Drum Roll Please

It has been one crazy and fast moving week. Yesterday was a blur. I spent most of my day designing the cover for Karlo’s book. I thought I would have months to play with this project, but the publisher informed me on Wednesday that they need a mock up for Friday or Monday at the latest. Karlo spends his entire weekend working on the book. I, on the other hand, have no interest in working on the weekends. So I scrambled to pull something together. The publisher had no idea that I was planning to do all the work, but how could I let somebody else design the cover to Karlo’s baby? I wanted to ensure it looked nice and was exactly what he wanted. Not to mention the thrill of designing a cover that will actually be printed. Sort of a little rush for me, the self proclaimed graphic designer.

So here is the grand unveiling. It might not be 100% final yet, but it’s pretty darn close. Coming soon (well, not too soon) to a bookstore near you . . .

Bending the Universe

Yesterday was a crazy day and I never got a chance to blog. Work has been busy and I spent most of the day in an anxious state of nervousness. I tried to calm it by going to my first real meditation class. More on that on my YogaDudes blog. I thought I did an amazingly good job at meditation, considering I was waiting for an important fax to arrive. And that fax was the Sales and Purchase Agreement for the sale of our house in Maine. Oh God, I said it. Did I just jinx us? I hope not. I hate to give any news before things are 150% sealed and final, but this is the reason my day was crazy yesterday.

Ever since we even thought about buying the house we are currently living in, we knew we would have to give up our 'vacation home.' We put the house on the market immediately (summer of 2006) and it's been over a year without one single offer. The housing market just continues to slide into the toilet. My first and favorite real estate agent had to quit to find a 'real' job. There are just no houses moving in mid-coast Maine and the agents can't make a living. This is quite depressing news to hear if you are a home-owner desperate to sell. My faith and hope really started to dwindle. We have a renter now and if all goes well (no more major repairs and the tenant stays), we would be fine. But WHAT IF? What if the tenant bailed on us? What if we had another expensive disaster up there? I just couldn't take the stress of worrying about the what ifs? We are no longer in a position of being able to carry both mortgages.

So when we got word that an offer came in, I was shocked. Then I began to wonder if this offer had anything to do with my recent commitment to meditation every day. At the end of January I was still looking for my New Years Resolution. I got the idea of making a new habit out of spending 5 minutes every night in meditation. This goes right along with my preaching about "The Secret" and it's just more proof to me that this stuff works. Every night for the past month I repeat a series of affirmations. I am talking to my sub conscious and telling it how I want things to go. Then I list all the things in my life that I am grateful for. I spend the last minute just calming and stilling my mind. It's amazing how uplifted you can feel from 5 minutes of this. As Karlo always said, "you can bend the universe with your thoughts" and I think I did. Actually, I'm not alone. Karlo has also committed to this five minute meditation and we both have similar goals - success, happiness, abundance, etc. Was this offer a direct result of our meditation? You decide.

Lisa Fixed My Duck!

Why Did It Have To End?

I should be wearing black today. I’m in mourning that the weekend is over. I really enjoyed every minute of the blissful weekend. We got a couple chances to play in the snow and we had a ball. Our neighbors took us on a cross country ski trek. We drove the equivalent of one city block from their house and skied for 2 hours and ended up back in their yard. I’m still in disbelief at all the trails surrounding us right at home. We are in heaven.

After playing outside during the morning, we spent the rest of the day in the house. Karlo is always busy with his book, but I had all day to myself. I finished my book “Eat, Pray, Love” and I can’t thank Lisa enough for giving it to me. I enjoyed it so much and I’m almost sad that I finished it. I ripped apart "the ugliest scarf in the world" and started all over again from scratch. I’m happy to report that I no longer hate knitting and I’m doing a much better job on second (actually sixth) attempt. I got to play the bass, scrapbook, and various other little things around the house. It was so nice to not have an agenda and have plenty of time to kick back and relax.

Yesterday we got the royal treatment and had a spectacular gourmet breakfast prepared for us by the guy that signs our paychecks. We had a fun visit with coworkers and extended our visit to Tolland by taking a nice hike in the snow with Sue and her giant sheep dog. Fun fun. But our poor dogs were home alone, feeling neglected. So we went home and took them for a hike. Peanut had a great time and Bentley, well, he endured it.

