Alien Spouse

Silver Ball.

When we first chose the cats (I know, like we were the ones who made the decision!  Ha!), we thought Nancy would be more lively and Edith was going to be very sedate. 

Oh, how wrong can you be?  Edith runs around the house playing with anything that she thinks might be fun, and this is one of Edith's favourite toys.  It went missing last week so I've been looking for it for several days, but I didn't have any luck; until Edith apparently remembered that she'd stashed it under our bed.

 

It may look like a perfectly innocent ball of silver tinsel, but it sends Edith insane. She stamps on it, she hides it, she stalks it and she plays football with it at all hours of the day and night until she literally becomes a blur.

That splodge is Edith in motion, and the slight shimmer you can see towards the top right corner is the silver ball.  I think it must have said or done something particularly offensive here.

Doc C's Birthday Wish.

Doc C brought back all the post from our post office box when he came home from work, and none of the parcels or cards that I know are on their way from England had arrived yet.  However there was a jiffy bag with Doc's name on it containing a disc for the Playstation two.

Yes it's true, finally Doc C owns "Baldur's Gate: The Dark Alliance 2" which, as any fule kno, is the sequel to "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance"

Right now he's playing as Vhaidra Uoswiir, a Female Drow Monk (I asked why she was a monk instead of a Nun, but I expect that's the type of rookie mistake only a non-D&D-er would make) who he describes as "cool!" and "very mercenary".

In case you were wondering what Doc and I gave each other, we actually got our presents early this year in the form of two beautiful gray felines.  In fact in today's photo you can see that Edith is helping Doc C out with his quest by guarding the perimeter, with special attention to small birds.  You can't be too careful about small birds you know.

Pre-Birthday Celebrations!

If Laura ever offers to host a party for you, just say yes!  Immediately!  It was SO much fun!

When we arrived Laura had already been cooking up a storm and there were all the making of tacos and enchiladas on the table, with plenty of options for veggies and carnivores alike and it was all so delicious.  The TV was tuned to a Mexican music station, so we had suitable tunage as we ate and tried to translate the song titles to much hilarity.

After dinner we smashed the pinata, now traditionally one is supposed to be blindfolded and then spun around until your dizzy before you get your three hits.  Well I can see how that might be fun for kids who playing the game outside, but we were adults inside Laura and Randy's house and flailing around with the shovel from the fire irons set seemed like a bad idea.  Besides we were in it for the destruction!  I got the first round of hits, and I'm sure I dented it, but Doc C was next and he took the entire back half off with one swipe!  It was hilarious!  All of the sweets and little plastic things I put inside went flying.  Jasmine finished it off by very neatly separating the head from the neck, and then we all set about collecting all the stuff from the floor.   I'd made some solid choices with the filling and everyone found something they really liked, including one of the cats who loved the little plastic spider rings.  I only wish that I had gone with my original plan to attach some red streamers to the inside of the pinata, so that they had spilled out like entrails!  Yeah, I'm not sure how I get ideas like that either, but it would have been cool.

Then we played Apples to Apples, which I have mentioned before as being one of the best games ever ever ever.  I think we need to buy our own copy of that, it is just so much fun when you ply with a good group of people.  I suspect academics are particularly good, because they do enjoy arguing their case, but the highlight of the game was probably Jasmine pulling on Shawn's leg yelling "But creamed corn!  Creamed Corn!"

I did make skull masks, but I was the only one.  How anyone could resist the lure of craft paper and glitter glue I do not know, but I suppose it was coming up for midnight by that point and we had all had a lot of Mexican beer.

It was the most fun Mexican Day of the Dead Birthday Party I have ever had!

Why I Am Very Excited.

My lovely friend Laura is going to be in town for a few days, and she offered to host a birthday party at her house tomorrow evening for Doc C and I!  How can you turn that down?  And when I asked if we could have a pinata, make Dia De Muerto skull masks and eat tacos she thought that was a great idea!  Hooray!  It's going to be a very faux Mexican birthday; except I think The Doc plans on making another pecan pie, but it would be churlish to turn up my nose at Doc's pecan pies just because it doesn't fit a theme.

So I've been very busy this evening disembowelling a tissue paper bull and stuffing it with sweets and tacky plastic stuff.  Edith loves the pinata, and keeps rubbing her face up against it, but Nancy has ascertained it has no cat biscuits in it and is therefore totally uninterested.
We actually had quite a difficult time choosing our pinata because there were some excellent options.  I think Doc would have preferred the pirate, but I thought we should go traditional for my first pinata.  Neither of us wanted to get a Dora the Explorer pinata, because she had an oddly grey face and it was creepy frankly.

The Current Economic Situation, And How It Is Effected By Hairballs.

I am watching the presidential debate, whilst playing with the cats.  It's surprisingly pretty similar, but I bet things would liven up if you dumped some cat nip on McCain and Obama.  Now that would be a debate worth watching!

By the way, Defective Yeti has live blogged the debates (and, indeed, is right now), and even if you haven't seen the debates they are really funny and insightful posts.

Shoes and Books.

Before we talk about anything else, can we please discuss this chandelier? 

Isn't it ridiculous, and hideous, and bizarre?  I am pretty certain that I would have begged to be allowed this in my bedroom as a small child, but despite it's undeniable campness I have to say that now I think it's atrocious. 

It's not so much the idea, because I can sort of see what the designer was going for, but the execution is so appalling.  The colours and the construction just look cheap and nasty.

I saw this particular treasure in the local DIY supermarket whilst we were shopping for bedside lamps and bookshelves.  We didn't find any lamps that we really liked, but we did buy two small bookshelves.  We need more than two, but that's all they had. 

