The Verandas.

Greetings! Here's a post a little different from whatever my version of normal is. 

Some very good friends of mine have gathered together to make some wonderfully poetic, unique, great music. They call themselves The Verandas. Their sound is a unique twist on an almost indie/folk kind of groove. Very pleasing to the ear with very thoughtful, eloquent lyrics, it's obvious this group of poets has nowhere to go but up. With a song in their heart, stanzas and verses in their head, and a genuine, warm smile on their face, The Verandas leave their audience with wonderful memories, a huge smile and all around good vibes. 

The first time I got to experience the band was at a backyard concert. With their friends and family surrounding them, it was a wonderful show. Very relaxed and an intimate feeling between the audience and the band, the energy flow was perfect. Between songs, they were very conversational, with great stories spritzed with laughter, cozy-ing up to the audience in the best possible way. I have nothing but great things to say about these guys. 

Here's a direct link to their band site, where you can go check out their great music, their story, like them on Facebook and other social media and more. 

Good sounds, good vibes, great people. The Verandas, everyone. The Verandas Website

A Story From My Pilates Mat

I have a little story to tell you today. Over the last week or so, my schedule has picked up tremendously. We're down to one car right now to give my car some much needed shop time for repairs (you can find that story here.) Anyway, I get to take my mom to and from work this week, continue spin classes and gear up the Pilates (of course!), and rehearsals (involving the pit orchestra) began on Sunday for a production of "Hairspray." Those rehearsals start around 7:00, but if any of you have been involved in any sort of theatre, you know those "start times" are gigantic, boldface lies. Meaning, call time is 7:00, but you don't end up actually starting anything until 8:00-8:30 for "technical issues," "extra performance notes," or whatever else they want to tell you that day. Frustrating? Yes, but that's just theatre work for you. 

So here's my little story: I think it was Monday. Over the past weekend, I did the 8:00am, 90 minute spin class (we totally killed it with hammers, blackouts and tebatas!!) on Saturday and had a big band jazz gig that night, only until around 10pm. On Sunday, my family did a big gardening day, and I also cleaned out our garage (eek!) from top to bottom. Sunday was also the first day of "Hairspray" rehearsals. That one was from 7:00-12:00! The first one with orchestra, costumes, tech and full lights always takes the longest. When I finally got home, I was having some well-deserved dinner and realized I hadn't done ANY Pilates yet! Crazy, crazy. I then went to my beloved Pilates mat and got to work. 

I decided it should be an upper body (arms and upper back) day with minimal core. Once I got on that mat, I totally killed it! It was a great workout. I managed to make a small lake of sweat on my mat when I laid down out of exhaustion. I stayed in that spot for a good twenty minutes. If it hadn't been for Star barking in her sleep a few times, I probably would've slept there! I was so tired and being just plain lazy; I barely mustered the effort to simply get up and retrieve a damp towel to clean off my mat. I know I cleaned off my mat and somehow managed to roll it up into its harness, but I have no memory of getting into bed. I must have, that's where I woke up the next morning, anyway. I slept hard that night, let me tell you. 

So that was my little story. In hindsight, it was pretty funny and just a little pathetic, but that's okay! I spend a great number of minutes laughing at myself. But hey, keep killing it on the bike, on the mat, and with whatever you're doing! 1...2...3...Go! Sweat Happy!

Taking it Outdoors

For the last few days here in the Kansas City area, it's truly been summer. I don't mean the calendar dates, the solstice stuff or the fact schools are out. I mean temperature wise! It's been 98-103 ambient with a 110-115 heat index. Let me tell you, I have not enjoyed that. I know I shouldn't complain too much, because it can definitely get hotter and I'm not in, say, Houston right now, but I'm definitely a cold weather person. This morning, however, was in the 80s, and wasn't so bad. I get really tired of staying inside all of the time, so I decided to take my mat outside and do some Pilates in the fresh air. 

 

I was out there around 8:45, and man was the humidity picking up like crazy. I only did 20-25 minutes of Pilates (I know, that's wimpy, but I just wanted to stretch and enjoy a short ab workout this morning), and I was pouring sweat on my mat. I considered doing another workout, but it was just too humid and was getting warmer by the minute. I shook some of the sweat off my mat, grabbed my water and went inside! After cleaning off my mat, re-hydrating and getting some well-deserved toast, I came here to the computer to write about my little adventure. 

I'll be breaking out my mat later on today and hitting it hard...inside of course! Unless it gets much, much, much cooler, which is doubtful. Today is an off day spin-wise for me, so arms and back day it is! 

Keep hydrating and try to stay cool, wherever you are! Hydrate or die, remember?
1...2...3...Go! Sweat happy!

Got the Gluten Free Snacking Blues?

