (and vice versa) kind of way.
I'd never really bothered trying to get into them because I pretty much had no interest. I was always the type that preferred books over movies, you know the one who likes to use their imagination as opposed to being shown the way things are. Well, getting older means less time for frivolous things like imagining, which means being unable to spend hours and hours and hours reading. Stupid life getting in the way!
Recently I decided to give the Sandman comics a try. I'll admit that I was wrong in teasing Shawn for liking them. The whole idea of the Endless is very interesting and the artistry is amazing as well. I've read a few of the collections already and will eventually work my way through them all.
That all being said, I've always been a fan of Neil Gaiman's fiction novels. I've read most of them, and enjoyed every single one. Shawn bought me a copy of Fragile Things for xmas that I've recently started reading and so far it's pretty good. Who doesn't like a nice collection of short stories (especially those lacking time), I feel like I accomplish something when I finish a story.
I've known that Neil Gaiman has had a blog for quite some time. I remember reading it back in the day when American Gods first came out, but for some reason or another it fell off my radar. Well, I've made sure to add his blog to my RSS Reader, and can now enjoy all his humorous and witty entries.
Also, we recently received MirrorMask from Netflix. I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie as I'd read many things about it being a cross between Labyrinth and Alice In Wonderland. It was amazing. Sure the story was what a bit obvious in a lot of ways, but the imagery and how the CGI was incorporated with real life actors flowed really well. It was like a Sandman comic come to life, but not in a cheesy way. I was very impressed.
There was a point in time where I wanted to be a writer, unfortunately I didn't keep it up and my writing skills have waned. There are many writers I admire, and Neil Gaiman is most definitely one of them. When I read his writing I feel inspired to give writing another try.
The sun is shining, it's above 50 degrees (which feels like a heatwave compared to the kind of weather we've been having around here lately) and I'm stuck at work. I'd much rather be outside, going for a walk or something. Here's hoping the weather lasts for awhile and I can take advantage of the milder temperatures over the weekend.
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In other news, this coming April we will once again be spending an evening with the ever-so talented John Vanderslice. I think we've gone to see him just about every time he's been in town over the past few years, and we've never been disappointed by his show. I think the best was when he played the Showbox opening for Pedro The Lion as that is one of my favorite venues. This time we will be heading out to the Triple Door for his performance. I'm quite excited because the Triple Door is somewhere I've always wanted to go, as it seems completely nifty. It's a renovated 1920s era vaudeville theater and no matter where you're seated you have a great view of the stage. According to their website "the intimate dimensions mean that even the late arriver to a sold-out show is no more than 35 paces from the stage". Should be a good time.
I am soooooo sick of this weather. There is now a parking lot in front of my house. Cars being towed, cars not wanting to go down the hill, some fishtailing, sliding all over the place. Will it ever end???
With Shawn out of town I don't feel comfortable driving in this weather so I'm staying home today.
We live in a four unit townhome. When we were initially looking to buy a place we had a number of criteria that said place must meet. Parking was a top priority, as was at least two bedrooms, a fireplace, washer/dryer and appliances included. Also, we decided that if we were to purchase a townhome or condo we would have to have an end unit, because we were none too keen on having people on all sides of us. To us that would have just been like an apartment we own, and in all honesty part of the reason we wanted our own place was not to have to deal with footsteps over our head at all hours or the night or banging on the walls or loud noises from neighbors on all side. So we looked long and hard and eventually decided on an newly constructed end unit townhome. For the price, proximity to our respective workplaces, the fact that it was brand new, and it had met all our criteria, we decided to purchase it. That was two years ago.
We were one of the first people to buy one of the townhomes after they were constructed. Interestingly enough our next door neighbors from our apartment building bought the other end unit. Beside us is a guy who happens to be an attorney (but not a very good one, as he told us when we met him). For the most part he's easy to deal with. There have only been a few occasions where we've heard loud, strange noises at weird hours and occasionally he stomps up the stairs and lets his door slam. Not that big of a deal. Now, our neighbors two doors down are a different story. Ever since they moved in they've been an inconvenience to pretty much everyone else who owns one of the towmhomes. They aren't very considerate of others, which I find completely obnoxious. They own a Cadillac Escalade that doesn't even fit in their garage (which they bought AFTER they moved in an knew how big the garage was) so the end of it is always hanging out and they can't close their garage door. Also, they have another vehicle or two that they like to park everywhere from in front of their garage (blocking the other end units driveway) to the grass/landscaping out front of everyone's homes. They also drive over the landscaping all the time with their big vehicles, which pisses me off to no end. Also, during the summer months they have little bbqs and get togethers and let the children run all over everyone's yard. We were in our house with the windows open enjoying the nice weather and we look out to see a kid looking in at us! I was furious. Seriously, they have no respect.
