The Rox Life – Page 2 – so much ado about not too much

August 5, 2013August 5, 2013

beer coma, carb coma, and other pressing weekend issues

Since I didn’t complete a 30 minute post yesterday, I suppose that means this new resolution of mine isn’t a daily thing…or maybe Sunday will just be an off day.

I’ll start this session off with two things –

I need to amend my Saturday “to do” list with: make my own beer
If you need a timer application for Mac here’s a decent free one – Alinof Timer – https://itun.es/us/tD5IE.m I’m using it right now 😀

Moving on – Ronald and I had a pretty eventful uneventful weekend. See what I did there…I love paradox…har har. Anyway, we’ve been exercising/playing with the dogs early to avoid the near 100º heat throughout the day. I think this week is going to be the consistently hottest so far this summer. We’ve actually been fairly lucky this July with rain and unusually less than 100º temps. We try to get them their activity time early so they don’t mind being indoors for a LOOOOOONG time the rest of the day. Seems to be working so far. Saturday we tried a new place for brunch and ventured out to the Flying Saucer by the lake to add some beers to my list. I don’t remember much after the beer coma. We didn’t get active again until later in the evening. I walked both dogs (give or take a mile each). While walking Cooper, I decided to jog a little and got the hair-brained idea to actually workout on my own when we finished. I invited Ronald along with me and we did the pretty easy walk/jog 30 minute combo that is the couch to 5k week 1 day 1 workout. I’m thinking either tonight or tomorrow night – I’ll tackle day 2. I’m not even going to say I’ll get all the way through the program, but for now – at least it’s something. Sunday morning – we awoke to discover that our downstairs A/C unit didn’t seem to be working. BOO ON THAT. Fortunately, we were able to get someone out same day & they were able to make the necessary replacement to get us up and running again. It did get a little warm – but not too bad. We also had working A/C upstairs and that kept things from getting out of control. So, we spent most of the day working that issue out and then headed South (as is starting to be our Sunday afternoon custom) to fill our growlers at Craft & Growler. We also had a Sunday repeat from last week – visiting the Lakewood location of Cane Rosso for pizza. If Saturday was beer coma, Sunday was carb coma. I had to nap off my Neapolitan crust when we got home. Then we watched some more episodes of Game of Thrones. We finally bought into all the hype & started watching this show. We really liked season 1, and we’re now almost finished with season 2. I can’t say this 2nd season has really impressed me much…we’ll see if it picks up again in season 3. I’m pretty sure the books are WAY better, but I don’t know if they’re my kind of reads…especially now that I know a lot of the story line. My understanding is the tv show is fairly faithful to the books’ storyline.

It’s been my experience that spa business sometimes slows down in the summer. I haven’t really experienced the slow down yet – but I’m not so busy this week. We’ve got agility classes this week and Cooper has a private lesson (think we’re going to work on his jumping competition height now). Looks like I have a work conflict with Cooper’s obedience class this week, but maybe we’ll find another time to make up for it. Other than that, it seems this weekend we might have a little family get together at Canyon Lake (us, my parents, my brothers & their girlfriends). Should be a fun time. I asked my brother to bring some shrimp for us to cook (I’m thinking scampi style seasoning)…and we’ll have to come up with some other grill worthy choices.

I’m feeling pretty accomplished already this morning. I got 1 mile in with Cooper (Ronald took Hendrix on her morning mile) and I’ve already put in my 30 min! I have no illusions that my life is tough… Monday is my usual day off – the only other things set on the agenda are my nail appointment and movie night. I’m gonna see 2 Guns. I probably need to go to the grocery store, too.

Stream of conscious random add on – I watched an episode of something like Hoarders – Buried Alive yesterday. That seriously scares me…the piled up tchotchkes everywhere…it makes me shudder. I don’t claim to be a neat freak…but just wow. CRAZY.

August 4, 2013

Commence the 30 minute posts!