On the way home Doc said "So when we get back I'll play video games, and you'll build bookcases right?", I said Ok, and Doc was all "Really?  Because I didn't honestly think you'd go for that!".  Luckily for him I am very much my mother's daughter; so whilst he was battling gladiators, I happily unpacked the instructions, the bits of wood, and all the various widgets and grommets. 

It said on the instructions that the makers estimate that it would take an hour to put together.  It took me 35 minutes.

I Blame Online Poker.

I'm sorry that I'm posting so late in the day, but you see Doc C played on-line poker for 16 hours straight, and out-right refused to let me have internet access.

Ok, that's not strictly true.  In fact he was writing a lecture about feminism, and he refused to let me have the computer.

Well, I suppose it's probably more accurate to say that he was writing a lecture on feminism and occasionally interrupted my enjoyment of "Law and Order" to check whether I was feeling oppressed and to ask for my opinions on the education of women and some snippets of appropriate celebrity gossip.

And if I'd asked he actually would have let me use the computer, because he is a sweetheart like that, but crocheting got away with me again.  What can I tell you?  It's absorbing, especially when paired with a good detective drama.

 

Copyright: Don't Mess With It Kids!

I knew it was coming, and we did get a full six months warning, but it's still a sad sad day.

"Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice."

And right when I was in the middle of a game with Danny, with decent letters on the rack and everything!   I mean it becomes all too obvious that this is just a ploy to stop me beating him for once.  It's all that nefarious Birchall, I tell you.

On the other hand Jonny thoroughly trounced me this week and April was clearly squaring up to give me a good beating too, so maybe it's not all bad.  Plus my phone has a Scrabble application on it that is actually licensed from Hasbro, so at least that's not going to disappear any time soon.

The question now is what on earth am I going to use Facebook for?  I don't want to go back to being one of those annoying people whose vampire application keeps biting their friends.  I know that there are two official Scrabble applications on Facebook, but one is for the US and Canada whilst the other is for the rest of the world.  This clearly reflects the copyright situation, but it annoyingly means that I can't play a match against any of my friends in the UK anymore and I loved doing that.  And anyway, the US one has technical issues and won't load.

Oh, and, to keep in the spirit of the thing, this photo was half-inched from the BBC news website a few weeks back, and shows the sixtieth anniversary celebrations for Scrabble in Trafalgar Square.  I was sorry to have missed that particular event, I would have loved a photo of me next to a giant J tile.  sigh.

ebay Board Game.

I'm just thinking that this would be a great companion game for anyone who already owns "The Antiques Roadshow" board game.

Right, Jason?

Although it would feel a bit odd buying it off the shelf at a junk shop.  I mean if there is anything that you really should buy off Amazon, surely this is it.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Seven: Complete!

And we're back!

I had a feeling that Kinetic would be better in a larger, less cluttered, room and on a wider TV screen and it really is.  It's much more fun, because I'm not accidentally kicking sofas or hitting the light fixtures; but also a lot more work, because I do have to run around more to hit the targets.

It's also great not to have to worry about the neighbours being able to see or hear me, that makes me feel a lot less self-conscious.

Now that I'm setting up my own schedule and work outs I don't get an official break down of the score, or the end of week pep talk.  I do miss that, but I still think that I needed to scale the workouts back to three or four times a week, that just works better for me.  I am getting daily grades, so I'll approximate my weekly score from that.

1. B - I hadn't focused the camera properly and that caused a few minor problems, but I'm quite pleased with that score overall.  I played one Combat, one Cardio and one Mind/Body to see how it all worked and I was pleased with the end score.
2. A - 2 Combat, a Cardio and a Mind/Body.  I have the camera properly focused now and I discovered that I can adjust the sensitivity of the camera, so I set it on the highest setting.  That means it can read my movements more easily, which is great but I still have to dash about like a mad thing.  It also occasionally reads the stairs as movement, which is annoying, but it's not very often so I think I can live with that.
3. A+ - Yay!  One Combat, Two Cardio and a Mind/Body.  That was really fun!

I would say that a B + A + Aplus = A for the week, that sounds about right doesn't it?

The Measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.5 Inches (No Change from last week - Or so...)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.00 Inches (No change from last week)
• Hips - 42.00 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 22.25 Inches (No change from last week)

I'm delighted that I didn't put anything back on over the past couple of weeks, but let's hope that getting back to doing some exercise starts knocking more weight off.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Five: Complete

1. A+ - It was SO nice to do some exercise after the road trip.  I had Two Cardio and Three Combat games, so it was straight back in at the deep end.  Lovely!  I felt really lethargic, so it was just brilliant to be stretching, punching, kicking, ducking and jumping. 
2. A+
3. A+
4. E
5. A+

I thought this might happen, I've been in such a rush this week to try and fit the work-outs in that I didn't make notes about what I did on which days.

I know exactly where the E came from though!  I couldn't work-out on Friday, and the next time I logged in Matt had a few things to say about that.  So, if I miss a whole week I simply get asked if I want to start again, or continue from where I last played; but if I miss one day I get a sorrowful little speech about how I need to commit to the program to achieve anything?  Hmmm!  That seems a little bit silly to me, especially after a full 17 weeks of commitment on my part.

What with one thing and another I've decided to stop using the personal trainer mode, because it's not giving me enough flexibility with the days and I think a program of six work-outs a week is too much (my knees are killing me!).  Instead I'm going to use the routine builder to set up my own work-outs every other day, and start doing yoga again on the days in-between.  I really want to get back into doing yoga regularly, and I also think that would be a better balance of cardio and toning for me.

The measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 42.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 22.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

I'm pleased to see I'm back to losing quarter inches after last week's road-trip plateau.  I'll still be measuring myself every week now that Kinetic is being scaled back to three or four times a week, and if the inch loss stops or, worse, starts to become inch gain then I'll go back to personal trainer mode.  Whatever it takes to lose those twenty pounds!