For the past two days they've been parking one of their trucks half on the sidewalk and half on our property out front of our house. The first night I let it go because it was snowing and icy, but I said that if they did it again I'd have to do something about it. People have parked there before (their friends actually) and since they were obstructing the sidewalk, they got a ticket. Since they decided to park there again last night I decided to leave them a little note that read "Please do not park here as you're on the sidewalk/others' property. Thank you" and left it under their windshield wiper. As annoyed as I was I tried my best not to come off sounding bitchy or sarcastic because really I don't want to start a feud with our neighbors, I just want them to have some respect for others' property. However, this isn't the first time one of the neighbors has left them a note asking them not to park somewhere, so it probably won't sink in.
This morning on our way out the door we found the note lying in the driveway in front of our house. I guess it pissed them off. I was trying not to, but it's not my fault that they have too many vehicles for parking spaces that they have and they don't want to find a legal spot to park their vehicle. That's fine though, if they do it again I'll just call the cops and they'll get a ticket.
There are certain things you should not "teach". Yoga is one of them. Please refrain from subjecting the world to any more of your yoga videos.
Namaste,
Erin
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Yesterday I gave Denise Austin's Power Yoga Plus a try. I only managed to do the yoga portion, as I was unable to bring myself to do the 20 minutes of "pilates" that was the second portion of the DVD. For all I know, I could be totally missing out on the best pilates workout ever. Somehow I doubt it, and I'll take my chances thankyouverymuch.
As for the yoga portion of the DVD, it was about 25 minutes of possibly the worst yoga "workout" ever. I should have known better than to even try it, but I'm trying to be open minded about my yoga/workout videos. Denise Austin is not suited to teach yoga in any way, her voice is not very relaxing and she's far too high energy. The routine itself consisted of traditional yoga moves done in a bizarre Denise Austin kind of way. At times I felt like it was more ballet centric than yoga. There was about one sun salutation and then something that was supposed to be a sun salutation but just turned into a jumble of lunges that just didn't flow well. In fact, none of this workout really flowed well and the pace was way too slow. Maybe if I didn't have the basis of yoga that I do and was just a beginner this DVD would have been a whole lot better, but I'm kind of set in my ways when it comes to sun salutations and flow.
All in all this workout was a waste of my time. I didn't end up feeling rejuvenated, relaxed, or centered after doing it. Nor did I feel as if I got a good workout. Mostly I was left feeling disappointed and rather annoyed that I'd wasted 25 minutes that could have most definitely been better spent. At the very least before giving this workout a try I did get a good upper body workout in.
Today is Blue Friday, and of course I'm wearing blue. I attempted to get tickets to the game for Shawn and I, but there were no two seats together, so I guess we'll be forced to watch it on tv. Oh well, it looks damn good in HD.
I've been doing yoga on a regular basis for a number of years now. I practice at home with the aid of DVDs as I am one of those people who needs the structure of a class or DVD to concentrate. I prefer to practice at home rather than going to a class for many resons but mostly because it's more convenient. For my yoga practice I enjoy a movment oriented style such as Power Yoga or Ashtanga yoga, and even Vinyasa Yoga. Hatha yoga is a little too slow paced for my liking, however there are days when all I want is a slow, relaxing practice. In fact when I first started practicing yoga it was more along the Hatha style and eventually I moved up to a more fact paced routine.
Obviously, there are all different types of yoga, different instructors that offer different ideas and opinions on the practice. I am not a big fan of the new age-y types like those often found with Yoga Zone. Usually I'll find an instructor that I like and do their programs quite often. When I first started out I would always choose routines taught by women. For some reason I had it in my head that doing yoga with a female instructor would be more relaxing than male. I guess this is because I'd tried a Yoga Zone practice or two with some men in it who seemed kind of creepy and I just kept thinking about dirty hippies and communes. That and I'd seen pictures of some of the male instructors and they looked all buff and muscle-y and I just had it in my head that there was no way they could be calming and relaxing.