Ok. I’m always telling myself I need to write more or blog more. (Honestly, I’m always telling myself I need to do a lot of things more. Workout more, read more…eat better more…etc.) I digress. So, THIS is my new (*cough* we’ll see how long it lasts *cough*) attempt at writing/blogging more. Setting aside 30 minutes and just putting something out here. I set a timer and everything. At this point, can’t say I’m even sure if this is a plan to do 30 min daily, 4x week, weekly…or what. I guess I’ll figure that out as I go.

Today, I’ve got lots of things swirling around in my head about what I want/need to do. I feel like there are so many things swimming around and I never capture them (write down/remember). So, I’ll just rattle on a list –

make youtube channel/commercials for my business (improve SEO & attract more new customers)
eventually redesign my web site
speaking of above – a whole host of skills I want to take some classes regarding are: photography, Photoshop (actually the whole Adobe Creative Suite)
there’s a continuing education photography class at Collin County Community College starting in October…gonna do my best to get in on that action
make a “Rox Skin Studio, LLC” sign to hang in my window at the studio as well as some menu of service cards
enter a hunt test with Cooper before next summer (probably HRC Started)…I’d also like to run my brother’s dog Tara for either an AKC Junior Hunter or Senior Hunter test
finish out Hendrix’ Open Agility and Open Agility Jumper titles – hopefully by the end of the year…she has one leg in standard and 2 in jumpers and we’re entered in two trials (only one day each trial) so far in September
continue to focus on having at least one short focused play session one on one with Hendrix & Cooper – you know to remember life with the dogs is fun 😀
Couch 2 5k – man, I hate even writing that down…Ronald & I just did the Week 1 Day 1 workout together and it wasn’t too hard. However, this is like the 3rd/4th time I’ve started the program. Haven’t finished it – always stall out somewhere around week 5. Today, I just sort of jumped on it…not so much because I want to do the program but for the structure of what to do for a not too tough 30 minute workout. I definitely need some cardiovascular exercise injected into my life on a more regular basis.
buy some kettle bells
make eclairs – or something with choux pastry (the incongruence of this following the previous two bullet points is not lost on me)
think about taking on some creative writing (like short story or fiction)…remember college?
plan a trip in the next 2 years to Hawaii
get 1-2 IPL photofacials (for redness/rosacea and to lighten that strange sun spot that I can’t really figure out when it officially appeared prominently under the corner of my right eye)
spend more time productively less time on facebook and my iOS devices
I’m on beer 146/200 at the Flying Saucer – gotta knock out those last 54 beers!
read more – make a list of what to read (start with finishing Lanny Bassham’s “With Winning in Mind”)
teach Hendrix more tricks – I think that’s her favorite thing of all…maybe I need a book of tricks because my ideas are kind of dried up
I seriously need to buy myself some more clothes. I hate buying clothes.
I already tackled & finished a recent closet clean out, but I need to organize some more cleaning and actually attempt to “decorate” more of the house.
repaint & put to use (probably in the studio) the curio cabinet sitting empty upstairs
ignoring previously mentioned spend less time on fb – leverage fb better for the business and build up a fb for theroxlife.com

Wow. 30 minutes goes pretty fast. I’ll have to go back and compare, but I’m pretty sure some of these items are repeats of ones I wrote down at the beginning of 2013. I guess putting it out there on the internet where no one is reading it (but could at any moment) might help make me more accountable. Until my next 30 minute post…I’m feeling a little like small steps in the right direction were made today. I want to keep that forward momentum. It’s actually almost midnight, but I think I will read some of that Bassham book before turning it in for the evening.

I’m thinking I should accompany each 30 minute post with a picture from the day…related or not. Here’s a link to some great pics of the pups swimming with their pal Tugger this morning. Picture above is from brunch at R+D Kitchen earlier today.

June 25, 2013

Favorite Smoothie Recipe

While visiting my family in Austin, I stopped in at an old favorite JuiceLand and tried their Originator smoothie. It was AMAZING! So, I had to try and duplicate it at home. Fortunately, I came up with something that’s become my new go to smoothie recipe.