Now it’s back to work. Back to the short nights of working-out, making dinner and getting ready to do it all over again the next day. Sigh. Is it Friday yet?

This Quacks Me Up

Some questions that I just have to ask myself looking at this . . . Are there really adult yellow ducks? I've seen yellow chicks, but never a full grown yellow duck. Should I have drawn some water to the right because he looks like he's just about to do a header. Perhaps some water would be more realistic - like he's just about to dive in. Right now it just looks like he's going to fall over. Should I Photoshop in some bigger feet? What is wrong with this duck? He's just not right. He needs a duck doctor. Lisa, help!

Total Body Workout

All week I've been busy working out every part of my body. Every day was a different muscle group and yesterday I even worked out my fingers. First, I knitted in the afternoon and then last night I played the bass. I've been missing the bass. For the past two weeks my nights have been consumed with exercising. Now I'm lucky if I get some string plucking once a week. But I gave my fingers a good workout yesterday. Now I think my toes are feeling left out. That's about the only part of my body that didn't get a work-out this week.

And last night I decided that I need to add another thing to my Bucket List. Before I die, I WILL learn how to play the bass lines of my all-time favorite song: Van Morrison's Moondance. And that will not be easy. It's way out of the league of my usual Police tunes, which can mostly be learned in 15 minutes. Moondance will take me years and I'll probably need to call in the help of John, Jamie and my Dad. But one way or another, I will get it.

I’m Well On My Way

To making the world’s ugliest scarf! I set a goal for myself for this year and that goal was to learn how to knit and make a scarf. I really can’t tell you why I set this goal. As if I don’t already have enough hobbies to keep me busy, not to mention a side business to run, and a book to typeset. With my current work-out schedule I barely have time to do anything at night anymore. I thought knitting might be a relaxing way to spend the last couple hours of the night . . . on the couch while I watch TV. Just the mere thought of sitting on the couch and watching TV while being completely unproductive is hard for me to swallow. I need to be doing SOMETHING. So I gave it a shot.

And to this point, well, it’s been a disaster. So far, I’ve been to three “Stitch and Bitch” sessions and Karlo pointed out that I have learned how to “bitch” quite well. This afternoon, as I walked into my third session, Karlo gave me a pointer, “Try to learn how to stitch this time.” Wise guy!

But I think I got it now. I successfully stitched 2 rows with ease. I’m still not really sure what I was doing so terribly wrong, but up until this afternoon, I hated knitting. Just looking at the yarn and the “sticks” made me tense and almost angry. Stupid yarn, stupid sticks, why is this so hard? But I took a deep breath and now I’m making peace with my yarn. Thank goodness I have a very patient knitting instructor. She really did save the day. I’m looking forward to taking my project home tonight and plugging along with my new and improved knitting fingers.

Shopping For the Soul

I think I forgot to mention the fact that I started yet another blog. Can you believe it? This isn't the sort of blog were I ramble on with amusing stories. After all, how many stories can one person have? I have my own sneaky business reasons for starting this third blog, but I still wanted to share it with you. It may be fun to drop in every once in a while to see some cool products that I'm showcasing. Shopping For The Soul is a shopping website aimed at yogis and other health conscious folks. It's really a sister-site to my YogaDudes web site, but this promotes many other non-yoga products. For sure you will find something you like here. I am not personally selling these products (well, I will, of course, sneak in a few of my own products from time to time) but I'm gathering some things that I find online that I think are worth promoting. Take a peek when you're bored and check it out: www.shoppingforthesoul.com.

The link has also been added to the "Some Other Links" section on this blog.

Jambalaya

Yesterday Lisa asked me what I did all day on Sunday - the day we stayed home. I'll be darned if I could come up with a list of things I did. Now you know me . . . I never sit still and do nothing. I was obviously busy doing something all day, but I'm so scattered that I either can't remember or did so many different things I can't explain.

I sat down to write today's blog posting and I got stuck on the title. My head is filled with so many random and fragmented thoughts that I can't even come up with a cohesive title. What is going on with me? Needless to say this will be a terribly incoherent posting and for that I apologize.

