Bones!

OMG, so there I was, scooping the leftover carcass bits out of a crock-pot full of chicken stock, and I decided to get some of the meaty bits still clinging to the bones to add to my dinner.  The skeleton had been boiling for nearly 24 hours, and one of the bones--a humerus, I think--broke in my hand.  First I was just like, "Man, these are some fragile bones," and then I was all like, "Bone marrow!  Awesome!"  Of course, the bones were way too frail for me to adequately extract the marrow with a bamboo skewer, like a chimp poking a stick into an anthill.  So I just crushed them a little and dropped them back into the pot to simmer for another couple of hours.  Just means that I'll have to strain it for real through a sieve, rather than with the slotted spoon, in order to get all the broken bone slivers.  Soon all that delicious fat and iron will be mine!

Secondary Colors

You know how they say, "eat the rainbow"?  Well, for dinner I managed to eat half the rainbow.

Broccoli
Pumpkin
Red Cabbage

Add to that some homemade goat sausage patties, and you've got a delicious, nutritious meal.

Babies: They're Not For Everyone

Obviously, mental health is an essential part of one's overall wellness.  For some reason, this article particularly resonated with me today.  It's by Jill over at www.feministe.us.  I am a committed feminist, so certainly an article on a feminist blog would appeal to me.  With assorted friends and relatives gestating and popping out babies right and left these days, however, I've got more reason than usual to be thinking about babies and their place in my world.

To be clear about this, I have nothing against babies.  I love my friends' children and the children of my kin.  I, personally, do not want nor have I ever wanted a baby of my own.  I'm turning 34 this year.  I'm sure my body knows that it's reproductive days are numbered, yet I have neither felt any impetus whatsoever to reproduce, nor heard any sort of biological clock ticking.

I love this quote, on the benefits of being childless:

 I am also sure that right now, I vastly prefer being able to disappear for a weekend on a moment’s notice, stay out too late on a Wednesday, take an uninterrupted nap, jet off to Paris for two weeks and sleep on a friend’s couch, have lots of sex, have loud parties, meditate for an hour, live in an overpriced small Brooklyn walk-up, have a long brunch, own a white rug, spend all day and all night writing in silence.

I have no sanctimonious women around me right now, thank goodness.  My parents have always been overwhelmingly supportive of me and my choices, and have never pressured me to have kids, so big props to Mom and Dad.  (Certainly statements along the lines of, "Grandchildren would be dandy," are to be thought of more as guidelines than actual rules.)  Then my sister went ahead and had some babies with her fabulous husband, so I am really off the hook as far as the family genes being passed along.  Plus there's a chance that my youngest brother might have kids with his fabulous wife, which would just be gravy as far as that reproduction thing is concerned.

There was a time just last year--a few months, in fact--when I had a sort of understanding with someone who I would have married and had children with.  Then he called and told me that he wanted to start dating someone else.  "That's great!" I said.  "It's just what I wanted for you." I said.  And, yes, his emotional health and happiness really was all I wanted.  Part of me knew I was just a placeholder while his life turned around a bit, but part of me really did think about the possibility of having the same life as lots of other people: sharing a home, having a family, seeing the dad's face light up getting to hold his newborn for the first time.

On the other hand, the only reason that I would have married and had children with this particular fellow is that he was well suited for what I would want in a father for my children.  Good genes in terms of health and looks, an overwhelmingly sweet and patient and helpful disposition, and a willingness to be a stay-at-home dad so that I could continue with my career.

So thanks to all the people around me who understand that the life I'm currently leading is the right one for me.  And to those well-meaning aunts who wonder out loud when I'll settle down, or say that "of course I'll want to have kids one day," I'm going to give you a long list of reasons next time why my life is so awesome.

Stumptuous = Stupendous

Today I'd like to share one of the blogs/information websites I enjoy very much, and, obviously, highly recommend to you.  It is

stumptuous.com

See, it's so awesome, it deserves its own color and gigantic size.  Mistress Krista has put together a lovely site full of

Weight lifting
Workout ideas
Inspirational stories
Basics of supportive eating
How to get started in weight lifting
Creative weight lifting of ordinary household objects
Rants on "kids/diets/craziness/etc. these days"
Weight lifting for all ages

Oh, and did I mention weight lifting?  In a nutshell, the way I see Mistress Krista is along the lines of, "Life can be tough.  We all make mistakes along the road to our true selves.  Ya know what helps me focus?  A solid clean-and-jerk.  You'll feel better after some squats.  Get to it."  Then she pats you on the head while pointing towards the dumbbells.

I seem to have very nearly signed up for a 5 mile Mud Run come late March.  Just need to make the registration official.  With that in mind, I'd changed up my training a bit and returned to the...ugh...treadmill.  I only have to run indoors as long as it is still dark in the mornings during weekdays.  Thankfully I can run/hike/gambol through the county park on weekends (when I'm not being too much of a social butterfly.)