Kinetic Phase Two Week Four: Skipped

I loaded up Kinetic, and went into the personal training section and all Matt said was "I noticed you've missed a few days.  Would you like to continue from here, or start again?"

Um, continue please. 

Still I now have a nasty row of Es on my score sheet, and my performance graph is hilarious!

Let's see how the week off has effected the measurements, shall we?

• Bust - 38.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Hips - 42.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 22.5 Inches (No change from last week)

Well staying the same is better than having put some back on, so I am delighted with that, especially considering how hard it is to eat healthy food whilst on a road trip.

Despite the fact I'm back on home turf this next week is going to be hard.  I'm making up the hours I missed at work by going in for the mornings as well.  This means I'm going to have to make a real effort to fit a workout in to the day, admittedly that's exactly what I'll have to do when I finally find a full time job, but it's still a bit of daunting prospect.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Two: Complete

I'm skipping toning all this week, because last week I was getting some lower back twinges and so I'm being very careful.  I don't want to do anything to make my back, knees or ankles complain.  I'd rather keep going but at a gentler pace, rather than push through until I'm forced to stop all together.

I'm still working hard though and my score for this week was an A+, and that breaks down as follows:

1. A+ - Three Cardio and Two Combat.  I worked really hard on this one, and I hit the highest possible score on three of the games.  That's brilliant, particularly because as soon as you've done that the game ends so I saved myself about a minute and a half that way!
2. A - Four Combat games and One Cardio.  Totally exhausting.
3. A+ - Two Cardio, One Combat and a Mind/Body.  This was really fun after yesterday's slog.
4. A+ - Two Cardio and Two Mind/Body.  Practically chilling out.  I also discovered I can view the previous high scores for a game, but only right after I've finished playing that particular game.
5. A+ - Two Combat, One Cardio and a Mind/Body.  I beat three of my top scores.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 39.00 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 42.5 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 22.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

Kinetic Phase Two Week One: Complete

I know you were sort of hoping I'd stop posting this stuff after I finished the last twelve week session, but to be honest I find it's really useful for me to keep a note of how I'm doing to maintain my interest.  If I hadn't been keeping a weekly note of my measurements I probably wouldn't really have noticed anything was actually happening, because it's so gradual I would have convinced myself I was imagining it.  So Alien Spouse will continue to have a Kinetic diary for a while yet.

Buck up!  I've only got another twenty two pounds to lose!  That'll probably only take a year or so!

I've swapped over to Matt as my personal trainer this time.  He's got some interesting quirks, for one thing he doesn't seem to like the Mind/Body games as much, so there have been noticeably fewer of those.  He also gives totally different pep talks, which is good because I was getting a bit sick of Anna's.  I'll probably do the same thing as last time and give Matt a week off at some point to see if my opinion of Anna's technique has changed.

Anyway, my score for this week was an A, and that breaks down as follows:

1. A - Three Cardio and Two Combat.  I skipped toning to give myself a bit of a lie in.  I think I deserve it this morning.
2. A - Two Cardio, One Combat, One Mind/Body and some Arm Toning.  I hate doing push ups, but I suspect I should really do more of them.
3. A - Three Combat and Two Cardio.  My lower back felt twingey during the cardio games, so I skipped toning to avoid making that worse.
4. A+ - I have no idea how that happened, I didn't break any previous high scores or anything.  The routine was Two Cardio, One Combat and a Mind/Body, I knew I was better at Cardio!
5. A+ - One Cardio, Two Combats, a Mind/Body and some leg toning.  I re-played one of the Combat games and boosted my score by about a thousand points, also I beat my personal best on the other Combat game.  I worked really hard and I was so sweaty by the end of it!  Totally disgusting, but it shows this is still pushing me!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 39.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 42.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

I am really glad I decided just to keep going with this, it's good to keep the momentum up.  That said I've arranged my work outs for next week to give me a two day break at the beginning to rest my back a bit.  I don't want to push it and then have to stop working out all together for a few weeks because I'm really enjoying it. 

The Incredible Stack O' Games

Recently our friend Jack sold his Playstation and gave us the games that he no longer needed.  Our game stack therefore doubled at a single stroke.

There's a whole new world of time wasting possibilities right there.

I am currently playing "Jak and Daxter", the disk for which has no box so it's sharing the Kinetic box.  I am quite enjoying that, but I'm finding my main problem is that I keep getting lost and forgetting how the different places relate to each other geographically.  So it's very life-like in that respect.

Based on the blurb on the boxes of the other games they seem very shouty and/or violent, with the exception of the sports games which seem really sporty, and so I'm sure Doc C will have a whale of a time.  Jack also assures me that I should enjoy the funfair game.  Apparently in that one you can build your own roller-coasters, and I do love a good roller-coaster, so I'll probably try that next.

Despite having this wide range of virtual amusement to choose from I do still want to buy "Batman Lego" as soon as it comes out in October, and fortunately Doc C is equally excited by the idea of "Indiana Jones Lego" which is released next month, so I think there is some room for negotiation on the matter.