My first defense is that I'm exhausted. For over a week now, I'm constantly tired. It has to be our new work-out routine. It's taking a lot out of me. I've been very proud of the fact that my muscles haven't been very sore. However, I can fall asleep if left alone and idle for 5 minutes. Yesterday I did a very tough chest workout at lunch time. It left me completely drained and I yawned non-stop up and down the aisles at Big Y and during the drive home. But then it was time for our hour long arm and shoulder work-out. Where was I getting the energy from, I don't know. I still managed to make dinner and keep busy for the rest of the night. Although I have to say, knitting (more stories on that later this week) was challenging. Can you imagine getting arm fatigue from holding up knitting needles? Well, I did.

I got on the couch last night at 8 o'clock looking forward to my favorite show "New Adventures of the Old Christine." By 8:45 I told Karlo to "wake me up for my show." I knew I wasn't going to make it. As instructed, Karlo woke me up at 9:30, but no matter how hard I tried to beat the overwhelming force of exhaustion, I just couldn't. I struggled with one eye open for about 5.4 minutes and then fell back to sleep. I'm going to have to invest in TiVo.

The one thing that I wanted to share with you today is this . . . I got this email yesterday and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is incredible. Here's a picture and the link to the story. Check it out.

Shopping, Visiting and a Party

What a busy weekend. Saturday was a blur. We did our work-out then I cleaned the house and before I knew it, it was time to take off for our big adventure to civilization. We did all sorts of errands and even went to Cabelas. Karlo has been eager to go and check the place out, but it didn't live up to his expectations. Not only did they not have the only thing he wanted to buy, but it was crowded with people . . . And apparently, since we moved out to the Boonies, Karlo can't stand people. If I had to hear him complain one more time that "there are too many people," I was going to have to smack him. Granted I probably shouldn’t have dragged him through Buckland Hills leading up to our trip to Cabelas. It was just too much civilization for him to take in one day.

We had an hour to visit with Dad, which was nice, and we even got a surprise bonus visit with my brother's family. That hour went by way too fast. I even got carried away and lost track of time. We barely made it to Tina's surprise birthday party on time. That was fun. Tina was actually surprised by the part and even more surprised to find me and Regina there. It was so nice to visit with those guys, and did I mention the homemade Italian cooking? Heaven.

Yesterday we made up for civilization overload and we stayed home all day. We never even went outside - despite the fact that we both wanted to walk down to see how big the river was from all the rain. We did our 90 minute work out and Karlo mostly worked on his book all day. I was busy doing all sorts of things that I can no longer remember. All I know is that it was blissful to have an entire day with no plans and no agenda. It went by too fast and I want it back - now!

Catch a Turtle by the Toe

Stay tuned for the weekend recap. I just doodled and scanned my little turtle and wanted to post him. Right now, I have to work for Karlo and make dinner. My work never ends!

Monster Day at Work

Yesterday was busy one at work. We had some visitors that not only kept Karlo extremely busy all day, but kept the rest of the company entertained. Have you ever heard of the Monster Truck called GraveDigger? It’s a pretty famous one and there is an upcoming truck show in Worchester that these guys were in town for it. They are customers of Mastercam and spent a couple days here getting help from the Mastercam expert (that, of course, being Karlo). Karlo re-engineered a new carburetor for them. Actually, not only are they customers of ours, but we are one of their sponsors.

I never really had much interest in monster trucks. To be honest I only went to one monster truck show and that was because I was being paid to do so (my security guard days). It was horrific. My eyes burned from the fumes and my stomach hurt from the incredibly loud engines roaring through my gut. I hated being inside the area and vowed to never step foot in one again. However, it is fun to watch on TV, these guys are the nicest guys, and it is fun to look at the trucks up close.

And that we did. It was like an adult field trip here yesterday. They pulled out the two trucks (GraveDigger and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle), roared the engines, drove them up to the building and let all the employees crawl all over them. Like a bunch of kids, we were all out there climbing on the trucks, sitting in the drivers seat, and mostly freezing our butts off. I’m just happy they didn’t let Karlo drive!

