The week that was: Jan 19th – Jan 26th, 2013

Lots going on this week! Well, lots going on every week. Which is why I thought I’d try this new type of post to help myself keep up with things as they fly by.

Family

Elsa got lots of toys for Christmas. Some of her favorite toys are these little bathtime animals that she got from her Aunt Lisa. These bathtime toys have actually failed to make it to the bath as of yet. This is largely because they’re co-mingling with the horde of Noah’s Ark toys that were received from Aunt Erin. There’s some type of unholy union going on of the different animal toysets (bathtime pink hippos and a pair of giant ark-bound turtles living together in harmony)…except that half the animals are from a religious-themed playset, so maybe it’s actually a quasi-holy union. I digress. Elsa’s favorite part of the bathtime animals is probably the plastic carrying case that these came in. One of her favorite activities is to have the case put on her head like a hat, which causes her to laugh uproariously and rip the “hat” off.

Here we see the plastic hat about to be ripped off…

And here we have the all important rip-the-hat-off-and-shake-it-like-crazy-while-laughing stage.

Before long Ollie will decide that entirely too much fun is being had and that he needs to be involved.

Ollie: “You know what this game needs? More tail in your face!”

In other exciting family-related news, Elsa appears to going through another round of teething. It doesn’t keep her awake at night, but it does make her more drooly than a St. Bernard and makes her a little grumpy at meal time. One of her favorite ways of alleviating the discomfort is by chewing on an apple.

Thiff feelff ffonderfulff

Wellness

These were days 19-26 of Mike’s January 2013 Whole30 challenge. It was another great week. Energy levels have been consistently high, thanks to lots of great food, five CrossFit workouts, and as much sleep as I can cram in (weeknights are hard due to my 4:15 AM wake-up time most days, but I try to get enough rest on off nights to catch up and average out to 7-8 hours). This week’s meals were PaleOMG’s caramelized onion frittata (of course, I think I’ve had this every week for the last few months and I’m nowhere near sick of it) for breakfasts, chicken breasts for lunch (our local Whole Foods recently started carrying Step 3 chicken breasts so I decided to try this instead of my usual routine of chicken thighs, which are only Step 2), and a huge vat o’ chili that I made in the slow cooker. The chili included two pounds of 100% grass-fed ground beef, a pound of beef stew meat, lots of veggies, and plenty of spices. I cooked this last Saturday and Sunday, have eaten it every night, and still have at least 2-3 good sized portions left. I have broken the Whole30 “no weighing yourself” rule a few times and am quite pleased with the progress…so far I’m down 7 pounds from January 1st.

The real wellness story of the week comes from Meg, who has been competing in a weekly competition at our box called Friday Night Lights. Last night was the finale and although she’s been nursing a wonky knee, she showed up big time and helped her team take third place. This video shows some highlights including her clean & jerk ladder, which featured a 5kg PR for her on her 60kg C&J. She was able to clean 65kg but then she dropped it on her head.

 

Speaking of dropping bars on one’s own head, I nailed myself in the middle of the forehead with the bar on Thursday morning. Check it out:

Does this purple shirt go well with the large red bump in the middle of my forehead?

Work

Meg has some cool freelance work going with Lima Bean Kids right now, which is a nice thing to have right now because this is typically her slow time of the year with Olliegraphic work.

My interesting happenings this week involving work were more about what happened outside of the office. I had two happy hours this week, which, for obvious reasons, can be difficult to enjoy whilst Whole30-ing. I managed to go and stay good at both, just enjoying ice water and conversation. One of these happy hours was downtown in one of my favorite parts of Denver, Riverfront Park and the surrounding area.

Instagrammed to make the scene look even more gray and miserable.

I also snapped this pic on the light rail ride up to downtown, which I really like. It always cracks me up when people have so much political angst tied up inside themselves that they have to get it out…with a can of spray paint.

This train brakes for no man’s revolution.

Life

So I guess this will be the miscellaneous section. I have a feeling it might frequently be about what I’m listening to these days. A good friend recently turned me onto a few new bands – Beachwood Sparks, Dirty Projectors, and a few others – so I’ve been trying to absorb a lot of that. Another friend whose musical taste I respect a lot recently proclaimed his admiration for The Battles, so I’ve loaded up some of their albums on my iPhone and plan on listening this week. I’m still in the throes of Zepping out like crazy as well, thanks to my recent reading of Hammer of the Gods. When I’m sick of music I have been listening to a lot of podcasts on my commute, most recently Sklarbro Country.

As far as the printed page, I’ve been slogging through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I’m not inserting a link here because I don’t want to go to Wikipedia and start reading more about the book…it’s a slowly revealed plot and I’m enjoying that a lot so far). I really like it so far but it’s slow going because I only really read it the few days a week I take the light rail.

On the technology side, I’m starting to lust after a new toy. Must. Not. Buy. Macbook. Air.

Ok that’s all for this week. I hope I’m able to keep this up for a while!