I like to juice 2 fresh pink lady apples and pour that into my Vitamix. I add a scoop of rice protein, a scoop of Amazing Grass Raw Reserve Green SuperFood, half a banana, a small handful of frozen cherries, a small handful of blueberries, a heaping tablespoon or 2 of natural peanut butter, and (if I remember) a tablespoon of flax seed oil.

May 25, 2013May 25, 2013

Cooper turns 1

Where did the last year go?!?! Seems like they go faster & faster these days. I made a little tribute to our first year with Cooper…we’ve all come a long way in our training.

April 23, 2013April 23, 2013

Mark those Novice agility titles off my to-do list!

At the beginning of this year, I wrote but did not publish a post on this blog about a bunch of stuff I wanted to accomplish in 2013. I just revisited the list, and I’ve got to say I haven’t made a dent – yet. Nevertheless, we can mark 2 things off the list – finish Hendrix’ AKC Novice Agility and Novice Agility Jumper titles. We had 1 Q each in Standard & Jumpers going into the year. So, we got 2 more in each to wrap things up. She’s also got her first Q in Open Jumpers. We have 3 days of trialing before the summer lull. If she’s darn near perfect, we might finish an Open title before her 2nd birthday. She is such a funny dog, and I enjoy all the changes & new hobbies taking her in has brought into my life.

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013

Juicing

So, I’ve really got to start updating/blogging more frequently. I feel like I have this jumble of ideas/thoughts constantly – until I finally put them down somewhere. I’ve been meaning to get my blog updated & more organized for some time now. So, bear with me while I get it together!

Okay, I did a 21 day Standard Process cleanse through most of January this year. It was fabulous. Everyone’s preferences, goals, and will-power is different…but I highly recommend it. The person that first introduced me to it was Dr. Marlene Merritt of Merritt Wellness Center in Austin, TX. If you are looking for help getting started- that’s where I’d send you. I have done this program in past years, but I was a bit more stringent and successful this time. In preparation of this go round, I purchased a Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain. I wanted to experiment with juicing, and I knew it would help me get more veggies during the veggie only portion of the purification program.

Over a month later, my husband and I are STILL juicing pretty much every morning. Hubby got hooked on the juicing while I was on the cleanse, and he has actually taken on making the morning green juice!

Here’s a little video I made with how we make our daily green juice:

The recipe is pretty flexible, and you just have to add more/less of certain things until you get to a place you like.

Here’s a list of our ingredients, and we try to do organic as much as possible. This makes enough juice for 2.

Green Juice:

2 small green apples
1/2 cucumber
4-6 leaves of “dino” kale (the regular green kale works fine, but we seem to prefer this variety)
3 leaves of red kale
2 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves
2 stalks of celery
about a square inch of ginger (peeled)
1/2 lemon (peeled)
2 carrots

It’s kind of amazing, but we’ve maybe had coffee a total of 4-5 times since the beginning of the year…juice seems to have replaced that morning ritual. I feel much better for it, and it seems the day doesn’t feel right with out it. I feel like I have less headaches/fatigue and more balance.

Our juicing success inspired me to finally make the purchase of very own VitaMix Blender. I had wanted one for some time, but had put off the purchase due to the costly investment. I’m so happy I finally splurged…it’s nothing short of amazing. I have been perfecting some smoothie recipes, and I’ll have to share my new favorite in another post (to come)!

**Please note: Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you click on a link and subsequently make a purchase, I will receive a commission for the referral.

October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

Puppies & Rainy Days

I suppose Hendrix is still a puppy at almost 17 months. Since she’s small breed, she seems pretty mature already. Cooper is at 18 weeks now. Honestly, he’s clearly very much puppy- but he’s no wild child. It seems the hormones are just kicking in for adolescence – so we’ll see if he gets a little more riled up or not…

This past weekend presented some special challenges! It rained most of the weekend, and that provided for some pretty stir crazy puppies. Hendrix generally is pretty energetic, and has several opportunities to train agility during the week. So, she can get amped up or settle down pretty quickly. On her own, I think it would take weeks of rain to really get her bored. However, Cooper is very young and that means he can easily get bored being cooped up all day. His first line of entertainment is to mess with Hendrix…and then the crazy running in the house games are off! By Sunday afternoon, our dynamic duo was about to make us crazy. Thankfully, both my pups like to play free shaping games with the clicker. I love that the mental challenge seems to wear Cooper out as much as a walk. Hendrix just loves clicks & treats period.