Eventually I got bored with the same old practices by the same old instructors in my same old rotation so I decided to add a number of yoga videos to my Netflix queue for some variety. I tried workouts by Bryan Kest which I didn't like too much. He was one of those not very relaxing type instructors and it didn't help that he had this mess of Kenny G looking hair and wore ripped up jean shorts. It all seemed very early 90s and the cons outweighed the pros with his DVDs. Those DVDs didn't really help my preconceived notions of male instructors and kind of figured it would be a lost cause.
Then one day I decided to give Baron Baptiste a try. I didn't really know anything about him or his practice but I was kind of unsure of him due to the fact that he looked rather muscle-y and I was worried that his practice would be like trying to do yoga with Arnold Schwarzenegger or something like that. I think the first workout of his I tried was Baron Baptiste: Journey Into Power, Level 1 and as soon as it started I knew that I had been silly for thinking all that I did. His voice was relaxing and his way of teaching was wonderful. He promotes pushing yourself, but at the same time to just go to your level of intensity. He understands that no two students will practice the same and makes sure that everyone knows it as well. He tries to make everyone comfortable and relaxed. He is quite the amazing teacher. He's not intimidating like I thought he would be and his practices flow very well. After that first workout I made sure to queue up a number of his DVDs on my Netflix just to make sure that one DVD wasn't a fluke, and it wasn't. Eventually I broke down and bought a number of his DVDs and find that his practices are the ones I follow the most. I get a great workout and feel renewed and refreshed when finished. I make sure to do one of his practices at least once a week. I'm glad I gave him a try.
He also does bootcamps, retreats, teacher training and workshops. I would absolutely love to go to one of his bootcamps/retreats one day. To use one of his saying, it would be "pure bliss". However, my opportunity to attend might be few and far between, there is also a Baptiste Power Yoga affiliated studio in Seattle called Shakti Vinyaya Yoga which I could always look into attending a class or two.
All in all, if you like a faster paced power/vinyasa type practice I highly recommend giving Baron Baptiste a try, if you haven't already.
We've officially booked our tickets to go to San Francisco in February. I'm really quite excited. I can't remember the last time I went somewhere new that I really wanted to go. We did go to Portland last year for our anniversary, which was kind of meh. I don't know if it was because it was like 900 and 50 degrees out (okay, maybe not that much, but close to 100, that's for sure), the fact that we didn't really get much of a chance to explore or just because Portland isn't that exciting but I didn't find it all that much fun. Most likely it was a combination of all of the above.
I've been wanting to go to San Francisco for some time and already have a list of things we absolutely must do. It will be fun to get away for awhile and spend time exploring a new place with Shawn. We don't get to do that nearly as much as I'd like. We're planning on staying down on Fisherman's Wharf, going to Alcatraz, seeing Lombard street, visiting the Castro and Mission districts, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Coit Tower. Whew. I'm out of breath just thinking about it and really that's just some of the things we want to do. I'm sure we'll have a great time and really it's just around the corner.
I've been thinking recently of places I want to visit while we can. Here are some, in no particular order:
Canadian Arctic/Churchill Manitoba to play with the Polar Bears Alaska France Italy Boston, MA NYC (though I've already been there, Shawn hasn't and I'd love to experience it with him) Savannah, GA Newfoundland
So it's a new year and I've decided that since I've paid for this domain up until 2012 I should probably do something with it.
I'm thinking of sharing recipes, talking about new products I've tried and giving reviews of dvds I've watched. Mostly I'm thinking of keeping it health and fitness related as that is something that is a part of my day to day life.
Anyway, I guess you could call keeping this thing up my "new year's resolution". I don't really make those and really the only two things I could think of this year were keeping my site up to date and trying to get over my distaste for travel so that Shawn and I can visit places we've wanted to go. Obviously I've already made a start over here with this whole new thing and as for the travel I am in the midst of planning a little weekend getaway to San Francisco in February.
So there you go. Happy New Year to one and all. Let's make this one better than the last!