Finding good, edible, truly gluten free snacks is quite the process. Sure, plain chips are usually GF, fries, ice cream and the like. And it doesn't take long to get tired of cheese sticks, now does it? Protein shakes and other smoothies are sometimes okay, but if you're getting one out someplace, there's always that risk of running into gluten. It's everywhere after all. Other than stuff I've baked, mixed, or someone else has made for me, there's not usually time to do all of that! Sometimes, you just need to run to the grocery store on your way to work, school or wherever, right? After an insane amount of trail and error, minor gluten reactions and a large sum of wasted cash, I've finally found some worth while purely gluten free snacks that you can go and grab at the grocery store. Score! 

KIND Healthy Grains: Gluten Free Granolas

Really tasty, comes in numerous flavors, great on yogurt, by itself, and with milk!
So far, my favorite is the Dark Chocolate & Cranberry Granola.

 Glutino Gluten Free Crackers

Comes in many different flavors, super great crackers!
My favorites are the Multigrain, Original and Cheese flavors. 




 




LARABAR: Gluten Free Fruit & Nut Bar

Super great for a quick snack, or a big snack to hold you over for a long time. Great for breakfast, comes in tons of varieties! My favorites (so far) are Blueberry Muffin, Chocolate Peanutbutter, Cappucino, Lemon Zest, Chocolate Cherry, and Tropical Fruit.  

 
 SCHAR: Gluten Free Snack Crackers

This is a great brand of GF pasta, bread, crackers and specialty breads. It's Italian, so there's a point, and they taste great. I'd have to say it's a total tie between Schar crackers and Glutino crackers. 





 I hope you like these GF snacks as much as I do! I'm constantly looking down the "health food" and "gluten free" isles of the grocery stores just to see what's out there. It's an ongoing mission to find edible, great tasting gluten free foods! If you know of any I've missed for far (I'm sure there are plenty), let me know in the comments below. 

Good luck on the Gluten Free quest!

What's New?

Okay. Everything here looks different. There's tons of new pages, and links, and where have the fish gone? Just relax, it's all going to be fine. Just let me explain! As you can see, I've completely revamped the entire blog. Really, I've just been on a blogging frenzy. Here's the down low on what's going on:

1. The design is new, I thought it was a nice change from the space stuff; I still love the space stuff, and Star Trek and geek-dom, but I like the new format, I'm back to being completely myself, which is so wonderful!
2. "College 2.0" is going to be a page all about my college experience. I've transferred to the University of Kansas, and will be rooming with a friend of mine, which will be an extremely...interesting experience. I'll be posting tips, tricks, frustrations, and general college-type-stuff here. 
3. "Love to Sweat" is essentially self explanatory. It's about me, loving to sweat! I'm an avid spinner, Pilates lover, and generally love to workout and sweat like crazy. Again, you'll find tips, tricks, workouts, thoughts, and whatever else I can think of here.
4. "Rootbound" is mainly just a fun page about my plants in the garden here at home. There will be lots of pictures and maybe a few tips (I'll have to butter my mom up for some), and maybe even an appearance from my dog, Star. 
5. No worries, the fish have simply moved from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. You can still have them chase your cursor around and feed them to your heart's content. 

That's all that's new! See? Not so bad. Now, go do some stretching, deep breathing, and hydrate and you'll be great. Oh wait! Go and explore the new stuff, too. Enjoy! 

My Reading Update

Reading wise, I'm flying through pages again. Finally! There's time to read now that it's summer, and I'm not taking any summer classes (a good decision for now). Between musical engagements, stuff with Mr. Boyfriend, blogging and whatever else it is that I do, I've been able to knock out some much overdue reading! Here's what I've gotten accomplished: I finished the last two books of the Strange Angels series, and finally read Mark of Athena. Now I'm working my way through Rise of Nine, which I'll follow up with Silver Linings Playbook. I recently saw the movie and really, really enjoyed it. The new problem? I've run out of space on my bookshelf and been forced to start a stack of books next to the bookshelf. This basically drives me insane. For now, it's going to have to do, though.

Okay! I've got loads more blogging to catch up on, some practicing to do and some more reading to accomplish.

I'll be back soon! Let me know what's on your reading list!

My Triumphant Return!

Greetings! Man, has it been a long time. But here I am. I've been working on a joint project blog recently. It's an ongoing, interesting, kind of, well, project. Oh, how I've missed my own blog. Sometimes, it's nice doing things with friends, until you've kind of reached your own tolerance threshold, and need to just stop before you end up burning that bridge. More posts about that to come, I promise. Also, more Gluten-Free recipes to come! Clyde is still going strong, he's his normal, happy self. He hasn't been on any new adventures recently, but he's about to come to my new dorm, so I'm sure I'll have some new tales (or tails) to tell. For now, I'm going to brainstorm about what to post.

I'll be seeing you soon! In the meantime, go check out my project blog I mentioned earlier:
humerusapollo.blogspot.com 

Bye for now!
--E