Kinetic Week Twelve: Complete

This week my overall score was an A+, which breaks down as follows:

1. A - This work out got off to a bad start with two of my least favourite and lowest scoring Combat games, but I worked really hard and beat my personal bests on both of them.  After that I had one Cardio and two Mind/Body, which seemed a lot easier.  I finished off with some arm toning, I'm pleased to say the tricep push-ups are no longer hurting, so that definitely progress.
2. A+ - Two Combat games and one Mind/Body.  I skipped toning because I think I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday, so I think I should rest that before attempting crunches and planks.
3. A + - W00T!  2 Cardio, 2 Combat and One Mind/Body.  I beat two personal bests, and repeated one of the combat games to get a higher score.  My back is still twingey so I skipped toning again.
4. A+ - Yay!  Two Cardio and One Mind/Body.  No toning. Nothing notable really, except for the burning of calories.
5. A+ - Yay, Yay, Yay!  Two Combats, Two Cardios and a Mind/Body plus Abs Toning.  I broke a personal best, and got over 9000 for the other games as well.  Grrrr!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 39.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.00 Inches (No change from last week)
• Hips - 42.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

So if we compare that to the first lot of vital statistics (I started measuring in Week Four, so this isn't from the very beginning unfortunately):

• Bust - 41.5 Inches down to 39.75 = Total loss of 1.75 Inches
• Bicep - 13 Inches down to 12 Inches = Total loss of 1 Inch
• Waist - 38 Inches down to 36 Inches = Total loss of 2 Inches
• Hips - 45 Inches down to 42.75 Inches = Total loss of 2.25 Inches
• Thigh - 25 Inches down to 23.25 = Total loss of 1.75 Inches

I also weighed myself to see how much actual weight I've dropped.  It turns out to be just under six pounds, which isn't a huge amount, but I'm still really pleased to have a tangible loss to be able to report.

I had discussed with Doc C what I would do when I'd completed this programme, and I was considering taking a week off just so I could see how much difference not doing Kinetic would make.  As it turned out though when Anna said "You don't have to stop here.  Do you want me to set up a new programme for you?" I thought about it for a moment, and then drifted my hand over the yes control.

So on Monday I shall start another twelve week programme.

Kinetic Week Eleven: Complete

This week my overall score was an A, which breaks down as follows:

1. A+ - Yay!  Lovely start to the week!  Two Cardio, One Combat, Two Mind/Body and some upper body toning.  For some reason the difficulty levels have been moved down, so the Cardio and Mind/Body are on Easy and the Combat is on medium.  I have no idea why, particularly seeing as last week I did really well, but I'm sure Anna has her reasons.  Plus this did mean I got almost a perfect score on the first game.
2. A - One Cardio, Two Combat, One Mind/Body and some Abs toning.  I didn't beat any high scores, but it was quite a long routine so I'm glad I maintained a good score through out.
3. A - One Cardio, One Combat and One Mind/Body.  I beat my personal best on the Combat by quite a satisfying margin.  Skipped the toning routine, due to time constraints caused by not getting out of bed on time.
4. A+ - Three Cardio and One Mind/Body.  I beat two of my personal bests, but skipped toning because we were going out for brunch and I really wanted french toast with fromage frais and fruit.  Hmm, perhaps that's not the best reason to skip toning...
5. A - Two Combat, One Mind/Body and some leg toning.  I beat one personal best, but even better I wasn't happy with one of the games so I played it again (an option I only noticed last week) and got a much better score.  Very satisfying, and more cardio is always good!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.00 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

I am really pleased the quarter-inches are still coming off; to be honest, because we've been out for a couple of meals this week, I was expecting to record no changes.  I don't know what happened to the hips maybe they're compensating for the biceps?

I think I'm right in saying this is the first week I've got an A for every single work out, and there are now five of them so I am really pleased with that!  It's definitely a boost before next week's final push to complete the whole twelve week programme.

Ring and Stone

When I was doing side planks as part of my work out yesterday I noticed something shiny on the carpet next to my exercise mat.  I thought it was a bit of broken glass, so I picked it up straight away, because I work out in bare feet and I didn't want to tread on it.

Then I saw that it was actually a stone from something, and promptly dropped it again.  Fortunately it fell on the mat, so I found it easily.

Then I looked at my hand, and realised that it was actually the tiny diamond from one of my favourite rings that I wear every day.

It was so lucky that it fell out whilst I was doing floor exercises.  If it had fallen out anywhere else, and at any other time, I would probably have lost it.  As it is, I've stuck it to the inside of a snack-size ziploc bag, using a little bit of gaffer tape so that I don't lose it again before I can get to a jewellers to have it reset.

Kinetic Week Ten: Complete

This week my overall score was an A, which breaks down as follows:

1. A - 1 Combat, 2 Cardio and a Mind/Body.  This was my first day at work, and I didn't leave myself quite enough time for a toning routine, but I'm pleased with what I did do. 
2. A+ - Yay!  Two Combat, One Cardio and One Mind/Body.  Of those I beat three of my personal bests!  Admittedly I, once again, didn't leave myself enough time for the toning routine, I need to give myself an extra half hour for that, and somehow an extra-half hour in bed always seems more attractive than crunches and push-ups.  I just have to work on my time management and self motivation.
3. A+ - Yay again!  Two Cardio (both breaking my personal bests for those games) and a mind/body (I'm getting a bit sick of this particular game I've played it five workouts in a row now!).  I also had time to do abs toning, and completed the plank section again.  Arms therefore feel like jelly again.
4. B - Two Combat, One Cardio and a Mind/Body (a different one today, hoorah!).  No personal bests were broken today.  I also did the upper body toning routine, and my arms are now considering looking into how they would go about becoming legally emancipated from me.
5. A+ - Yay a third time!  Two Cardio, a Mind/Body and some leg toning.  I am particularly proud of my performance on the second Cardio game which was Cascade.  I had a previous high score of 9000, Anna set me a target of 9500 and my final score was actually 9911.  It was the first time I ever achieved, let alone beat, one of Anna's target scores and I annihilated it.  Hoorah!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

The numbers are moving down again, which I'm putting down to eating well this week and the walk to work adding an extra 20 minutes of gentle cardio into my daily routine.  It all helps.

