Disaster!

Tonight when I went to Walmart to pick up a few things, I came fully prepared with enough money to buy that watch that I had been lusting over.  The first thing that I noticed when I went to the display case was that it had been rearranged and there were new watches in there.  The second thing that I noticed was that MY WATCH WAS GONE!!!  Some effing bastard bought my watch!  DAMMIT TO HELL!!!

I am soooo pissed!  I knew I should have bought it the last time I was in there even though I didn't have enough cash on me.  I should have just put it on the damn credit card.  I doubt that I'm going to be able to get another one that nice for only $55.  The other watch that I kinda liked, an Elgin(I think it's like this one), was still there but it was $10 more and was more of a fashion style than a strictly utilitarian style.  It was one of those "skeleton" styles that you could see a bit of the gears from the front and it had kinda offset dials.  It looked cool but was a bit difficult to tell the time just at a glance.  And then the band had weird black highlights that made it look cheap.  Bugger!

All the other Amitron watches that were similar to the one I wanted had those damn blue faces and different bands and were at least $20 more.  But who knows?  Maybe I'll get lucky and find one like the one I want at another store.  Most Walmarts have the same items for sale.  Grrrrrr...I am NOT a happy camper at the moment.

****Update****

Okay, now I'm EXTRA PISSED!!! I was looking around that website where I found the pic of the Elgin and THEY HAVE AN ARMITRON WATCH LIKE THE ONE I WANT!!!  And why would this make me even more pissed?  BECAUSE I HATE BUYING THINGS ON THE INTERNET!!!!!   Harumph!!!

Some Anagrams

After doing the weeding around the lime tree and the pineapple patch yesterday, I managed to finish up the mowing.  And after all of that, I had so much extra energy that I got out the hedge trimmer and did the two hedge thingies in the front of the house.  It was a nice sunny day yesterday but with enough clouds that I risked working in the yard while wearing only a tank top and shorts.  I figured I could use some Vitamin D.  After I finished up my work outside, I was nice and sweaty and gross with lots of dirt and debris all over me so I hopped into the shower.  When I got out, I noticed in the mirror that my shoulders were a bit pink.  Oh, well.  At least it wasn't a bad burn.  That's what I get for thinking that I can work in a tank top without sunscreen--thanks Northern European genetics!

Anyway, I found a bunch of these anagrams hand written in a book when I was tidying my bedroom the other night. They were scratched out on the back of some paperwork from a job I had about ten years ago. So they've been hanging out in that book for a long time! I have no idea from where I copied them, but I thought they were funny enough to keep.

Anagrams:

dormitory = dirty room
desperation = a rope ends it
the Morse code = here come dots
slot machines = cash lost in 'em
animosity = is no amity
mother-in-law = woman Hitler
snooze alarms = no more z's
Alec Guinness = genuine class
semolina = is no meal
a decimal point = I'm a dot in place
eleven plus two = twelve plus one
contradiction = accord not in it
aaaaaand...
To be or not to be, that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. = In one of the bards best thought out tragedies, our insistant hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

I was going to mow the yard today...

...but by the time I brought up the mower from downstairs and went out back to go get my gas can, the sky had clouded up very threateningly and was starting to sprinkle.  Then it turned into a massive downpour.  Oh well.  Now I am forced to watch the UFC preliminary fights!  There have already been a couple TKO's and knockouts.  One of the TKO's was by liver kick a la Bas Rutten which is one of my favorite ways to end a fight.  I am hoping the main event is as good as the prelims.  There is also a referee who looks like one of the Dwarfs from the Hobbit movie--he has braided mutton chops that are maybe 40 or 50 centimeters long.

Anyway, I know I stated earlier that I wasn't having any cravings for crap, but what I *am* having cravings for is Indian food.  Unfortunately, I don't have many of the ingredients or spices to do a proper Indian dish so I just improvised a rice dish last night.  I used some jasmine rice instead of the basmati rice and I didn't have any fennel seeds but I *did* have some Chinese five spice powder and fennel is one of the ingredients in that, so I just used powdered spices instead of the whole spices.  Basically, it was rice with five spice powder, a little extra cinnamon and clove powder, black pepper, and a bit of cayenne, cook it all in a pot, and voila!  It didn't taste too bad.  Of course the old woman had to make a negative comment about 'what stinks?!?'

I also fried some chicken.  I don't know what it is that the commercial farms are doing to the chickens, but they are HUGE!  Probably feeding them corn with steroids so they can get around the law.  They are not supposed to give the chickens hormones but they sure as hell are doing something to them to make them so big.  I used to buy Perdue chickens.  Now, all I can find in any of the stores is damn Tyson brand.  I held off buying one because they always looked bloody like they weren't killed properly, but I broke down and bought one yesterday because I wanted some chicken.  I don't think I'll buy another one.  I think I might have to break down and buy an "organic" one even though those are almost twice as expensive.  At least they look like a normal chicken and not something from Jurassic Park!  LOL

Between MMA bouts, I have some bulgar wheat soaking so I can next make a recipe I found in a health food cookbook.  It doesn't say, but the recipe looks like it might be Persian.  I have all but one ingredient (snow peas).  It should turn out fine, methinks. 

