Christmas Eve Zombie Haiku

Christmas Eve Eve

(Thursday night) Michael kindly spent hours helping me give my blog a new look. There’s still a few tweaks and fixes we need to do but for the most part the Blog Makeover is done. I think he did a great job and I LOVE the way it looks now. If you’re reading these posts in your Google Reader/RSS Feed, take a moment to check out the actual website and let me know what you think.

Since he was hard at work on the blog I ordered a deLite pizza from Papa Murphy’s and picked up some seasonal beer as well. I baked the pizza and we ate in the office while we fiddled and fixed things.

And I ate way too many of these:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve arrived. I would have liked to sleep in but I had a tight AM schedule. I woke up early and went to the gym to get in my workout. The place was packed. It was 8:30 or so and every cardio machine was in use. I was lucky to snag a treadmill when I first got there. I guess everyone else had the same idea I had in terms of pre-holiday-food-orgies: workout so you don’t feel guilty indulging!

Unlike my rushed treadmill run on Tuesday night I took my time and didn’t increase the speed more than about 4.4 on the treadmill. I think that was a better pace for me right now. I ran my 2.5 miles without any pain and headed down to the weight machines.

The weight machines were also crowded. A preview of what January and February will be like….SIGH…I focused on the chest machines and the triceps before moving onto Abs.

I attempted to do some Plie Squats with the 15 pound weight and felt considerable discomfort in my right knee. Not good. Squats can also irritate the IT Band just like running. I decided to stop trying to do the squats for a bit to make sure my knee/IT Band is healing the way it should be. At least until I see my sports medicine doc next week and talk to him.

After the lackluster Plie Squats I focused on the Russian Twist, using the 8 pound Medicine Ball. I did some extras of those before I had to switch to stretching and using the Foam Roller.

Gym Stats:

Time: 1:39

Calories Burned: 729

After the gym I had to skedaddle to the salon to get my hair cut. I am really happy with it! I saw Jodi at Woop-ti-do over in NE Portland. She’s been cutting my hair for over 2 years now and she’s the best. I won’t let anyone else touch it. It’s REALLY hard to get a good haircut when you have curly hair. Too many stylists are clueless about curly hair. They try to straighten it, cut it like it was straight–too many have tried to give me bangs: NO! NO! NO! Bangs with curly hair do not work! Ever!

Jodi cut about 4-5 inches off my hair. My blog got a makeover and I got a makeover!

BEFORE:

(Pretty long, passed my shoulders)

AFTER:

After my appointment it was time to head home to relax (finally). Michael and I watched “Shutter Island” and “Christmas Vacation” while we also did some cooking (amazing recipes to follow).

Christmas Eve for my family meant we could unwrap 1 present. Michael and I each unwrapped a present from my brother Andy. Andy lives in Philly with his wife. They recently went to New York City and the gift they got me is a very cool piece of art I bet they bought on the streets in New York City! So neat!

They got Michael the second book of “The Walking Dead” series. He’s super stoked about the book. Plus Andy wrote a Zombie Haiku. 😉

“Merry Christmas Michael!

Precious Barricade

Hold me tight,

From Zombie dreams comes morning light.”

I had a fantastic Christmas Eve. It couldn’t have been better! I will share more photos later. Happy Holidays everyone!

QUESTION: What are your Christmas Eve traditions?