P90eXcuse

In light of our illness, Chris and I decided to skip our P90X workout last night. We just felt crummy and sniffly and couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

That program must be doing something right, because I have been horribly racked with guilt all day. Forgive me, Tony Horton!

Decisions, Decisions

I came into work this morning and got a lovely surprise: my column had already been dropped.

This is good for a number of reasons:

     1) It gives me all day to read and edit proofs as the come in, which sometimes helps the day end sooner.

     2) It gives me plenty of time to browse around on the interwebs, and read Vanity Fair online

     3) I'm feeling kind of stuffy and don't really feel like having to do anything

I've been having a bit of a sore/stuffed up kind of situation the past few days, and since we live together, Chris has started to feel it to. Ever the proactive one, he went to the drug store at lunch to stock up on Emergen-C, Coldeeze and chicken soup. 

I may let him convince me to take medicine. Working against him: I hate medicine (I prefer to pretend that drinking tea is an appropriate substitute), I don't like to put stuff in my water and the Coldeeze he got is cherry flavored, which I tend to despise. Working for him: if I don't take medicine, he won't let me complain. 

Hmmm...

NoLa, Baby!

After a very long and busy week, the boy and I are off to New Orleans for the weekend. Wee!

Love and Celebrations

Happy Valentine's Day, all. 

I hope you all have nice evenings planned, with whomever or whatever it is you love in your life (family, sweethearts, roommates, reality TV, chocolate, good books, etc). 

Last year on Valentine's Day, Chris and I were in the thick of Mardi Gras. We had a double date brunch with his friends Steven and Caitlin, who were visiting, and then a double date evening with his sister and her boyfriend, which consisted of the four of us fighting our way downtown to catch beads from Drew Brees (swoon) during Bacchus. 

This year, our plans are decidedly different. After Round II of our plyometrics workout (yes, we have to put ourselves through that torture again), we are going to reward ourselves with a romantical meal of ham and cheese crepes and red wine cupcakes. The cupcakes, which I made yesterday, did not rise quite as much as I'm used to cupcakes doing, which concerned me a bit. The batter tasted excellent though, so I'm hoping for good taste rather than good looks with these. I topped them off with cream cheese frosting (which I obviously made pink), and I know that's good. So if all else fails, we'll lick the icing off the top and call it dessert. 

The crepes too are a bit of an experiment, as I've never made them before. I found a very detailed step-by-step online though, so I'm holding out hope. Cross your fingers for me, yes?

Tomorrow our celebrations are continuing. Thanks to an excellent Groupon deal, we're going out to dinner at Lulav, which Chris has wanted to go to for forever. Judging by their menu, which I've been stalking, it should be a very delicious evening. Remember when I said we were loosely sticking to the P90X diet plan? Now you know why. 

Besides Valentine's Day, we're also celebrating Chris getting accepted to grad school! On Friday he found out that he was one of four (yes, four) fiction writers accepted to Cornell's MFA program. Though he's not much for the overenthusiastic celebrations, I am. In fact, so far I think I've shared the news with more people than he has. Anyway, it's very exciting and I'm very proud and happy, so, the celebrations continue!

Happy love day!

P.S. My entire Valentine's Day menu came from the food blog I'm newly obsessed with We Are Not Martha. Seriously, check them out.

In Case You Were Worried

We're alive, though barely.

Plyometrics is, in fact, hard. How hard? Exercises include the "Double Airborne Heisman" and the "Monster Truck Tire" and the "Lateral Leapfrog Squat."

So, yeah. Hard. 

Leave Your Pride On The Floor

After an extremely lazy Friday and Saturday (our weekend started early thanks to some wintery weather), on Sunday, Chris and I kicked it into high gear. 

Let me back up. Last week, in a moment of unparalleled self-motivation/stupidity, Chris and I decided to order P90X. I'm sure you've all heard a mix of horror/success stories by now, but for those of you who haven't, P90X is a 90-day fitness regime, complete with 13 different DVDs and a diet plan (the latter of which we're loosely sticking to… I insist on having chocolate on Valentine's Day). It's supposed to be impossible, but it's also supposed to actually work.

On Saturday, we completed the fitness test that you're supposed to do before beginning the program, which was very reminiscent of the Presidential Fitness Test from gym classes of long ago. I still cannot do a pull-up. Some things never change. 

Anyway, on Sunday, after a busy morning of errands, which included a trip to Drug Emporium to buy protein powder and a trip to Home Depot to buy molding (none of our doors have it and we need it for our pull-up bar, so we MacGyver-ed some inside our bathroom), we got to work. 

The program is run by a man named Tony Horton, a personal trainer who has substituted all the fat and sugar in his diet for cocaine (possibly) and is known to throw a British accent on occasion (as we quickly learned…he couldn't help himself on the word 'gorgeous'). Tony and his gang of extremely fit friends guide you through each of the program's workouts, encouraging you to take "before and after pictures" which we did not and to "pace yourself" which we did. 

His other piece of advice is to "bring it." Oh, it's been brung. 

Or, we're trying anyway. We were already pretty sore from our Saturday workout, so the "Chest and Back" routine yesterday went okay. I managed to do pull-ups with the assistance of a strategically placed chair, yet failed spectacularly at many of the ab exercises. The ab-ripper routine is done at the end of almost every other workout. 

Today, we're sore. I'm sore in places I've not often been sore before. Yet, we're pushing on. Today's workout: Plyometrics. Chris's friend Steven, who has attempted P90X before, told Chris to send him a text afterward, so he could get our reaction on it.

A review of the P90X Plyometrics workout states as follows. Ahem. "How many ways can I say 'OUCH!'? When you park it in front of your TV for the P90X® Plyometrics workout, be prepared to leave your pride on the floor – along with a huge puddle of your own sweat."

Can't wait!