We are sub-leasing our apartment, and the man we are leasing from has a lot of magazine subscriptions.  There is hardly a week that goes by without some glossy or other turning up, so we read them, usually because they are titles we are unlikely to buy for ourselves and that's always interesting.  Doc C teases me that my favourites are "Men's Fitness" (which is so tacky, but has great headlines such as "I throw the damn thing as hard as I can", and I swear that is a direct quote from an article on a baseball pitcher) and "Outside", which I do find much more interesting than "Vogue" for the simple reason they have tips on how to do crunches and/or planks, and until I've mastered those I'm simply not going to fit into Vogue-esque couture.  This month's "Outside" was fairly dull to be honest (I should have guessed from the picture of Paul Walker on the cover.  Yawn.), but it did mention two fitness facilities that are in North Carolina.

The one I'm most interested in is at Meredith College in Raleigh, it's called the Human Performance Laboratory.  It's one of those places where they test your body's fat content, metabolic rate and how your body responds to various types of exercise.  I'd love to do the General Health Package, which tests your Resting Metabolic Rate and Hydrostatic Body Composition.  That costs $85.00, so it's definitely within my price range.

Also, Mum, there is an interesting one for you too.  Based in Blowing Rock is a Reebok sponsored running camp called Zap Fitness, which was designed to train Olympic hopefuls.  It's open to the public, welcoming amateurs of all levels and has daily rates for visitors.  They teach proper running form for hills and flats, and they also offer post-run yoga classes or massage therapy.  You can join morning runs of between three to ten miles through Moses H. Cone Memorial Park (which is really gorgeous).

All this, and would you believe I've started flossing regularly too?

Kinetic Week Nine: Complete

Three quarters of the way now, this week my overall score was a B, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - Three combat games, and a mind/body game.  For some reason the difficulty levels have been dropped on the cardio and mind/body games but are still on the hard setting for combat.  Have they not noticed that I am really not very good at the combat games?  I'd have said cardio was my best zone personally, maybe the results say different.  I did break one of my previous high scores but on a game that I had previously been really bad at.  I forgot to swap back to Anna at the beginning of the session, but I did at the end of the days work out.  I like how the trainer you are "leaving" pops up to reassure you that they don't mind you swapping, and that the other trainer is really good.  Those avatars are so sweet.
2. A - Two cardio, one combat, one mind/body and some abs toning, with a few push-ups just for fun.  I am really pleased to have got an A, after a week and a bit of Bs.
3. B - 1 Cardio, 1 Combat and 1 Mind/Body.  It was my very least favourite of the combat games, and I did extraordinarily badly at it.  However I rocked the other two games, so that's not so bad.
4. B - 1 Cardio, 2 Combat, 1 Mind/Body and some abs toning.  My proudest achievement of the day was completing the plank section of the toning, my arms are killing me but it was particularly pleasing to finally manage that.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.5 Inches (No change from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 24.00 Inches (No change from last week)

I think we can put the static nature of the measurements this week down to Spring Break Madness, I've been so busy trying to keep the Doc entertained (he gets bored very easily) that I skipped toning twice this week, because it doubles the length of the work out and I really only had time to fit in some cardio.  I also have to admit I fell off the salad waggon a bit.  No problem though, at least my waist ignored the trend and shed a bit more, plus no quarter inches were actually added anywhere!

On a side topic, I know I'm not the first person to point out that Alanis Morissette's huge hit "Ironic" (that video is really odd, is there an underlying subtext that is completely eluding me?) is mainly in fact ironic because none of the examples she uses actually are ironic.  They are mainly unfortunate.  Ed Byrne used to do a great stand up routine about this song, he is very funny. 

Actually let's embed a lovely YouTube screen right underneath the jump here, so you can fully appreciate both of these points:

More Cleaning!

When we bought Hoover Kenmore, I insisted that we also visit Gamestop to see if they had anything for cleaning Playstations.  I was convinced that there was dust on the lens, and that's why it was having problems loading games.

Of course I also reminded Doc C that he had just beaten his latest killing-spree related game (it is so weird watching my sweet, gentle husband plotting how best to take down his virtual targets), and Gamestop have a wide selection of second-hand games, which we always enjoy perusing.  This time we found Antigrav, Midway Arcade Treasures and Rayman Raving Rabbids.  All of which are very fun indeed.

We came home with a CD/DVD cleaning kit, which includes a cleaning disc for the playstation (which can also be used on DVD and CD players), and a disc cleaning thingy, with special disc cleaning fluid in a little spray bottle.  There was also a teeny tiny brush with a long handle, the purpose for which is not stated anywhere on the packaging or instructions.

When we got the cleaning disc out, we were both surprised that it had a pair of minuscule brushes on the bottom of it.  I don't know how I'd imagined it would clean the lens, but brushes was not what I was expecting.

We put our new little cleaning buddy into the PS2, and it played some awful muzak at us whilst it gently brushed away any foreign bodies from the lens.  And now things load beautifully, it was ten dollars well invested.

I have also used the disc cleaner thingy to clean any disc that I suspected might be dirty, and the tiny brush has been used on my camera lens in an attempt to get rid of the dark spots that annoy me so much.

Cleaning is really fun when you have the right tools!