By the way, just in case you're wondering . . . the trucks have ridiculously small tires on them because they can't fit them into the truck with the real monster ones on. With the real tires on them they would be about 6 feet taller!

Happy Valentines Day

Look at what my sweet Babboo (is that what Sally called Linus?) sent me for Valentines Day. I really don't ever expect flowers anymore. After all, we ARE married. But it was a nice surprise and I especially like the vase. It reminds me of those little heart shaped candies. Oh, I love those. I need to run out to CVS and get some today. The white ones are my favorite. They taste like wintergreen - yummy.

And speaking of wintergreen . . . I'm a hurting unit today. Hmmmm, those two thoughts don't seem to have anything to do with one another. Let me explain. Wintergreen reminds me of BenGay. And I am in great need of Ben Gay today. You would think, knowing how many pain cremes I own, that I would have some on, but because I'm wearing my pretty pink cashemere sweater (in honor of Valentines Day), I refused to slather greasy cream on my back. So to save the sweater, I'm in pain.

Last night was one of the harder P90X workouts. Not sure if anyone is keeping track of our work out progress on my YogaDudes blog, but so far all the days have been doable. Yoga was the hardest and last night was just plain unpleasant. We went back and fourth from leg exercises to pull-ups for an hour. I am pretty good at normal pull-ups (where you grip the bar with the back our your hands facing away from you). But when I tried to do my first wide arm pull-up with the back of my hands facing me, disaster struck. I felt something snap in my back and instant pain going from my neck down to my mid-back. Strangely, this is the side of my neck that was sore over the weekend so I'm not sure exactly what is going on with me. All I know is that I'm hurting and I can't wait to get home and take off the cashmere and put on the Ben Gay. I had to suffer through the rest of the legs and back exercises and then end the session with something called the Ab Ripper. Imagine doing nearly 600 ab exercises with a hurting neck. NOT fun.

So the flowers, although they are for Valentines, are sure helping lift my spirits after an incredibly bad work week and getting me through a painful day. Thanks Karlo. I guess I should go out and get you more chocolate now!

One Bad Day

Today got away from me without having a free five minutes to even think about blogging. It was just one of those extremely challenging days at work. There was a heated discussion (OK, argument) involved, almost some crying, lots of anger and frustration, a conference with the owners of the company, and endless discussions with people that I didn't need to, or want to, talk to. What a waste of a day. I got nothing accomplished and worst, didn't even have time to write a coherent blog posting.

But on the bright side, we got some news from the publisher today that we've been waiting for. We CAN print the book in color versus black and white. This was very important to Karlo and this is very big and good news. So I can't wait to put this dreadful work day behind me and go home and celebrate. Well, first we need to get through our 90 minutes of workout hell, but after that, we can celebrate. This is one day that I can really use a glass of wine!

And to further take my mind off the work day, I'm going shopping for my next birthday present in a couple of hours. I have an hour to kill while Karlo is in a meeting and all this talk about Tina turning 40 made me want to start shopping for my own present! Karlo's game, so I'm heading to the jewelry store. Nothing can improve one's day more than THAT.

Somebody is Turning 40 Today

I didn't want to add this into my weekend report. It deserved its own blog entry. I want to wish Tina a big fat HAPPY BIRTHDAY on this very special day. Tina is #3 making the big transition to 40. Oh crap, I think this means I'm next. Uuugh

Hope you have a great day Tina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts From the Weekend

My first thought is, "Do you think I have a problem with pain?" I snapped the photo above because looking at the this scene on my coffee table made me laugh. I asked Karlo to get me some pain cream. Not knowing exactly what I wanted, he went into my vanity drawer and brought down everything he could find. Should anybody need that many pain creams?

Which leads me to my second thought. Do you remember when I blogged about trying to make the decision on whether or not to start a new work-out program called P90X? Well, I decided. I bought the videos and Karlo and I started the program this weekend. Hence all the pain creams.

Well, that is actually not true. Yes, I'm in sore from the work out, but to be honest with you, the pain cream was for my neck, which I somehow hurt and had nothing to do with the workout. I think I hurt my neck in the car and no, I can't even blame Karlo's driving. I was watching Karlo load a new work bench into the back of the Golf. This was very interesting because the bench was a foot longer than the cargo area of the car. I just had to see how Houdini was going to pull this off. And in the process I pulled a muscle in my neck!