So, here’s a little video we made featuring Cooper learning the “speak” command. Training for puppies and playing with iPhones for Ronald & I = everyone is less bored! (I love the iMovie app for iPhone…they have some fun trailer templates that you can just fill in or customize.)

September 28, 2012

Just a typical morning with the dogs…

Cheap Dog Toy — Apparently, the most fun dog toy money didn’t have to buy.

I think we’ve gotten into a rhythm now with the morning routine. Cooper usually wakes to have his morning outing and eat around 5am. I keep hoping as he gets older this can start happening a little later… Funny thing is – as soon as he takes care of business and is fed, he goes RIGHT back to sleep. Can’t complain too much – at least he sleeps pretty much 7-8 hours through the night. Hendrix just goes with the flow – she knows food, exercise, etc. will all happen in their own good time.

About an hour and a half nap – Cooper’s ready to get up and have some activity & Hendrix is happy to join in. This week, I’ve been trying to walk the two dogs together*, and then give them a little run around time. This morning, in lieu of the walk – we went to the dog park. As long as they get a little rowdy play time, they seem to settle in between 8:30am and 9:30am. Fortunately for me, they’re pretty much chill the rest of the day…until dinner time of course.

Earlier this week, Cooper picked up a discarded water bottle on our morning walk. We were on our way back home, and it was just a few houses down – thankfully. This has become THE featured play toy in the backyard.

I can’t say I used to be much of a “morning person”, but I think the dogs might have converted me. It’s so nice to get up when it’s still dark and get stuff done before some people even leave their houses. Shhh…don’t tell my Dad I said that. My little Hendrix & Cooper sure help me appreciate a lot of the simple pleasures! I love them for that!

*Training note- Although walking the dogs together requires some diligence and special leash configuration on my part – it really seems to have smoothed out some of the rough edges between Hendrix & Cooper. I’m a little worried about these walks impact on Cooper’s learning to heel properly. Even though I have not started him with a formal heel behavior, he walks very nicely on a loose leash on my left. He’s received reward/reinforcement when he’s making eye contact at my immediate left, and he’s realized the value in staying there and checking in with me. When we have our little “pack walks”, he’s a little more focused on keeping up with Hendrix & she’s a bit of a forge ahead walker. Interestingly, walking with him adds some complexity to the walk that slows her down and keeps her from forging too much. So, I think the group walks do a lot of good, but I’ve got to make sure I keep reinforcing Cooper on walks with just him. I’m actually thinking to get a back attach harness for him for the group walks…so he associates that set up with have a little more freedom on the walk.

September 9, 2012September 10, 2012

Market Dinner at Patina Green Home & Market

I have been telling everyone that will listen (and maybe even some that won’t) to check out Patina Green Home & Market for almost a year now. I truly think it’s one of the best things I’ve found since Ronald and I moved from Austin to Frisco in 2010. This gem of a shop is part vintage home decor and accessories store, part farmers market, and part “kick-ass” lunch counter. Somehow, those words don’t even seem to capture all the magic that is Patina Green. Bonus- it’s nestled on the beloved historic square in McKinney, TX.

Personally, I’ve never really had a mind for home decor or design… However, the sheer aesthetic beauty of this store and Kaci Lyford’s exquisite taste are slowly but certainly leading me to the light. Some day, I might work up the nerve to see if she is available to take on the small task of helping me whip up a plan for my own skin care studio. Baby steps.