Just for funsies, here's a picture of me juggling at the Edwardian Ball last weekend.  I love this outfit so much--mostly because I imagined it burning the retinas of all the goth wanna-bes.  And the skirt is so poofy!

Dear Body,

Dear Body,

  First up, thanks so much for effectively squashing that cold I felt coming on Sunday.  A few days of sniffles I can certainly handle, especially with the aid of an array of Ricola-brand lozenges.  Also, big props to you for continuing to support my efforts at the gym.  Those were two good negative pull-ups this morning, and the squats are really coming along.  Plus you totally kept up on the cycling intervals.  Just wait and see what sort of fun I have in store for you tomorrow morning.

  Sorry about the stress these days.  Deadlines at work are getting to me, and that tension headache this afternoon was not helpful for either of us.  Thank goodness I keep all that tea in my desk cupboard, eh?  Yeah, I felt you relaxing as I poured the first cup.  Sorry about the dry winter air, too.  I've just refilled the humidifier here at home to make things a bit easier.

  In gratitude for your continual positive efforts on my behalf, I'd like to say that I'll continue to feed you nutritious food (including lots of protein to make up for the muscles I deliberately break down MWF), give you at least eight hours for sleep, and move you around as much as possible every day.

  Lots of love--

    Melissa
 

Catching up

To dispel any rumors that I've disappeared yet again, here's another post!  What happened this weeks is simply that I was never at home and at leisure long enough to sit down at the computer to write anything.  Here's how my evenings went down:

Tuesday: ballet class
Wednesday: spent with friends up in San Francisco
Thursday: folk band practice in Oakland
Friday: salsa conditioning class, then cocktails with girlfriends in Palo Alto

I take dance classes over at the Peninsula Ballet Theatre.  They have a good selection of adult dance and fitness classes in a variety of styles.  After taking only jazz dance last year, I've decided to branch out a little.

The ballet class on Tuesday was all right in terms of technical execution, but it appeared that no one in the class was having any fun.  The teacher was a substitute, so I will be trying the class again just to see if the regular teacher is any better.  If that fails again, I think I'll just go back to jazz.  Ballet offers such a great opportunity for muscular isolation and control, and provides a basis for all the other dance forms, that I thought it would be good to spend some hours doing it again.  Brushing up on first principles and all that.

Salsa Conditioning, on the other hand, was everything I wanted it to be.  With the amazing Norberto teaching the class, I knew it was going to be high in energy and, frankly, fabulousness.  Norberto is a dynamo of a Latin man, an amazing dancer, and a very capable teacher.  (He also teaches the jazz dance class, plus Mexican folk dance.)  He's incredibly physically fit: able to teach intense dance classes for 2, 3 hours at a stretch without showing any signs of slowing down.  Salsa Conditioning involved salsa moves in an aerobics atmosphere--basically an hour of moving one's body.  I will be waiting to see if the soreness kicks in.

If the San Mateo area is convenient to you, I really recommend Peninsula Ballet Theatre for your dancing needs.  The classes are very reasonably priced.  After dropping in to try out a class, you can purchase a punch card to get a bulk class discount.  I think they have also had specials on Groupon.

Recipe success!

The malfatti went over a treat, I think, and the tomato sauce was just dandy.  So I have achieved some level of Italian cuisine success.  Hooray!  What's awesome is that I now have lots of tomato sauce stored up, which is perfect for making one of my favorite dishes, Vegetables Maddalena.

Vegetables Maddalena

Ingredients:
Vegetables
Tomato sauce

Preparation instructions: cook your vegetables however you like.  Steam that broccoli, roast that cauliflower, saute those fennel bulbs!  Pour sauce over.  Serve it forth.  Really, the vegetables provide a medium by which to consume tomato sauce; just like pasta, except with a lot more nutrition.  Plus it's easy to add some protein: homemade sausage, chicken parts, giant lima beans, some asiago fresco cheese.

Did not get enough sleep last night, so I gave myself the evening off from any sort of chores.  Probably a good idea, considering that I'm still awfully sore from all the delightful extra exercising I've been able to undertake lately.  It was a little bit of an easy weightlifting session this morning--even though I did 3 sets of 6 reps of pull-ups with a 30 pound assist.  I also discovered that if I elevate my heels just a bit, using one of the 3/4" foam mats at the gym, my squat form is so much better.  I'm really focused on form right now, but once that is solid I'll get back to lifting heavy things.

Tomorrow after work I'm heading off to my first dance class in months--a beginning ballet class at the Peninsula Ballet Theatre in San Mateo.  I declared that 2013 would be all about joy, and there is nothing more joyous to me that the sheer pleasurable freedom of movement.