Xmas update

I will try to post weekly if not more updates on my blog. Still at my parents. Have been here since Christmas Eve!

I am making my old recipes from Jan 2010. I will try cooking more because it saves on money and I'm tired of the food in my neighborhood.

I'm going to make spicy cajun chicken fettuccine (from Pioneer Woman's website. www.thepioneerwoman.com) on Thursday. I have to eat the avocados before they go bad!

I've been making a chicken avocado salad with grilled chicken, sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce and diced eggs! Very tasty! I need to buy jalapenos. I found them to be really good and they were at the Morgan Le Faye cafetaria salad bar.

My dad bought me a winter coat. It's Larry Levine cream colored (I still want the white DKNY or the white Calvin Klein coat) long down coat. I prolly won't wear it often as I don't want to get it dirty. I'll be spending a fortune on dry cleaning bills as my mom predicts. They also got me some thermal underwear and a rice cooker.

Still need to buy a blender, food processor, cheese grater, and rolling pin. What irks me is that I bought a cheese grater and rolling pin back in 2010.. Not sure where they are!

So headed back home tmrw around 4:30PM. I might take a spin class tmrw morning. It's an hour spin because in Long Island they spin for an hour (LOL).

I just love Robert Pennino's Terrier Tri cycling classes! I think that makes up for the $178 Equinox membership fee. He's my favorite spin instructor of all time. Gregg Cook of the Terracycle classes is a close second favorite spin instructor. He teaches three classes M to Thur and two classes on Fri. Gonna try his Whipped Classes next month to prep for BBC classes in March. Also will take Leandro Calvallo (sp?) Brazilian Butt/Tummy Tuck/Body Sculpt classes. And Kristi Molinaro's 30/60/90 classes.

Also will save money for a Polar FT60 heart-rate monitor watch! $130. I will get that in March to train for the Brooklyn Half-Marathon!

It looks like there might be showers on NYE, so will skip the outdoor 4 miler. My first race will be the Coogan's 5K. Will try to do it in 8:30 min miles!

I am beginning to like to run again. Need to train up to 6 miles (one full Central Park loop).

Wonder if I'll ever hear from Brandon R again. I do know what he's up to on any given day given his constant twitter updates. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing, LOL

I went to the Jets-Giants game on Christmas Eve with Augusto. That's the last time he goes to a winter game with me. He abandoned me after the third quarter. Not a true fan! Giants won! I was ecstatic! Giants are my number 1 team of all time. Followed closely by Real Madrid, Mets, Yankees, then Jets. I doubt they will win the Super Bowl with Mark Sanchez. I see Vick, Romo and Flacco winning Super Bowl Rings before Sanchez. there was a funny heckler who kept calling him Mark Sandwich. very funny guy!

Too bad I am not making enough money from my tax business to go to the Cowboys-Giants NFC East title game! One way is to get one ticket and use my dentist money and just not finish my post and crown. LOL Nah!

BBC! Updates

So the weekly updates have come to a halt. So sorry for those even bothering to read this. I am still doing my own tax business and working out like a fiend.

I am projected to be fine without full-time or even part-time work until September of 2012. So I will look for full-time or part-time work in April after this coming tax season!

I have lost 4-5 lbs. I am currently hovering near 103. Once I weighed 102.4... I want to weigh 95 lbs because I weighed 95 lbs back in 2001 when I was 24 and had a super-crush on Joe, this really hot trainer at NYSC. I googled him and he is still there now as a fitness services manager. His FB pic is with him and this woman, not sure if that's his wife, fiance, girlfriend. I did ask to be his contact on LinkedIn but he has only 4 connections so I doubt he uses it much. He's still hot! Thought he wanted to be an actor. Oh well.

My new craze is Barry's Boot Camp! I ordered a 5-pack for $110. $22 a session instead of $32. I will take some fitness classes at Equinox to prep myself up for the BBC.

I will prolly take it with Joey Gonzalez, COO of BBC. I was contemplating taking Noah's classes but he's not an expert trainer like Joey. Plus he's Jewish! LOL I doubt I will be dating Noah anyways. He did accept my friend request unlike Joey. All of them don't hold a candle to Joe. He inspired me to run the marathon... I am even contemplating tracking down which NYSC he belongs to and re-joining NYSC. Nah. I like not being in any relationship of any kind. As Rachel Weisz character said in Definitely Maybe, "I don't need a guy!" Just his sperm. LOL

I will cut out my hair coloring and manicure expense if I like BBC.