The work out is going great. We started it on Saturday and made it through our first two sessions. Yes, it's hard. But it's strangely fun at the same time. I decided to document my entire journey through these next 90 days of work-out hell and if you would like to track my progress, you can find the entire story on my YogaDudes blog.

Now I'm feeling all good about myself doing this new exercise routine. My upcoming birthday is starting to instill a panic in me. I desperately want to stay young. Then last night I marveled watching Tina Turner on the Grammys. Can somebody please tell me how old that woman is? Did she not look amazing? Forget working out. I want to eat, drink or smoke whatever it is that she is. There was not one wrinkle on that woman's skin. How on earth does she do it? I think she is my new idol.

About to be "Born Again"

I know that Born Again Christians go through a major life transformation and I am about to embark on something similar. I'm not exactly getting re-baptisized and it has nothing to do with religion - although I do sort of worship computers and all things cyber. Yesterday I went shopping with the big boss - Mark, the owner of the company I work for. He recently decided that he needs to know more about Macs and seeing that I'm his graphic designer, he thought I would be a good guinea pig to venture into this big unknown world. I was certainly game.

So we set out yesterday to the computer store. I thought this was an information gathering process and went prepared with a bulleted list of questions. I had no idea that I would be walking out of the store with a shiny new MacBook Pro . . . and a slew of goodies on order to go along with it.

The best part was me asking if I can use dual monitors with this new laptop and more importantly, can I use my huge Dell monitor. The sales girl answered that yes, indeed I could. But the boss said, "Paula, don't you want one of these new, gigantic, high definition monitors instead?" Not much arm twisting was needed there! The sales pitch went on for an hour and this definitely exceeded the attention span of the boss. As the sales girl was explaining more features, Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He slipped me his credit card and excused himself because he could no longer stand the fact that the motorcycle accessories store was right next door calling to him. He tells me to get whatever I want and heads over to get himself a new helmet, jacket, etc for his upcoming awesome trek across the country on his new BMW GS. That trip, by the way, was all my idea and now we are not even going with him. Uuugh.

But back to my new computer. So now I have this shiny new toy and I don't even know where to begin. I know this is going to be a very hard transition - a "Mac attack" for sure. I am definitely an old dog and learning new tricks is not always easy. I am excited to join the Mac world, if I could just get over the difficult transition.

This Little Piggy Surfed the Net

Here is my biggest accomplishment of the night. In addition to drawing this doodle, I watched Oprah, built a fire (yes, this is an accomplishment), worked out, packed some YogaDudes orders, and now I'm stuggling to decide if I'm going to read the book that Oprah recommended on today's show. It's called "The New Earth" and after reading the table of contents on Amazon, I'm left wondering what it's really about. I couldn't even get through reading the introduction. It's very easy to get wrapped up in the 10 week online course with Oprah, but I don't have time to waste. I'm just not really sure what it's all about. If anybody out there gets it, please enlighten me. In the meantime, I'm going back to my "Eat, Pray, Love" book. Yes, I know I'm a slow reader . . . but I'm savoring it. Tonight I enter Indonesia. Should be interesting.

Recognize These Guys?

I should have been editing Karlo's book . . . but instead I was playing on the M&Ms web site. You can go there an make your own M&M personality www.mms.com. Of course I had to take it a step further with some final Photoshop touches. But still, the best M&M persona goes to my cousin Jamie. He's is a dead ringer for the real guy. Sort of eerie that a candy can look like person. Go have some fun.

So far my nights this week have been filled with useless goofing off, having dinner out with Lisa, having a tea party last night . . . I'm getting nothing accomplished - and loving it. Maybe tonight I'll get some real work done. Or maybe I'll draw another picture . . .

I Hate To Admit This . . .