Great Fight

I had totally forgotten that The Ultimate Fighter season finale was on Saturday night because I was distracted by all the drama with the water heater.  By the time I got to park myself in front of the TV and do a bit of channel surfing, I had already missed the first hour.  I turned it on just in time for the best fight of the night, though!

When I flipped over to the correct channel, Miesha Tate was doing her walk-up to some annoying cutesy song. Then when she got in the ring she was doing some cutesy dance and acting a bit too cocky for my taste.  They showed her stats and her record of 13-3 which was not too bad.  Then they panned over to Cat Zingano who was already in the ring.  She looked like she was all business.  Then they showed her record--7-0.  Well then.  I thought to myself, 'I hope she knocks that chick out!'

First round starts and Tate comes charging toward Zingano, not even touching gloves and digging right in with punches and then a take-down.  Much of the round was spent on the ground with great displays of wrestling and jiu jitsu.  It was a very exciting first round in which Tate got the edge.

The second round was much like the first.  Tate came out strong again and took Zingano to the mat.  But after Tate attempted an arm bar and heel hook, Zingano managed to escape both and then gained the top position and then began to pound the crap out of Tate.  Zingano won this round, in my opinion, due to her dominating the second half of this round.

In the third round, Zingano came out swinging hard.  She landed a take down and pounded Tate with some very heavy blows and elbows.  Tate managed to get back to her feet but Zingano was relentless with the punches and some very accurate knee strikes.  After one particularly vicious knee, the ref stepped in and stopped the fight.

This fight, in my opinion, was the best fight of the night.  Before I watched this fight, I had never heard of these two ladies before.  Now I heard that the winner, Zingano, is going to be one of the coaches on the next TUF coaching against Ronda Rousey.  That should be interesting.  I'd like to see Zingano beat Rousey.  I'm sick of seeing her (Rousey) win every fight by arm bar.

Back on the bike

(I know that this is very likely boring the life out of Arekino.  I don't think he cares too much for my exercise posts!  LOL)

Even though I didn't really feel like it, I managed to get myself on the exercise bike and do my 10 minutes worth.  So what if it was 11:30 at night?  Still counts!  I was tired all day but I knew that I would eventually get around to it.  I didn't do as quick a pace as I normally do.  I only did four kilometers instead of my usual five.

Tomorrow, I'll probably be back to doing my quicker pace.  Soon I'm going to see about either increasing my time or upping the resistance level on the bike.  I'll probably just increase the time.  I don't want to make it difficult too soon.

I'm determined to keep this up for a month.  If I actually accomplish this goal, I'll be very proud of myself for sticking with it.  That, and I'll likely have some shapely legs to show off, too!  I'd like to have legs muscular enough to crack walnuts.  ;P

The last time I had to take my mother to her doc appointment, one of the medical assistants was trying to chat me up.  He asked me what kinds of sports I do (I guess I still look athletic even if I don't feel like it at the moment) and I blurted out 'mountain biking' even though I haven't been in ages.  It's kinda funny, though.  I don't know how old he thinks I am.  I'm likely old enough to be his mother (just barely ;P).  Anyway, all good for the ego.  At least I'm not quickly approaching middle age while fat, out of shape, unhealthy and repulsive like some of my friends from school.  I know I probably sound like a conceited ass for saying that, but I never want to be that way.  Life's too short to look and feel like crap.

Strength: 3.5, Endurance: .01

I do not like being out of shape.  Extra pounds according to the scale displease me.  I work out with weights but have been a little lazy with what I have been eating lately and have been getting a bigger arse as a reward.  This is unacceptable.  I made a promise to myself that I would not be one of these people who lets herself get fat and out of shape the older she gets.  This is a promise I intend to keep.  It's easier to get it under control at a few extra pounds than 10 or 20 pounds.

Starting on Friday I decided to start doing 10 minutes a day on the stationary bike.  I did my 10 minutes on Friday, then on Saturday when I got on the bike my arse bones were so sore from the stupid hard bike seat that I could barely sit on the thing.  Luckily for me, I have a gel seat cover for my mountain bike so I took it off of there and put it on the stationary bike.  Too little too late.  My arse was still sore but the gel seat did feel a lot better.  I did my 10 minutes and then had the thought that if 10 minutes was good then 20 minutes would be so much better!  My leg muscles did not have this thought, though.  I barely got to 15 minutes and my legs were about to give out.  Today, I just stuck with the original plan of 10 minutes.  My legs joined my arse in being sore but not so bad that I didn't get through.