OK nothing else new with me. Nothing to do today or tonight. I spun with RP of Terrier Tri at 85th and Third (four spin classes each day this week in a row!). Will attempt to run 3.4 miles tmrw.

He gave out free Terrier Tri coffee mugs! Not sure why the 85th Street Equinox members are so special. I went to the 63rd St Terrier Tri on Wednesday morning and he didn't give anything out to them!

Update

OK, I was photo-blogging for three days straight and on a roll until I fell off the world for 13 days... minor blip, I'm back! Got some extra accounting and setup of LLC work so making quite a bit of money in December, which is good considering I lost my fourth iPhone. But the fifth iPhone will be my last iPhone cuz this AT&T sales rep told me about Mobile Me which is this software that can gps lost phones. It's 99 and I'm going to buy it as soon as my client pays me this week.

I've also decided to learn how to swim on my own. I have had enough lessons and know what I need to do, I just need to practice on my own. That'll save me a lot of money and I can pay off my Citibank cc, which I have been letting slide since November. I shd be back on track by Feb 2010. I'm also foregoing mani-pedis (bought my own nail polish and will do it myself) and stretch sessions. I might also only go to one Yankee game next year since I just calculated that I spent 500 on Yankees tickets, food, gear and the movie. I'm going to cut it down to half of that for the 2010 season, especially since they don't have Hideki Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang (sp?) They also traded for Nick Johnson whom I was not fond of and Javier Vasquez who gave up a grand slam in game 7 of the ALCS to Boston's Johnny Damon.

So yeah with all these new clients and saving money tactics, I shd save enough for a trip to Shanghai and HK and to be able to bring my mom with me. I'm thinking by Jul 2o11 I'll have enough saved and I'll visit my homeland for the first time.

OK, I will try photo-blogging tomorrow when I go into the city tmrw for my weekly therapy session.

Oh I haven't been running since I injured my right ankle in cardio class. It feels abt healed but I want to rest a few more days to be on the safe side. I think I'll return to the gym to run 2 miles on a treadmill on Sat, the day after Christmas.

Going to cook crab bisque on Christmas day. Invested at least 70 bucks on it so far, so it better turn out well.

Pink Florentine Laptop bag

This is the pink bag that I currently want to hold my laptop. It costs abt $82, and I hope my bro gets it for me for Christmas. I am still going to save for my pink Burberry tonal check perspex tote bag. Maybe it can fit my running shoes and running clothes. If I save $50 a week, I will have enough in 12 weeks, 2/24/10.

Daily blogging

Tried to blog from the subway but forgot the email address to send blog updates. Will take a note of it for tomorrow. I'm going to try to blog as much as Danica and take more pics of my life. More TK.

So I tried asking Megan Jones to give me another swim lesson on Dec 6, but she was not free. She offered to set up a time with the other two swim instructors but that might be too much, they won't be able to track my progress. So I went back to Nadia Fischer, the swim instructor I originally hired and whom I still have three lessons. We met last Friday at 4:30pm. The water at the pool at 54th Street and 1st Avenue was warm, I loved it! I hope it's always that warm. We practiced the breaststroke. I have to go tomorrow and practice.

I ran 3 miles on a treadmill in Greenwich on Saturday. It was raining/snowing, so I took my workout indoors. Then I went to the Real Madrid Almeria match at Mr Dennehy's with the Real Madristas meetup. They won an exciting 4-2 game where Ronaldo scored and took off his shirt. He got a red card (well two yellow cards, one yellow card for taking off his shirt) but I think it may be worth it. He won't be in next week's game so I don't have to go the meetup next week.

I got some business. George Pan of ISecure Tax and Henry Tran of 1040Now are asking me for certification letter. They'll pay a total of $200 for abt 1 hr of work so I make $200/hr. If only I can keep getting that kind of business, I wouldn't need to look for a full-time job.

