The Feds are looking for me

Seriously, they are. I used to be married to a guy in the Navy....long story. But we divorced, I'll always be thankful for that. On Saturday, while I was at the spa getting my mani/pedi done a federal investigator knocked on the door. Husband answered and the guy asked for me. He said he needed to do a face-to-face interview with my previous involvement with my ex-husband. Apparently, the ex, is applying for some kind of top secret clearance with the military and since I'm part of his past, I'm also part of his background check.

Oh how much fun can I have with this? A lot. This seems to be a karma situation. I have the chance to wreck his chances of a career move and it would be such sweet revenge for all of the horrific things he did to me (now that I'm a grown woman I realize I was just as responsible for allowing those things to happen...but when you're young and stupid you just don't see it that way, do you?). But I'll behave and watch gleefully as my karma account builds up:) I do have a very full karma account already, you see? ;)

Les checked out all of his credentials and made sure he was legit before sending him on his way. We watch way too much Court TV to ever be taken advantage of weird schemes that involve robbery and murder. I need to hook up with the guy at some point this week or the next. I'll keep you posted.

Blogging is hard to keep up with....

....especially since work is totally busy right now. I'm sure I'm not complaining about work because when you're in sales you pray to be busy. But DAAAAAMN...I've been at work past 7pm most nights and even after 10pm one day last week.

In a nutshell, I'm busy at work. Just got started in school again. My first class was this morning. Remember that I'm not a morning person? Right. Still not a morning person even though I have to be now. My workouts were intermittant for the past three weeks due to a) my period b) working very late and c) my cravings for peanut butter cookies outweighed the want to workout:)

Keep rockin' everyone:)

What the Carter's have been eating

Chocoloate Chickpea Cake I really wanted chocolate, but didn't want the guilt associated. So, I made this version of cake that camoflauges itself more like an after workout snack:) It's made of chickpeas instead of flour, and cocoa/cardamom rather than chocolate. I have the recipe here.

Chicken and Sprouted Wheat Parpadelle Pasta I bought this pasta at Trader Joes with very little expectation of taste....I was wrong. It's not your typical cardboard-like wheat pasta. It's got a very nutty and pleasant taste. This pic isn't wonderful, but it thickened up a bit after some more freshly grated parmeseano reggiano. I think I mirrored a Giada De Laurentis recipe from a recent show of hers.
Sausage and Onions This is another take on a Giada De Laurentis recipe. Hers is Sausage and Onions and Peppers....but I don't love bell peppers and didn't feel like going to the store...I had everything else on hand. I used Chicken & Apple sausage, so they lent a sweet factor to the tomato-y onion sauce. This turned out really good. I will make it again.

Ulitmate Chili I was craving some comfort food and this is the quintessential comfort food for me. Thick, meaty and rich. I served it with cornbread muffins and some grated cheddar cheese.

We ate really good this past week, for the most part it was healthy. I have gotten more interested in cooking again because of my new knife set that hubby bought me for Christmas:)

Spin Class Atrocities

OMG. Tonight was attrocious. A spinning debauchle, if you will. There was a sub for the normal instructor tonight and he was aweful. Here's the laundry list:

1) No warmup...at ALL...none
2) Straight into a high-energy track and made us do 5 seconds in the saddle 5 seconds out...for the entire length of the song.
3) Every subsequent track skipped through the ENTIRE song...and he never attempted to fix it.
5) Just lots of up in and out of the saddle. No sprints, no endurance, no alternating techniques....just up and down out of the saddle!
6) His cleats kept getting stuck in his pedals and he'd disrupt the class while he sorted himself out.
7) No real instruction, just some whispering into his headset and we'd have to follow his lead.
8) There's more but I'll stop here.

I'm not exaggerating about how bad it was....the class started with 10 people....and it ended with 4. I never quit a workout unless I'm at my vomit zone, but I came really close to walking out. I felt sorry for the guy though, so I sucked it up and finished the workout.

Spin - 60 mins
Upper body and abs - 30 mins

Sunday Boot Camp

Since I'm designing Lawrence's website, we have an agreement that he trains me once a week. We needed more pictures for his site so we got a group of people together to do the boot camp class. I LOVE this class. Even though I was mostly picture-taking, I still did a modified version of the exercises. It's so much damn fun. It was a hard workout, but so worth it. Lots of drills, sprints, plyometrics and groundwork. I wish I knew more active people that cared about these types of things so they would go with me. All of my friends and husbands friends are lazy bastards. I need new friends! Just kidding, I love my friends. Here is our group photo at the end of our super-sweaty day:)

1.5 hrs boot camp (average HR - 160)

Saturday AM Spin Class

My friend Melinda is a spin instructor and I she invited me to take her class on Saturday. I asked her what time and she said, "8:15"! WTF? Soooooo early on a Saturday. But I did it anyway...reluctantly...hit the snooze on the alarm only one time:) I was so glad I went because it she is a fantastic instructor. Really great music - friends will all the house DJs we know...of course it would be great music!

After the workout we went to Le Boulanger for bagel and egg sammies. Totally hit the spot because that class drained all the food out of my muscles.

Spin - 1hr (moderate intensity, average HR 165)

Jerk Chicken

I made jerk chicken tonight, first time ever. I found the recipe at Yahoo Recipes. I noticed that most of the reviews complained that there wasn't enough heat in it. Well I know how to fix that...urm....just add more pepper. Geez. I added lots of pepper and it was HOT. I normally underestimate the power of freshly ground black pepper. But not anymore after tonight.

I served it alongside some polenta and carrots. Was a marginal dinner. Nothing fantastic.

On a separate note, today was a day of reckoning for me. For the past month I've been feeling a bit stir crazy and it seemed as though the house was closing in on me. I realized that's because our christmas tree was taking up half of our living room. So, tonight I took it down. And took down all of the other decorations. And now I feel much better. I feel like I can breathe again. The house is bigger and I'm already more organized. I really thought I was going crazy.

I don't normally do any resolutions, but what I would like to do this year is simplify. Just get back to basics. We have too much stuff. We're always getting more stuff. Stores and TV are always manipulating me to want more stuff. Enough already. I plan on getting rid of all of the "things" in the house that serve no functional purpose. There is no need to have so many candle holders or extra bottles of lotion or so many damn towels in the closet. Enough! This crap must get out of my house and the money must stay in my pocket.

Getting back to it

I swear this holiday season has been the worst in terms of being too busy to find time for anything. It was all about running around and being stressed. So much stress all I wanted to do is eat. And I did eat. I ate without working out to keep up with it. Stupid delicious desserts and food all over the place! My workouts suffered in a major way but now I'm back to it.

I had the most awesome day of snowboarding on Friday at Kirkwood. I wasn't even sore. Thank you traveling lunges and jump squats!

Today I took Huggy out for a four mile run and came back in the house for some abs and push ups. It felt fantastic to get a nice workout in. I need to learn to wake up early because when school starts I won't be able to worko out after work. Work work work. Geez.

Happy New Year

Life is good. Seriously good. Let's all keep it that way:) Happy New Year to everyone, I wish you the best in 2007.

We spent NYE in Tahoe with our friends. Did some snowboarding, lots of eating/relaxing and had some really tasty champagne. While hubby and friends were at Sierra Ski Ranch, they apprehended a drunk driver by pulling him from his car in the parking lot. This drunk guy almost hit many people getting into their cars and rammed his truck into a few other cars. Once the cops showed up, they arrested the guy and took him away. Hubby and friends were given the royal treatment at the resort and didn't have to pay for anything all day:)

Here they are in action - My hubby is a total bad-ass!