Kinetic Week Eight: Complete

As a change of pace I decided I'd give Anna a holiday, and swapped over to the other virtual trainer, Matt, for a week.  Overall grade for the week was my fourth B in a row, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - One fun thing about switching trainers is that Matt has a slightly different repertoire of encouraging banter from Anna, my favourite so far is "One minute to go!  You can do anything in a minute!". Unfortunately it turns out the arm toning is no less painful with Matt talking you through it.  According to Matt's final summary if I put in another 5% work rate I'll be achieving a perfect performance.  I have no idea what that means, but it sounds very encouraging.
2. B - Yesterday I was slightly distracted by trying to work out who Matt sounded like, and I realised today that it's John Barrowman.  It's not actually Mr Barrowman providing the voice talent, I checked the credits, but it does sound very much like I'm being trained by Captain Jack Harness for a particularly important Torchwood mission.  Fun!  Today I also worked out what my ankles did not like in the leg toning routine; in both the squats and the plies sections of the routine it's suggested that you to pop your ankles up so you are up on your toes.  That obviously was putting strain on the left ankle tendon last time, so I avoided all ankle popping this time.
3. B - Two cardio games, a mind/body game and stomach toning routine.  I'm still not able to do one armed planks, but rather than skipping that part of the routine I used that time to throw in some tricep push ups with foot floats instead.  I thought I may as well do something to strengthen my arms, so that eventually I will be able to do the whole of planks section.
4. B - Two cardio, one combat, one mind/body and I skipped the toning because I got up early this morning to fit in the workout before breakfast and I'm really not co-ordinated enough yet to do the precise movements needed for toning.  Frankly if I tried doing one-legged standing dead-lifts right now, there would be lots of wobbling about, followed by falling over.

I'm quite happy with the results for this week. It's very motivating to see that I've adjusted to the difficulty setting, and I'm maintaining a good standard.  Hopefully next week there will be a couple of A's on the board as well.

I liked Matt as a trainer, he's very encouraging and supportive, you know, for an avatar. The only slightly disconcerting thing is Anna says "Good effort!" when you've reached for a target but missed it, Matt says the same phrase occasionally as general encouragement which always throws me because I start thinking about whether I hit the last target or not.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 36.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

Week 8 is two thirds of the way through the twelve week programme, so there's only one month left of this particular cycle.  After this I may just start it up all over again, or I could use the routine builder to set my own routines to my own time table requirements.  I'm not sure yet, I quite like having everything pre-planned and ready to go, but it can sometimes be tricky to fit in a workout on the specified day.

I Married a Halfling Thief.

Last night I mentioned in passing to the Doc that I had read that the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons had died (that's pretty much exactly how I phrased it, because I'd forgotten the poor man's actual name at this point).  To which he immediately replied "Gary Gygax? Oh no!"

Because, you see, as a teenager Doc C was a D&D geek. 

I'd sort of been aware of this, but when Doc realised I knew nothing about how D&D was played he went into quite a lot more detail on the matter. Which was when I discovered that he had spent hours after school, and indeed whole weekends, marauding as a halfling thief. 

He claims not to remember the name of this character now, but that could have been because I was laughing quite a lot at this point so he may well have felt I wasn't treating the matter with the appropriate gravity.

Apparently I find it hard to keep a straight face when Someone is earnestly explaining that a halfling is not half-elf and half-human (as I had foolishly hypothesised), but that they are simply half the size of humans. 

And to illustrate this point they look you right in the eye, and say "...You know, like Hobbits."  Exactly as if Hobbits are actually a real observable species.

Kinetic Week Seven: Complete

This week's overall grade is a B, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - Very pleased with that, I broke two previous high scores but didn't quite hit the target scores Anna wanted.  Anna has very high standards these days.  Arm toning again made my arms feel like jelly, it's those backwards tricep push-ups with the foot floats that really kill.
2. A - Hoorah!  This was a real triumph because the game didn't load properly which was making the music skip.  That may not sound like a huge problem but it was distracting, and I took my eye of the virtual ball once or twice to squint at my score so I could reassure myself it was only the music that was in difficulties.  The thing is that once you've started a routine, you cannot stop.  It can't be done, Anna will fail you if you try that, so I soldiered on and see how I was rewarded!
3. B - The music was back in sync, so today was actually fun.  I let myself down a bit on the kick-boxing again, I need to work on hitting precisely,with some force and not flail so much.  I was really pleased with how I handled the other two games though.
4. A+ - W00t!  Extremely pleased with that!  I think all three games were personal bests, which is always gratifying.  I think the key is that each game is designed to make you respond within a particular range of movements, and I'm finally beginning to understand what it is that the combat zone games want me to do.  Specifically: "Kick that! Duck! You need to Punch like you mean it!"

   (I'm slightly perplexed by Anna's scoring this week, I mean I got an overall mark of B last week for an A+, two Bs and a D.  How is it that I've got the same overall mark this week for an A+, an A and two Bs?)

If you are my beloved eagle-eyed mother you will have spotted that I stopped adding in toning routines after Monday's killer arm routine.  That is because I'd have been doing stomach toning after that and I simply refuse to do stomach crunches when I already have period pains.  For one thing if my lower back is already aching, how do I tell when I should stop doing core strength exercises because it's straining my back?  Plus my yoga book warns ladies not to overextend their joints at this time of the month, so all things considered, I think I'm allowed to skip one week of toning.  They'll be back in the mix next week.  Deep joy!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 37.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

It's interesting that my bicep measurement is the same as last week, I suppose that's because I've only done one round of toning this week.  That would make sense, because I'd imagine the cardio vascular workouts are dealing with general weight loss(or in the case inch loss) but I don't imagine a lot of fat is stored on the arms so it must be that the previous inch loss there was due to the bicep muscles becoming more toned.  Very interesting.

Playstation Quibbles.

We bought the Playstation as our early joint Christmas present, so we've had for about three months now and it's starting to get a little temperamental. 

So far this is only affecting the actual loading of games, and means you have to keep hitting reset until it finally acknowledges the disc, but once it's up and running everything is absolutely fine.  It really doesn't like loading "Kinetic" particularly not the introductory animation at the start, I don't blame it because that bit is tedious but what it does is stutter over it like it's a segment for Max Headroom, so it only make it longer.