Tomorrow or later today (Monday late morning) I will run outside with my Garmin 405 for the first time. I will do the 4 mile reservoir run. It'll be my longest distance yet since I got the ankle injury. I think my ankle is 100% recovered.

Then picking up a $200 monthly check from good ol' reliable Adam.

Wednesday I have my therapist appt at 1:15pm then going to run 4 miles on a treadmill at the gym then a 3:30pm stretch with Katie. I'll hope to be blogging daily, maybe even multiple times with photos!! I can dream, right?

swim lessons and triathlon training

So I'm trying to learn how to swim again. I hired a new swim instructor and will pay her from $115-125 per lesson. Megan Jones is her name and she is the head swim coach for Terrier Tri. I will do once a week lessons for 5-6 months and if I can't be prepared for a sprint triathlon by May of next year, then I'll give up my dreams of completing a triathlon.

Not even sure if I want to do a triathlon. Even if I have mastered the freestyle stroke for the swim I have to practice my cycling. I can barely ride a bike straight. Might need lessons. I'll do that starting next April when the weather gets better.

I was also debating on whether to do a 12 week running program from Terrier Tri. It meets at 6am on Tuesdays and Fridays and at 8:30am on Sundays. I am not sure if I want to wake up at 4am in the morning to make the workouts. The bonus of doing this program is that they're going to Tampa, Florida Feb 27-28, 2010. I need a vacation and it'll be the first time I would travel for a race. It's definitely intriguing. I could also make some new friends.

I can use the program fee money to buy winter gear instead. I think I need to get Spandex running tights, a windbreaker and long-sleeved shirt. Maybe also a thermal shirt for when it gets real cold. North Face gloves and a hat too for the colder weather.

Ankle report: my left ankle finally feels better and it doesn't hurt to turn my ankle so I'm going to rest it this weekend and go back to running next Tuesday. I'll go to the gym and run 2 miles on a treadmill. Then I'll rest on Wednesday and then run 4 mile reservoir loop on Thursday in CP in the afternoon.

I'll do Adam's accounting work on Tuesday.

I'm going to the Yankees World Series 2009 movie on Monday November 23 at 7pm with Jackie.

Sore ankle

I twisted my left ankle during the marathon and then walked on it. So now my ankle is still sore. I went to see a sports medicine doctor who told me to wrap it and wait another two weeks. If it still feels the same, I have to go back to him. I'll keep off my ankle. I want to run every half-marathon NYRR offers next year which means I have to be half-marathon ready by the last weekend in January. If I take the rest of this month off, hopefully I can train 7 weeks for the half-marathon and still be in good shape. I think the Bronx half-marathon is two weeks after the Manhattan half-marathon. I don't think it's that bad a sprain. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Facebook updates

The Giants got clobbered and annihilated today by the New Orleans Saints, 48-27 last time I checked.

So I finally emailed Marty to see if we're running the marathon, want to do 10 minute miles, he might run faster. So I also emailed Nori to see if he wanted to run the marathon together.

Saw Marty at the Grete's Gallop but didn't wake up in time for the Staten Island Marathon. He sent me three text messages that day.

On an even more stalkerish way, I am steadily checking Marty's facebook and he deleted his sister's comments. The comment was innocuous until the last sentence, asking him how Tomoko was doing. Who is Tomoko? Ina, his sister, mentioned Tomoko back in March of this year. So I knew about her. And was waiting to hear what Marty would respond with, but then I just checked his facebook today and he deleted his sister's comments, which makes me wonder who is Tomoko and why would he delete mention of her? Too bad I am not going out with Marty, I can't ask him. If I was, I would have asked him a way long time ago. Heehee.

I hope I see him at the Poland Spring 5M'er on the Sunday October 25, one week from now. Took a week off from running since I injured my left calf... Hope to run 6 miles tomorrow and then 16 miles on Wednesday.

Enchanted

Nothing much is happening today. Saw the rest of Enchanted, pretty good movie with Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey.

I ran 6 miles yesterday, but I need to run more tomorrow before my tax appointment with Corey at 2pm.

I am confused if Marty is going to join me for the training run on Sunday. I emailed him via facebook and told him I was going to do it, then he responded with a "Sounds good. Good practice" Not sure if that means he'll be joining me. I guess I have to run into him online to see if he's indeed running it.