But I have a MySpace page. Oh, the shame. I'm not exactly sure what it is about MySpace that repulses me, but it just does. The only reason I have one is for business networking and it's not really "mine" as much as it is my YogaDudes business. So now that I have this silly thing, the whole point is to gather virtual "friends" to network with and hopefully gain some exposure. I'm sure you all already know what this MySpace business is all about so I won't bore you with the details. All I really want to do is show off my new friends. Check me out . . . Notice anything interesting below:


That's right, baby . . . Sting is officially my friend! Whoo hoooo. I think I'll give him a jingle later and see if he wants to meet me for a drink this week. Maybe he can help me with the latest bass lines that I'm struggling with.

And in case, anybody is wondering why Lisa ended up at the bottom of my friend list . . .That is because I saved the BEST for last. Better than Sting you say? Yes, better than Sting. Lisa actually set up the whole page for me. I have about 6 seconds worth of patience for MySpace, but luckily my patient friend Lisa is a wiz at all things Cyber. She spent hours of her weekend doing this for me. What a pal. This is the page she made for me: http://www.myspace.com/yogadudes. If you also have a shameful MySpace page, please be my friend.

And Lisa, thanks for meeting me for dinner last night. I had a great time.

Why I Watch the SuperBowl

It's not for the football . . . I watch for the SuperBowl commercials. I admit it. I love them. But cut me some slack. After all, marketing is my career.

Here are my top three picks.

My #1 favorite - Budweiser Clysdales:



Second place goes to - Sobe Thrillicious:



And in third - Bridgestone Tires:

Typing Naked

The intended title for today's post was "Good Girl Fun." But when I started to type it, I realized that today was the first day that I could type naked! I got so excited, and found the title catchier, so I changed it. Now tell me, do you have an image of me sitting at my computer naked? Well, that's not what I meant. Today is the first day that I could type with naked FINGERS. That's right, I have no bandages covering my dots and that makes me a very happy camper.

But on to the real topic of today's post. I just had a delightful afternoon with Tina. Yes, today is supposed to be all about football and men grunting, but not this year. My grunting man is far away (oops, I wasn't supposed to say that . . . hold on while I restrain my vicious dogs . . . ) I spent the whole afternoon having good girl fun with Tina. We Zumba-ed together, had lunch, talked and had a nice little exercise of making fun collages with old magazines. This is something that I will never grow too old for. I had just as much fun doing it today as I did when I was a kid.

As a matter of fact, today I decided that I will make a fun collage with every magazine that I get. Instead of keeping heaps of old magazines that I fully intend to look back through, but never do, I decided that I will cut out all the things that appeal to me and glue them together on a scrapbook spread. This condenses the entire magazine to two little pages of just the fun stuff. Just the stuff that jumped out at me. This is a recycling genius, not to mention a great space saver. And I have a feeling that I will have a much better chance at actually looking back at a scrapbook than I will old magazines.

So here's this month's issue of Body & Soul magazine in my condensed version. I'm looking forward to this exercise every month. You should give it a try.

Introducing Paladora Jewelry

We've all heard of Pandora. And now I want to present my version - Paladora! Let me explain . . .

My aunt was the lucky recipient of a Pandora bracelet this past Christmas. Me, being the true lover of all things that sparkle, couldn't take my eyes off it. I sat in the corner with the Pandora brochures and drooled. That was it. I had to have one! I told Karlo that I must have one for my next birthday and he was even instructed that Pandora beads are what I want for every birthday and special occasion after that. Karlo was more than happy with this plan and that was that.

Or was it? I am not a patient person. Could I wait 10 years to finally have a partially full Pandora? Could I trust Karlo to really get me one and continue to buy me beads? After all, they don't sell Pandora beads at EMS. So the hunt started for something that looked like Pandora, but of course, didn't come with the same price tag. It took some doing, but I found a source in Europe and I decided to buy them in bulk. Not only would I get a completed bracelet, but now I can sell them and maybe pay for my completed bracelet.

A couple weeks after I made this decision, my aunt had a big birthday party. Since the entire family knew that she just got her new bracelet, everyone bought her Pandora beads to fill it. After hearing all my cousins and their stories of having to go to multiple jewelry stores because of the hordes of women swarming the Pandora cases, it occurred to me that I made the right decision.

I have added all the beads to my YogaDudes shop. The picture at the top of this post shows off all the beads that I'm selling. If you too would like a Pandora at a fraction of the cost, please visit the shop.