My initial pilgrimage to Patina was to check out Chef Robert Lyford’s (that would be Kaci’s hubby…love that family/locally owned) lunch counter. I was not disappointed. Lunch is served Tuesday-Saturday 11am-2pm and stuff sells out…so get there early. The menu is crafted daily and Chef Robert emphasizes locally sourced, seasonal, sustainable, delicious, creative (ok I’m getting carried away) REAL FOOD. Check out their web site for a sample menu. Some days…I believe there is nothing more desirable that one of Chef Robert’s hearty grilled veggie/cheese sandwiches and a cup of tomato bisque. If you “Like” Patina Green on Facebook, you will have unlocked access to the daily menu. A word of caution, when that lunch menu pops up in your Facebook feed- you may have an unexpected & uncontrollable urge to travel to PG for lunch. That has definitely been the case for me.

I was actually fortunate enough to attend a cooking class several months ago hosted by Luscombe Farm in Anna, TX where Robert razzle-dazzled us with his wit and culinary skill. (*There were WAY too many prepositions in that sentence…but I’m not fixing it.) The cooking class is a whole other topic – that I should’ve blogged about months ago…

I was elated (nope, not an exaggeration) when I came across PG’s announcement on Facebook that they would be hosting Market Dinner’s every month this fall. Chef Robert would serve a 5 course dinner on the patio featuring local and seasonal ingredients. Two seatings of 16 each night – 1st at 6pm and 2nd at 8:30pm. $75 per person + gratuity and BYOB. Upon reading the news, I immediately picked up the phone and reserved a spot for Ronald and I at 8:30pm on the first night (September 8, 2012).

Ok – now, that we’ve got the backstory settled…let me tell you about the fabulousness that was this market dinner.

Our reservation confirmation message lent us the handy tip that Chef Robert had selected some wines to compliment our dinner at the McKinney Wine Merchant. Of course, we were also welcome to bring anything else we liked. It just so happens that the lovely recommended shop is just off the main square and within walking distance of Patina Green. So, we came a bit early to pick up some vino. I will be back – the shop keeper had a very friendly/jovial way…and it seems he knows quite a bit about wine.

I was able to check out the scenery on the square and snap a few pics with my camera while we killed time before 8:30. Kaci welcomed us promptly and ushered us past the string of lights used to rope of the patio for the special dinner occasion.

The food, setting, and service were AMAZING. We had SO much fun, and we overheard (to our dismay because we did not make reservations for Oct, Nov, & Dec) that all other nights for the rest of the year are already booked! They did say they were keeping a waiting list for cancellations…we can only hope that maybe other nights will be added…or that Winter & Spring will bring a new series of dinners. Pardon my amateur photography – but here is a host of photos I took at dinner. I’m totally infatuated with my new DSLR…I’m sure to the chagrin of the people seated next to us at dinner…

market dinner — click to enlarge collage

We started with some refreshing cucumber water, and then were served an amuse-bouche of local watermelon and cucumber foam. It was meant as a drink to initiate our appetite, and it was a very clean and tasty way to start the meal. Then, a baguette from Empire Baking Company along with house churned butter sprinkled with sea salt arrived. Probably my favorite picture of the night – this extreme butter close up.

Next up – a charcuterie plate. This had toast fingers, brie, a chicken galantine, port wine chicken liver paté, and house made fig preserves. The preserves were designed to go with the paté, and the combo was quite complex and delicious. The paté had a decidedly rich and savory almost smoky flavor…some might say “strong” (perhaps not for the weak of heart or palate). I’m not an expert in paté, but it seem like it would be hard to eat quite a lot of it. It’s very filling. It paired nicely with the preserves, but I rather enjoyed eating the preserves on slices of the brie – DIVINE. The chicken galantine was amazing. It was very light and clean speckled with bits of ham and pecan and topped with some micro greens. I kept trying to figure our why this chicken tasted so clean – almost green or citrusy. I decided it must be that the chickens were very happy pasture fed chickens. Wow, what a difference that can make.

gaufrette — OM-Gaufrettes! (really, that’s my new favorite saying)

Following charcuterie, we had what was probably my most favorite & memorable course. I have been craving this dynamic duo ALL day. We were served gaufrettes and a smoked redfish rillette. I suggested to Kaci they should have a midnight food truck that served these delicious lightly salty and perfectly crispy chips along with the creamy, basil-y, smoky, buttery fish spread. She wisely replied, “But that would mean we’d be working at midnight…” Maybe the idea can be outsourced?!