Fortunately there is a way round it, I have now discovered that if I play a quick game of "Katamari Damacy", which it loads first go, then it's perfectly happy with any other disc.  Most peculiar, but quite useful

This flaw in the Playstation is annoying. I know full well that we bought the PS2 second hand, but we did buy it from a reputable chain of games stores and it was supposed reconditioned.  My guess would be that simply means it was put in a new box and taped shut.. 

Incidentally we have had quite a lot of further proof that this chain of game shops don't actually check what they are selling, we've also been sold completely the wrong games in the wrong boxes and a second controller that made the game spin as you were playing, inducing confusion, poor scores and nausea which was not good.

The most blatant example of this was when we had to buy a bigger memory card to save our game data, and again we bought a second hand one from the same chain.  It was working fine until I noticed there didn't seem to be much space left, which was very odd, so I went to delete some of the old games we had stored.  It turned out still to be full of the previous owner's game data, and clearly the previous owner had favoured a bit of the old hyper-violence.  He also favoured really unpleasantly offensive player names. All I can say is that it was extremely lucky this memory chip was sold to the Doc and myself who are not easily shocked, and who simply raised our eyebrows at how juvenile it was.  However if the memory card had gone to a sweet little church-going boy-scout, who'd asked his parents what those words meant?  Well, that could have been really awkward.

So today's top parenting tip is to make sure that you check memory cards are empty of all naughty words before handing them over to your munchkins.  It could save explaining exactly why that's not a word nice children use.

Kinetic Week Six: Complete

1. D - Most disheartening. Two combat zone games and one of the chill-out games, plus arm toning.  The combat games were ridiculous, the orbs were coming at me really fast and I had no time to register what colour they were (The colours are different for targets and enemy orbs), let alone hit them or get out of the way.  It made me really wish there was a "Give Me a Freaking Break!" button.
2. A+ - Which I think conclusively demonstrates that I am far better at the Cardio Zone games then I am at the Combat Zone games.  It seems odd that Anna has no means of registering this and catering to my strengths
3. B - Just to throw my theory out of the water, this B was based on two combat zone games.  One of which I beat my previous personal best record for.  I also did leg toning, but I was very cautious, as the last time I did this set, I got a few twinges of complaint from my dodgy ankle afterwards.  I really do not want to make that flare up again, it's painful and stops me doing any form of exercise that might require me to bend my ankle in anyway.  sigh.
4. B - A nice work out with one from each level, I beat my previous high score on the cardio game and did what felt like two thousand crunches.

I won't lie, I didn't like the hard level at all at the beginning of the week but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  It's definitely a lot more work, but that's a good thing.

Of course Anna still finds it all very easy and I am reminded of Jessica Rabbit's famous line from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Jessica slinked around in her fabulous red dress, flipped her titian Veronica Lake peekaboo haircut and said "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." I have to say sometimes I wish I could remind Anna that she's not really fit.  She was just drawn that way.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 41.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.25 Inches (Down by 0.35 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 37.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.5 Inches (Down by 0.3 Inches from last week)

So there is steady progress still, exactly what I was hoping for!  I may well actually fit into those black and white check capris I bought in the H&M sale this summer at this rate.

Core Strength Training Can Be Fun!

When I first moved here one of the first things I bought was a yoga set, which had a mat, two blocks, a strap and a pilates exercise ball.

Of course I inflated the exercise ball immediately, but after doing a few sit ups on it I left it sitting on the bed in the spare room.

I got it out again this week to help stretch out my lower back, and then I discovered it's great to sit on when it's my turn on the Play Station. 

I thought it was just really comfy, but then the top of my legs felt like I'd been walking uphill.  I did a quick google and apparently even just sitting on an exercise ball is good for your legs and core muscles because your constantly having to use those muscles to maintain balance on the ball.

Yet again the PS2 is helping me work out, and I thought video games were bad for me.

Kinetic Week Five: Complete

Yes, I'm now at week five otherwise known as The Week Anna Tried To Kill Me.  She's bumped up the difficulty rating again, so now I'm on the hardest level.  sigh.  Not only that, but this week I had four work outs instead of three. 

The overall mark for the week was C which breaks down as follows:

1. B - I swear the arm toning routine went on for longer than normal.  I started to think maybe it was stuck on a loop at one point.  My upper arms feel like jelly.
2. D - An absolute killer.  Not only are the games now at their hardest setting, but Anna set me the three games that I do worst at.  It was not pretty.  To add insult to injury, in the abs toning session she suddenly threw in one-armed planks!  I can barely do a two armed plank!  I think she's trying to kill me, or at the very least break my nose.
3. B - I worked damned hard to get that B, so it's extra satisfying.  The leg toning work out was great, but I picked the wrong song, which considering it was an extended re-mix was a big mistake, so then the chorus got stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
4. B - Two cardio based games and an abs toning session.  I did badly on the first game, but then broke my previous high score on the second.  In the toning routine Anna tried again to persuade me to do one armed planks, but until I can hold a two armed plank for more than ten seconds I don't think that's going to happen.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 41.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.7 Inches (Down by 0.3 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 37.5 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.5 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.8 Inches (Down by 0.2 Inches from last week)

I'm fairly certain I was measuring in exactly the same places that I did last week, so I'm quite pleased with that!  Particularly because it is certainly possible to suck in a tummy, but I've yet to learn which muscles I need to flex to do that to my thighs, so it must be that they are actually smaller.

Despite my choosing the wrong song on Friday for my third work out toning session, in general I do like the music kinetic uses.  Every game has a choice of two different songs or no music at all.  This means that each time you are about to begin a game you choose which song you want, and that can be really helpful in keeping you motivated.  I do wish that the beginning warm up and the final stretch routines had more choice of music, because you do those every time so you quickly get tired of those songs.