Missing Guga... it's been exactly 4 months since he's passed away. RIP Guga.

Aruba

I just booked my flight and hotel to Aruba. Going with a few friends. First vacation since I went to San Francisco in 2008. Fun in the sun. Might go snorkeling and scuba diving, if I can afford it since I know how to swim now.

Hopefully I'll come back dark and tanned and well-rested. Five days, Sun to Fri. I'll be back to my long run on Sat or Sun with Marty. :)

Busy weekend

I had a busy weekend. Let me start it by going through what happened Friday.

I went to my first Yankees-Bosox game. I want to go to Boston and attend a Yankees-Bosox game there, but I digress. It was a great pitchers' duel between Josh Beckett and AJ Burnett. Somewhere in the 7th inning, I wondered how many innings this event will go through. I stayed until the 14th inning, and then I had to leave because I had to catch the 1:19am train home, if I missed it I would have to wait for the 3:20am train home. The game ended 10 minutes after I left with A-Rod hitting a 2 run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 15th inning.

So after spending 5:30 hrs, I spent a relaxing Saturday at home. I helped kill, clean and then I cooked crab with egg, scallion and ginger. It came out quite nicely making me reconsider myself as a bad cook.

Saturday night was busy, I went to my cousin's daughter's banquet party. She was barely 3 months old. Her name is Sandrine. Not a fan of her name. It rhymes with gangrine, but whatever. Not my child. I stayed for an hour and then jetted off to visit my friends Chiemi and Jacqui at Chez Jacqueline, got the lobster risotto and chardonnay. I enjoyed the wine, which surprised me I don't normally like wine.

I luckily caught the 11:19pm train back home by 10 seconds. Got home 20 after midnight as they ran out of taxicabs at the train station.

I then got about 4 hours of sleep because I had to wake up to catch the 5:57am train to Penn Station to meet the bus going to DC at 7:15am. You see I had bought a ticket to see Cristiano Ronaldo play soccer with the Real Madrid team against DC United at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. 4.5 hr bus trip culminated in a parking lot barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs. Went with the Real Madrid meetup group. Ronaldo only played the first half but I was in heaven watching him play for 45 minutes. He left after the first half, but Real Madrid scored three times to win it 3-0 over DC United. It was a great match if you were a Real Madrid supporter.

Then it took abt 5 hours to get back home at 10:45pm. I got home again at midnight, just to see my dad pull in from work.

This week is a chill week. Just have lunch plans with a former co-worker on Thursday.

Also it's day 9 of my running sabbatical. One more day of inertia and then I get to return to running on Wednesday Aug 12. I am debating on whether or not to ask Marty to go running with me this weekend. I am thinking I should go alone to test my fitness, don't want to drag him out and then stop in the middle of the run. But I haven't seen him in 2 weeks and I miss him. I think I'm going to fall hard for him. For however much I liked Rich, I was never in love with him. He was way too conservative. But with Marty, I can feel myself slowly falling for him. He walks with me when I need to walk during our runs, he doesn't abandon me. How nice is that? I even wrapped his gift ahead of his Sept 18 bday. I gave him the extra copy of Running Within I accidentally purchased before I even met him. It's not at all personal so I most likely will give it to him for his birthday. And it's not like I bought it for him. That and a $3 map to Central Park. So my whole gift to him was $3. I found my Central Park map, on another brighter note. I love that map.

Okay this is a long enough entry, I'll write more when I start running and keep you posted on whether or not I am doing the long run on my own this weekend or not.

What's going on with me

So I'm going back to my parents in Bayside starting tomorrow evening for the Thanksgiving break. I have work on Friday so I am going to come in from Bayside. It will be good practice for when I move back home.

I didn't wake up this morning to run, I'll do that after my therapist meeting tonight. I also have to run tomorrow morning to keep up with my running schedule. I ran 9 miles last week and am scheduled to run 14 miles this week.

This day is dragging by slowly...

Kinda busy today but have a lag

The title of this blog says it all.

