I hired a physical trainer today -- saw his ad at the Santa Fe Baking Company. He seems like a pretty nice guy, and it was a fun workout... a lot of the machines were new to me, but they seem effective. The leg press is especially killer! He also had me do some bodyweight exercises using one of those exercise balls... it's neat to do situps on top of one of those.

I was kinda proud not to have to start at the very lowest setting with anything other than the bench press... and that only because they have Olympic bars at the gym, which weigh just 10 pounds shy of what I've been benching all by themselves. This guy had me do ten reps instead of the five I normally do, though, so I don't mind starting a bit lighter... and frankly, I didn't find it at all hard, though adding 10 pounds might change my mind. Jeez, don't they have any 2.5s?! :P

I think I'll give it a try for a while and see what happens; hopefully this'll help me stick with my workouts.

Tags: weightlifting

In other news, the floor repair is finished. The floors are a lot more solid now -- time will tell whether it's enough to stop the house from settling, but this is definitely a big help.

Tags: home, house

I shot my best silhouette match ever today -- first place out of 15 shooters with 30/40 (the first time I've broken 30!), and I got my five-ram and five-turkey pins. And I was only one shot off from the ten-turkey pin, too. Hurrah!

Tags: shooting, silhouette
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Helcaraxe/Father Befouled split

This has pretty much been the worst month in recent memory -- I've been stressing over the car insurance/hail damage issue, I've got related money trouble, Mom had a stroke (a small one, she'll be OK), and now my house is falling in.

Turns out the previous owners broke holes through the load-bearing walls in the crawlspace (to run heating ducts through), and they didn't bother shoring them up. Now it's a huge mess down there, the floor is starting to sag, and the walls are beginning to show some tiny cracks. I've got some guys down there fixing it this weekend, which is another source of dust and stress, though the repairs seem to be going really well so far... I'll be glad when the floor is back to normal!

Time for some whiskey. Somebody wake me when it's finally September first!

Tags: home, house
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Diocletian - Doom Cult

The latilla fence I bought in the backyard is finished! It's a huge improvement; I couldn't be happier. Take that, neighbor's junkpile! The guy who built it is available, if anyone in the northern NM area needs one!





( More pictures! )

Tags: fence, house
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Helcaraxe - Broadsword

:(

( More photos )

Tags: car

So we just had a massive hailstorm here, and my brand new car looks like dented shit now! Hurrah. And I only have six years of paying on it to go!

Fuck you, world.

eparchos and I went down to Albuquerque this weekend, and while we were there, I got a new car!



It's a 2008 Honda Fit Sport -- pretty much the exact car I was looking for, only purple (orange was my first choice) and used (it has about 20,000 miles on it). I saved a bunch by buying it used, though, and I ended up liking the console on the 2008 better, anyway. I rather like the purple, too, so I am quite pleased with it! It's a nice car (wow, keyless entry! wow, cruise control!), and has lots more power and cargo space than my Nissan Sentra did. Hurrah! Now to plan a road trip!

( Another photo )

Tags: car
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: West Wall - Conquest Or Death

Some of you might remember that I posted about some bathroom renovations I was doing, back in April. Well, I finally finished it today, by sealing the grout on the sink top I made:



( Click here for more photos )

Tags: home, house

I took Echoes back to the vet today -- her numbers are about half of what they were a month ago, which is great news. They're still a little high, so I have to keep giving her fluids every day for a couple more weeks, but it looks as though it'll work out in the long run.

Tags: cats, echoes
Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Diocletian - Doom Cult

Here are the other 2 minis I painted: an autocannon team and a lascannon team.

( For the Emperor! )

Tags: minis
Current Music: Destroyer 666 - Defiance

I bench-pressed 50 lb. (3 sets of 5) today! That's been a goal of mine for a long, long time -- I know it doesn't sound like much, but as a 110 lb. woman, I'm pretty happy with it. Five more pounds and I'll be lifting 1/2 bodyweight!

Starting Strength is seriously the best program ever. I spent ages stuck at benching ~30 pounds before I started it, and I was expending tons more effort in the weight room -- the compound lifts in the Starting Strength program are simpler, quicker, and get much better results than the isolation exercises I was doing before. Thanks, Rippetoe!

Tags: weightlifting

Here's the first of a bunch of new miniatures I painted. I finished lascannon and autocannon teams as well, but I still have to flock 'em (tee hee).

