Still here

Sort of. Let's see if I can remember the highlights.

I have to be officially out of my old apartment by the end of this week. The last week has been filled with getting the rest of my stuff out of there and cleaning. At least half of the remaining stuff went to the dumpster or curbside donations. I'm still at it.

In between I was doing some knitting. Unfortunately it is now on hold until the apartment is finished. A shame really. I probably need only one more evening to complete the project.

Last Friday I started the 30 Day Shred. (It's a workout DVD.) One of my friends asked me on Facebook why I was working out since I was already thin. The answer is because I am horribly out of shape. I confirmed that this evening. Decided to get all kinds of obsessive and bought a scale. A fancy one that tracks your weight and calculates your body fat percentage. That last number was really depressing -- and scary. So I'll be sticking to the 30 Day Shred.

Sunday I did not do the Shred though. After seeing that number, perhaps I should have. But I figured that after dancing for a few hours on Saturday night and then spending at least five hours packing and cleaning at the old place, I had had more than enough exercise.

And packing/cleaning on Sunday was loads of fun since I was sleep-deprived. I only got four hours of sleep Saturday night. OK. It was really Sunday morning. I received a wake-up call from my mother at 9 AM. She was mad because I hadn't called her yet to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. I was going to. When I woke up on my own. Probably a couple of hours later. Today I realized that she's a bit stir crazy in Mexico because there's been nothing to do for at least a couple of weeks. But do I really need to be sucked into her crazy?

Oh, and some of you have probably done the math. Four hours sleep. Awake at 9 AM. "Hmmmm. What the hell were you doing up until 5?" I told you I was dancing. At a party hosted by a firefighter I know. Firefighters throw some of the best parties. I left the party at 3. And then I was on the phone for over an hour with the guy I met at the party once I got home. He's not a firefighter; his brother is. And no, I do not have any photos of said party.

And yeah, I still have that number stuck in my head. I'm thinking I might have to start using the DVD both before and after work instead of just first thing in the morning.

The perfect pair

When I go out to eat, I think of it as a treat -- and inspiration.

After getting the ice cream maker, I was finding it hard to decide what flavor to make first. Then I remembered my deep love of the cardamom gelato at Naia. Over the last year, whenever I have gone in there though, there has been no cardamom. What the hell? Get me hooked on the stuff and then yank it away? So not right. Once that thought entered my brain, there was no turning back.

I have always been partial to custard based ice creams. So I found this recipe and decided that all it needed was some cardamom. I added about two teaspoons. But something else was missing.

Whenever I bought the cardamom gelato, it was usually after buying the carrot walnut cake at Poulet. Guess what? During most of my trips into Poulet over recent months, there has been no carrot cake in sight. This needed to be rectified. If I was going to make cardamom gelato, then I was going to need carrot cake as well. And then I found this twist on the standard. (I also added some walnuts. Because the cake at Poulet has walnuts.) Hmmmm. I use cardamom and ginger together when I cook Indian food so the addition of the ginger in the frosting should be OK. It was more than OK. Sure I don't want to marry it like the pork from Gregoire but I could at least date it.

And thank goodness I really like my conditioning class. If I keep eating like this, I'm thinking that next term I will have to sign up for two hour blocks instead of the one hour block I do right now.

(I also booked my first real vacation in years yesterday. Woohoo!)

But...

Tonight I actually showed up for the first session of the exercise class I registered for last week. As I told Zombie Mom, it has the benefit of starting just late enough that I can go there straight from work without rushing but early enough that I don't have time for a pit stop at home. The instructor seems knowledgeable and the other folks in the class seem really low-key and cool. In other words, I think I'll continue showing up every Tuesday and Thursday nights over the next ten weeks.

I realized while I was at work this afternoon that I had nothing ready in the fridge for dinner tonight. (Shush. Stop mentioning the freezer.) So I quickly perused the menu at Gregoire and wrote down my selection. Then when I left class, I phoned in my order. Pictured is the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with mustard sauce. If you could marry food, I'd marry this dish. And of course, I got my standard potato puffs. And this month's bread pudding -- vanilla with caramel sauce.

What? No, I am not doing the diet thing. I like to think that I already eat pretty healthy. I'd just like to keep eating like I have.