This element of choice is also extended to being able to choose a different virtual room for the warm up, toning and stretching routines, so visually it's a nice change of pace.  Even better the game knows whether it's day or night and changes the sky accordingly.  That means if you choose to stretch in the garden you can a beautiful blue sky or stars according to when you are exercising.  It's a very nice touch.

I also know that Anna is aware of what day of the week it is, because the game uses a calendar to schedule.  I would love it if you could use the calendar further, it would be great to have cheat codes that enabled you to to dress Anna in a Santa costume for Christmas, for example, or even just get Anna to say "Happy Whatever day!  Well done for turning up today, you must be really motivated." on the appropriate holidays.  I'm sure some people would find that annoying, but I think it would at least acknowledge that there are some days when people need a little bit more encouragement to break out the exercise mat.

Kinetic Week Four: Complete

Week four got off to an excellent start with an A.  I had three games and an abs toning routine to do, so I'm really pleased to be maintaining that score.  Mid-week had a kick boxing game, followed by a yoga-ish game and a legs toning routine.  I'm surprised I got an A for this, because I felt like I was just flailing around in the kick boxing game, maybe that's what you are supposed to do?

End of the week I did another set of three games with more abs toning.  I was really pleased to get an A for today's workout, because that meant this was the first week that I got As for all three of the workouts.  Of course now I know it's a possibility what I really want are three A+ marks...

At the end of each week Anna checks her virtual clipboard and gives you your weekly grade with a pep talk.  It turns out she also pops up to review the end of the first month, she said I clearly had a lot of determination and that would stand me in good stead over the next two months of the programme.  It's oddly satisfying to have a computer generated person tell you she's pleased with your progress.

One thing I'm going to start doing every week is measure myself, rather than weighing.  The Doc is certain I've got less of a tummy and more of a curve round my waist, but I don't have the numbers to back that up!   

Here are the first lot of vital statistics:

• Bust - 41.5 Inches
• Bicep - 13 Inches
• Waist - 38 Inches
• Hips - 45 Inches
• Thigh - 25 Inches

I'll re-measure every Sunday to keep track of how this is going.  The weight loss goal is twenty pounds, which I'm hoping translates to a dress size or two.

Kinetic Week Three: Complete

That sneaky avatar person trainer of mine! 

At the beginning of week three, without my being asked or being able to do anything about it, Anna has upped the difficulty level.  That probably contributed to my getting a B for the first session of the week, but I still think this is really good because obviously it's because I keep getting good marks and breaking my previous high scores.  It does mean I'll have to work harder to maintain a high weekly average.  Which is the whole point, I know.

I'd say it's definitely one of the pluses of using a completely unbiased and unemotional computer programme to assign work out targets for the week.  Anna simply calculates data based on my age, weight, the number of targets I successfully hit and my response times.  She doesn't consider any other factors, especially not my mood on a workout day.  I can't say I don't feel like it, there isn't a button for that and if I skip a workout I'd get failing grade for the day I miss.  I hate getting failed, so I have no alternative but to get on with it.

Mid-week I added in toning routine for the legs, I worked really hard at all of the games (probably because I knew I had to work off that doughnut...) and I got an A+.  I didn't know it was even possible to get an A+, so that was excellent.

My final work out of the week didn't live up to the mid-week high, and I got a second B.  This time I added in a toning routine for arms.

Surprisingly the overall score for this week was an A, made up of an A+ and two Bs.  I'm not sure how Anna works out the scores, because that sounds more like a B to me, but hey she's the trainer who am I to argue?

One interesting thing that I read this week was a report on the BBC website about the rise in anti-obesity drugs.  Apparently the number of prescriptions for anti-obesity drugs has gone up in the UK by eight times the amount prescribed seven years ago.  What I found even more amazing was that only 40% of men and 28% of women were taking part in 30 minutes of physical activity each week.  Perhaps, instead of bottles of pills, the NHS should be giving everyone a PS2 and a copy of Kinetic.  Anna wouldn't stand for any of that nonsense.

Computer Aided Learning

I'm coming to appreciate that computer games can be highly educational.

For example, over the past day or two I have learnt from Katamari Damacy that if I ever see Doc C rolling around a huge ball of stuff and actively sticking things to it in order to gradually increase it's size to that of a star, in that type of situation I should just stay well out of his way.

He gets quite cross when something bounces into him and makes him drop any of his hard earned soy sauce bottles.

Kinetic Week Two: Complete

My overall mark for Week Two is an A, again that's made up of two As and a B.

I did try out all of the games I hadn't played before, which has already proved to have been a good move and helped me maintain a good score.  Unfortunately I somehow missed practising one new game, "Side Winder", which naturally was next to turn up in the rotation and turned out to be a kick-boxing game, where you have to punch or kick orbs away from a central target that you are defending.  I'm not great at the kick-boxing based games, so I dropped a few points there.

The Doc's wise words about computer games always using patterns has helped a lot.  In particular I am much better at "Ricochet", which involves hitting blue targets whilst ducking and twisting to avoid red orbs which are bouncing around the screen.  Avoiding one of the orbs is fairly simple if you concentrate but two or three is much harder.  Now that I've worked out the pattern that the two orbs stick to that bit is a lot less frustrating, but three orbs is still very confusing. 

This week I was intending to add in toning exercises, but I didn't which is a bit pathetic.  It was honestly because I really don't feel that doing sit ups when I have PMT is going to be helpful.  I have to add toning in next week.  As well as my adding in the toning routines, next week the number of games I'm given to complete each day will increase, so this will definitely start to get more challenging.

Overall I'm still really enjoying this programme of exercise, this week I've broken my previous high scores on a couple of games which is very satisfying.