I am feeling somewhat better, I am not dripping all over the place but I still have somewhat watery eyes and am sniffling. I don't think I will be able to run until Sunday and then I might not last 4 miles. Should I chance running the Race to Deliver and end up walking the last 2 miles, or should I just skip it? I am also going to skip the next two or three running classes and try to build up my running when I feel better next week. It's better than me getting myself up to the Upper East Side and then turning back after a mile.

This Saturday I may have to come in to work. I need to get my new Taryn Rose shoes tapped, so I am kind of annoyed, I need to do that so I can wear skirts.

This Saturday I am going to go to Jacadi on Madison and 67th to get replacement clothes for Catherine's 4 year old daughter Olivia and 8 month old son Alonzo. I bought them clothes over the summer or in the spring when it was her daughter's birthday but I can't find the clothes, which sucks because I think that cost me at least $65!

If I can order her stuff from jacadi.com I would order her this dress, but alas I have to live in France to get clothes delivered:

Running class bust

I think I got sick from going to the running class last night. I have to get Theraflu from the Duane Reade during lunchtime in addition to getting my gym documents from NYHRC.

I signed up for a Tuesday and Thursday 6:30 Advanced Intermediate running class at NYRR. The last two times I was there including last night, I only lasted a mile before heading back.

That's why I joined the NYHRC to get back into running shape. I used to run 6 miles at one time and not feel so winded! I have to get back to that shape!

I am going to train on my own for the next three weeks and then go back to the running class. I have to train in order to be a part of the running class.

Ocean Drive or Long Island Marathon?

I'm determined to run a marathon next late winter or early spring since I can never get into the NYC Marathon. I'm torn between the Ocean Drive marathon the last weekend of March or the Long Island Marathon the first weekend of May. It'll probably be easier to train for the Long Island Marathon since it'll be warmer from February to April as opposed to training from December to February.

I am also not sure if I should hire a trainer to devise a running schedule for me. Maybe I will try to devise my own running schedule and for my next marathon, which will be the 2009 NYC Marathon (I finally will get into it next year, don't ask me how), I can hire a trainer so that I can do it under 4 hours.

My original goal is to run 10 minute miles for the whole duration, which would lead to a time of about 4 hours, 20 minutes, but we'll see maybe I'll start walking after the first 20 miles!

follows

I wonder if he has access to this site.

So a girl emailed me about that other site where his name appears. I felt bad telling her what had happened. I guess it will follow him wherever he goes.

I have a half marathon I am intent on running although 6 miles is the highest I've run, I have to run 8-9 miles tomorrow.

I just spent over 1k on 12 pants, 4 skirts, and 6 suit jackets. I was way depressed and stressed out at work. I decided to stop taking the paranoia medication because of the weight gain. I also gave up on stocking on Pepsi so I can cut down on calories.

I saw the cute guy at work in CT. I may have to go into work this coming Monday, Martin Luther King Jr day. Work is getting stressful.

Paddy is snoring underneath this chair while Guga is sleeping in his Manchester United bed.

back to running

So I've finally kickstarted my return to the gym. I feel and look fat. It's not a self-esteem issue. Since going on the meds, I've gained about 5 lbs. This is also from getting hunger pangs. I'm doing 3 miles at a 9:30 pace, I have to improve this to 8:30 to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

I've registered for the Big Sur International Marathon in Carmel, CA on Sunday April 27, 2008. I am determined to run this marathon and even ordered a long-sleeve jersey. I'm getting really psyched about the location, it's on Highway 1 in Cali, however it's very hilly, so I have started to incorporate hills in my treadmill training. When the weather gets better in February, I'll take the training outdoors. I have to start waking up in the mornings to get to the gym. When I wake up at 6am, it's dark outside, so it's hard to get out of bed. I'll just set both alarms on my clock within 10 minutes of each other to force me to get out of bed twice. The second time should reinforce my motivation to get to the gym. My goal is to complete the marathon in less than 3:40.

Paddy and Guga are getting along much better these days, they are not fighting each other. Their playfighting doesn't escalate to any cuts or bruises, so I am getting relieved. Guga is still not pad-trained, he'll go on the one area of the kitchen that is not covered with a wee wee pad.

I need to make a new run mix. I've downloaded some older running beat songs, just have to make a playlist of them.

Justin Timberlake is on SNL tonight. My life has become thankfully normal and boring.