( Mortar )

Tags: 40k, minis
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Acheron - The Final Conflict

I had a busy day today... everybody on our street got "the City of Espanola would appreciate your cooperation in cleaning up your fucking yards, you oinking pigs" letters, so I hired a friend's husband to help me out with it. He does landscaping for a living, and wow, am I impressed. We ripped out 3 Chinese Elms, including a really big one that's been annoying me since I got the house, we trimmed the dead stuff off the tree out front, and we got rid of all the weeds and junk that were lying around. I'm seriously amazed that we got all this done in just one day! And for $15 an hour, which is a bargain as far as I'm concerned... I'd have needed more than that just to rent the truck and chainsaw.

I think I'll hire him to do the whole yard... the ground needs to be leveled off, and then I need to fence it in somehow and put down some landscape rocks or something. I'd also like to plant some trees as well, and set up space for a garden and a firepit. It's a lot of work, but this guy rules, so I might as well do it while I have the chance!

Tags: house
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Destroyer 666 - Phoenix Rising

The trip to Maryland Deathfest was really successful; I met a lot of great people (including saevus, check out his art sometime), saw some killer bands (Destroyer 666! Asphyx! Hail of Bullets! And best of all, Bolt fuckin' Thrower -- TWICE!!!), sold a decent number of CDs, and had a lot of time hanging around with Justin and Eric. I might post some photos and a general report later this week.

All in all, it was by far the most fun vacation I've had in a long time. I'd really like to do it again next year, assuming they get another great lineup.

I played airsoft on Saturday for the first time, with Brendan and a couple of his friends from Los Alamos. It's a lot of fun; I think it's better than paintball, which always seems to end with the gun jamming and splattering paint everywhere. I'm not sure if I'll get super into it -- the last thing I need is another expensive gun hobby! -- but I might buy a $40 spring shotgun if I stick with it, as the one they gave me to use sort of sucks. Afterward, I bought an urban-camo BDU top at the Black Hole, which I plan to turn into a patch vest once I rip the arms off. I'd have rather had woodland, but in retrospect, the urban is kind of nice as well. Maybe I'll try to figure out the sewing machine next weekend...

I painted Warhammer 40K minis today for the first time in a while: a mortar team, a lascannon team, and an autocannon team. They're not quite done, but should be finished in a few more sessions. At this rate, my army will be done in about 2012. :P I think this lot looks good, though, so I'm definitely improving.

Echoes is doing OK. She was pretty good about sitting still for the fluid injection today, and she seems quite happy overall. Still two weeks before I can take her back to the vet and run her numbers again... I really hope all this will help!

Tags: cats, echoes, minis
Current Music: Bathory - Blood On Ice

Echoes' lab results came back from the vet today: she has kidney problems.

The vet gave me some special canned food for her, and also an IV bag -- I'm supposed to give her subcutaneous fluids every day, to make things easier on her kidneys. I tried it today, and it went surprisingly well... a lot easier than trying to give her a pill, at any rate. I didn't even have to wrap her up in a towel first! Hopefully she'll continue to be patient with it.

I hope she'll be OK. I think we caught this early, but who knows how slow or quickly it'll progress. Dammit, I hate things like this. I wish my cat weren't sick.

Tags: cats, echoes
Current Mood: sad

I got the first UK edition of Richard Adams' Plague Dogs in the mail today. It's significantly different from the US version, in that the Tod's Geordie dialect is even more impenetrable!

"A hill tod it wor layin'
Atop a roondy crag.
An' niff o' powltry doon belaa
Fair myed its whiskers wag.
Th' farmer's canny lad, ye ken;
Geese fast i' th' kennel, ducks i' th' pen.
Then fyeul shuts henhoose less one hen!
Begox, yon tod wez jumpin'!"

Oh, joy. And the best part is, this old book opens right to that part, because somebody else loved it, too! :) I also got Adams' A Nature Diary, which I've never read... and the illustrated slipcase version of Watership Down ought to be along in a couple of days, also. Hurrah for Ebay: Frith made it, but Pierre Omidyar found it!

These are the books that have meant the most to me in my life, along with Godel, Escher, Bach, Kipling's stories, and a few others. It's going to be really nice to discover them again.

Tags: books

Overheard at the grocery store:

"Mom, can we buy spinach?"

"No, honey, Daddy already bought a big box!"

Perhaps there's hope for America, after all. :P

In other news, my fancy new sink is almost finished! I am just waiting on a drainpiece to come in the mail on Monday -- shortly thereafter, it should be ready to use. I'll post a bunch of before/after/progress pics once it's finished.

Tile is complete!

Tags: house

Before:


After:


THIS WAS SO FUCKING HARD WHY DID WE DO THIS WHY WHY WHY :P

It looks killer, though. Grout goes in tomorrow night.

Tags: house