It is very shocking how fast I managed to get out of shape since I haven't been working regularly.  My cardio is totally shot, not that I had much cardio conditioning to begin with.  I forgot to mention that at the end of my workout on Friday I decided to peddle as fast as I could for the last 30 seconds.  After I did that my heart was pounding out of my chest so badly that I was about to keel over.  I won't be doing that again!  I'm just going to stick with the 10 minutes at a regular pace.

I'm actually proud of myself that I've managed to keep it up for three days in a row.  Usually I have good intentions to do something and then maybe do it one time and that's it.  Three days is looking like a trend! 

Daydreaming about night dreams

Ever since I was a little kid I can remember having really great dreams-- so great, in fact, that I didn't like waking up.  This led to my parents always complaining about how much I slept.  (I could just imagine the reaming that I would have gotten if I told them the truth.  'Hey, I'm having a much better time in dream land than in reality with you!'  LOL  At least sleeping and dreaming got me away from them!)  It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned that there was a name for the types of dreams that I had--lucid dreams. 

Now, it's not like I had lucid dreams every night, but I had them quite frequently and continue to have them.  Lucid dreams are a bit different than the run of the mill ordinary dreams.  In lucid dreaming, you realize that you are dreaming and then can sort of control what is going on in the dream, although in my experience, not always.  It's when I'm having a great dream(and then realize that I'm having a great dream) I don't want to wake up.  From wiki:

"A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden. In a lucid dream, the dreamer can exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid."

Wednesday night, or more accurately, Thursday morning, I had probably the best dream that I have ever had.  I am not going to give specifics, but it was so real that I could feel it.  I've had very realistic ones before but nothing like this.  It was fabulous.  Like literal dictionary definition of fabulous--almost impossible to believe; exceptionally good or unusual; known through fables or myths; superb.  It was so great that I was thinking about it for most of the day while I was finishing up raking leaves in my back yard and getting a big smirk on my face.  Seriously, everyone should have dreams like this.

I looked up a couple sites about dreams and imagery in dreams and one of them said that lucid dreams can make you feel wonderful for the rest of the day.  Indeed!  Also, the imagery that I dreamed seemed to be all positive things.  I wish that would carry over into real life!  So far my dream life is way more interesting and exciting than my real life.

One thing that makes me sad is when people say that they don't dream.  I think everyone dreams it's just that maybe they don't remember them.  It's too bad though if they really don't dream very frequently.  And if they are not able to have lucid dreams then that has to be just horrible.  As one site says:

"At least half of all adults have had one lucid dream in their lifetime. Many have reported having lucid dreams without even trying...With practice, lucid dreaming can be learned and achieved at  your will."

I know that I just don't feel as good during the day if I haven't been having a good dream life.  I can't imagine not being able to dream.  It would be like missing one of your senses.  Life would seem diminished.

A recurring theme that I've been having in my lucid dreams lately has been water--calm water, like being in a calm sea or a clear, calm swimming pool.  A lot of people dream of flying.  I don't think I have ever dreamt of flying.  I remember when I was in high school there was this one girl who always talked about dreaming of flying.  I dream about riding my bicycle, too.  So...are my dear readers having nice dreams?  If so, what are you dreaming about?

More snakes

I was trying to complete the job of raking up all the leaves in my back yard today.  The trees here have their seasons ass backwards, especially the avocado trees;  they drop their leaves in the spring when they are budding.  So there were a shit-ton of leaves out back that needed to be picked up.  Luckily for me, tomorrow is garbage day and the wheelie bin can hold three times that of a regular size garbage can.  I got three can-fulls into the big bin and then filled three and have them sitting in the car port.  There is still a bit more to pick up.  It will probably fill two cans.

Anyway,  my yard is full of snakes.  Full of them!  As I was raking the leaves today, I uncovered two more snakes.  At least they were just the little ring neck variety.  One slithered away while I was raking and the other did not.  As I was picking up the leaves that I had raked into a pile, I saw the tail moving in the pile.  I was already being hyper-vigilant and imagining snakes where there weren't any--some sticks were rather snake like.  But to nearly pick up a handful of leaves containing a snake?  No.  Just no.  I don't want to touch any snakes.  Or get bitten by one.  I'm not afraid of snakes but the damn things always manage to startle me.  I have no idea where that snake actually got to.  I poked at the pile with the rake and gave it a couple minutes.  Then when I started picking the leaves up and got to the bottom of the pile, the snake was gone.  I'm guessing it managed to slither into some adjacent ferns.

Now I get to finish up tomorrow.  I'm sure there will be more snakes waiting for me.