Kicking off the Year of the Snake

Though things on the career front are slow, this weekend was pretty spectacular.

First of all, this happened:

Photo by thelsdj

That's Cheeto, basking in the sun and sporting her cone of shame. She's fenced in because company was over and she has a habit of trying to eat them. C'est la vie.

Muse and I ended up having family over Friday and Saturday evening and had far too much fun playing Heavy Rain, Rockband, and Cards Against Humanity, watching bad rom-coms starring Ryan Reynolds, and eating delicious things. My family can cook, y'all. :) Waffle pizza made the menu, among other tasty things.

On Sunday, I woke up late, took Cheeto for a nice, long walk to make up for all of that fenced-in time, and grabbed some tasty items for Chinese New Year. I skipped the moon cake in favor of some jin deui (sesame balls), and the super-not-traditional coconut, cream cheese, and red bean filled buns. Oh! And Senorita bread! It may not look like much, but heated up that stuff is heaven. Sugary, buttery, carb-y heaven. I followed all of that up with Chinese takeout from J's Garden paired with lazy person rice cooker rice.

Cheeto finding the scent. Of noms, I presume.

Imagine my surprise when I weighed myself and found I'd lost another three pounds in the past week. Woo! It seems the Couch to 5k and all the walking have been paying off. I just finished week three of this version of the program. Seven minutes may not sound like a lot of continuous time running to anyone, but to me it was hell. My short achilles tendons and wonky ankle make it all the more challenging, but I'm incredibly pleased to have made it this far. I managed a small self-reward of some light gloves to keep my hands warm on walks without overheating, as well as a headband to keep the wispy layers of my hair out of my face while working out. Hopefully I'll get smart and get back to doing those tendon lengthening exercises from my ballet days. I'd love to get back to a point where 30 minutes in slightly flexed snow boots won't cause severe calf cramps, but we'll see. Gotta finish the small stuff first.