Then, a soup and salad course. There was a creamy potato soup topped with farmstead cheese, a little crispy jowl bacon (YUM) and crispy leeks. Fortunately, you don’t have to have a dinner reservation to taste the glory of Chef Robert’s soups. There is generally a soup option at lunch. The soup was rich, velvety, and addictive. The salad consisted of local greens (all from one garden). There was arugula, tomato, radish, cucumber, black eyed peas and an avocado vinaigrette. This course alone could be a satisfying meal, but there was much more to come.

Next a veggie course featuring a soft poached egg. There were roasted beets, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and kale topped off with a lovely wobbly egg…and then topped with a tomato hollandaise. You had me at poached egg, Chef Robert… This is probably a surefire way to get the younguns to eat their veggies. We were starting to feel quite full.

Previous plates and silverware were cleared away, our places were set afresh. The promise of something big loomed in the air as we gazed on these clean plates. Soon after, picture perfect trays of a duo of Waygu beef. Duo of beef? Yes, DUO of BEEF! Perfectly seared and medium rare strip loin (I think that was the cut) topped with a carrot top and pumpkin seed pesto lay on a bed of pot roast & 8 ball squash hash. Just throwing this out there – Chef Robert can come cook Sunday pot roast at my house ANY TIME! Not an afterthought- this plate included glazed carrots and (grilled?) okra. Weirdly enough…any day – I could go for a plate of just the carrots & okra. They were SO GOOD. We might have left a few bites of this plate behind…only for the fact that we were totally full. My second favorite photo is from this course.

The meal closed with some sweet truffle offerings, and some cute morning after chocolate chip scones. We loved this touch…as it had us talking about our two dinners at Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco. They also sent us home with a sweet treat for the next day – banana bread wrapped expertly in gold paper. I think the fact that I just referenced Restaurant Gary Danko in this summary of Patina Green’s Market Dinner says it all. It was VERY GOOD.

Bravo, Chef Robert! Your passion and dedication to real food is greatly appreciated. Look forward to many more happy meals at Patina Green.

September 9, 2012September 10, 2012

Collage Apps

I don’t know if it’s ever even occurred to me before, but this weekend I discovered two kind of fun Apps. I’ve always been known for constantly taking pictures with my iPhone. Now, that I’ve been walking around with the newly acquired Canon EOS Rebel T3i like a new appendage- it seems “Taking A Photo” could be my new middle name. I’m blogging, tweeting, e-mailing, and updating Facebook with my newest capture at every turn. It some how led me to wanting to be able to group several pictures together, and share them all as one image…you know…wait for it…like a COLLAGE!

So the first App is for the iPhone and it’s called Pic Collage. It makes it easy to create pretty simple collages (right on your iPhone) and share them (right from your iPhone). Here’s an example of a collage I made in a matter of minutes…and then I’m able to either save it to my camera roll or send it via email, text/iMessage, twitter, Facebook, etc., etc. I know…the world is a better place now…isn’t it?! Oh wait…get’s better – it’s FREE.

Ok, the second App is for Mac and it’s called CollageIt Free (yup…as in you can get it for FREE). This one lets you make collages on your Mac computer. I found it super easy to use, and when you’re done you can export your collage in several different formats like PDF or a JPG. In a blog I was prepping about dinner at Patina Green I used a collage – instead of trying to jam every single picture I liked into the post.

So, in the even you found yourself in need of making a collage- I thought I’d share.

As a technology related side note- I’ve also started playing with Photoshop. I’m sure there’s a way to make a collage there…but I’m sure it’s not this easy…nor cheap.