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Yeah, it turns out I have a LOT of different muscles in my body. Many of them hurt today, particularly the upper body ones that are accustomed to a default posture of "crouching toward the computer keyboard like a gargoyle."

I think I’ll be fine for tomorrow morning’s yoga class, but for now I’m slathered in Icy Hot. (While searching to make sure that menthol was really the main smelly ingredient in Icy Hot, I ran across an article entitled, "Why masturbating with Icy Hot is a bad idea." You know, I’d have thought the answer to that would be so obvious as to make an article unnecessary, but what do I know?)

So anyway, I continued my self-improvement theme yesterday by making an appointment to get my hair cut and colored, arranging for the septic tank guys to come and clean out the tank today (before I leave for work, I need to remember to plant a stick in the ground so they’ll know where to dig), and leaving a message for an electrician who was recommended to me by both my dad and one of my husband’s friends.

I even tried to be good about what I ate yesterday. At lunch, instead of my usual Italian sub with vinegar and oil, I had turkey breast on wheat bread with mustard at Subway. I even brought an apple and had it instead of chips.

The smug glow of nutritional superiority couldn’t survive dinner, though. I went to a friend’s house and there was quiche, baked brie with brown sugar and pecans (heavenly!), a frightening number of savory dips with equally savory crackers, and lots of red wine. I brought Rabid Red, which I’ll admit I chose mainly for the label, although the liquor store guy said it was good (and it was).  Oh well, at least I’m moving away from pigging out all day long. It’s a start.

So that’s my progress for one day: many steps forward and a couple steps back. It’ll do.

Yesterday I had a long-overdue deep tissue massage. As I was paying and chatting with my massage therapist, she told me what I already knew: my muscles were a mess – even worse than usual.

I clench my jaw, I sit in front of a computer way too much and I don’t get any exercise, so by the time I finally limp to the chiropractor or massage therapist, I’m always reduced to a painful mass of tight muscle fibers.

Her advice: get a night guard from the dentist, start taking yoga again and increase my calcium and magnesium intake.

I’d already been considering resuming yoga classes, partly for the strength and flexibility and partly because I’m noticeably gaining weight. Last night I looked up the class schedule for the yoga center in my neighborhood and saw that they had a Level 2 Ashtanga class at 6:15 a.m. on Wednesdays. I set my alarm for 5:45 a.m.

I woke up before the alarm rang and repeatedly talked myself in and out of going to the class until I got up. It’s been a couple of years since I last took a class and I was worried that I couldn’t hack an advanced class. But then I figured that "advanced" just meant "for students who already know the classic poses." Anyway, I got up at 5:45, threw on some hideous workout garb that exposed my pudgy midsection way more than I would have liked, and went to class.

I almost bailed out at the 15-minute mark. I started feeling nauseated and a little clammy, but I sipped a little bit of water and forged onward. I couldn’t do some of the advanced poses, but I made it through the whole 90-minute class and even managed one handstand (against the wall, but still…).  When the class was over I felt WONDERFUL.

After my shower, I continued the self-improvement juggernaut and called my dentist’s office to make an appointment to be fitted for a night guard. Then I retrieved my container of Viactiv from the back of the cupboard, dosed myself with calcium and headed to work.

Now, I’m not saying I’ll be able to continue my progress indefinitely, but it sure feels good to have gotten this far. I’m planning on taking yoga classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning and I should be able to settle into the routine after a week or so. Wish me luck!

Today’s post from SueBob really spoke to me:

I am going to ask for help with one of my favorite projects. Women for Women International is a sponsorship organization that started in Bosnia and spread to other war-torn areas of the world.

For
$27 a month, you get matched with a woman somewhere in the world who
needs help. You support her and send her letters while she goes through
a structured program to get back on her feet. If you are lucky, you may
get letters back. The organization provides the translation services.

My goal is to convince 10 women to become sponsors before the end of the year.

Please
let me know if you decide to sponsor. Even if you can’t afford to do
that, please consider a link over here to help me and these women out.

I belong to Soroptimist International, which is associated with this group, but my particular club is pretty focused on helping local women. This seemed like the perfect chance to branch out and help someone who can really benefit from an amount of money that I can save by foregoing a daily Red Bull from the vending machine at work. I signed up immediately.

If you decide to participate, let SueBob know.

On Friday night, my niece came to our house for a sleepover. She’s six-and-a-half and, as my sister puts it, behaves pretty much "like a real person" in social situations now.

My husband and I took her to dinner at Red Robin and did our best to tune out the deafening din of the other patrons. Even my niece said, "Those kids are loud!"

After dinner, we went to the grocery store to stock up on junk food (Chips Ahoy and mint chocolate Dibs) and then on to Blockbuster to get a movie to finish out the night’s activities. My niece was immediately torn between "Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses" and a Bratz movie.

"Hey, let’s see what else they have!" I said. "How about ‘Wallace and Gromit?’"

We walked down both aisles of the Family section but nothing had more appeal than the cheesy doll tie-ins. I could see that I would only have enough influence to steer her toward the lesser of the two evils. We brought home the "Barbie" movie.

The next day, we got up early and went to breakfast. After that, my niece put on her "Hollywood starlet" Halloween costume and we went to a nursing home to join my community service organization in throwing a party for the residents.

We finished the morning’s activities with an early lunch at a nearby cafe. The service was dreadfully slow, but my niece behaved like a perfect little lady, chatting with the other club members and hardly fidgeting at all when it took forever for the food to arrive.

On the way home, we got into a conversation about how different things were when I was a kid compared to now. She could hardly believe that we only had ONE television when I was little, and that it was black and white.

When it came time to drop her off at home, she thanked me for a fun weekend without any prompting from her father. We definitely need to hang out together more often.

Last night I ran across this article in Fast Company, "How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World?"  It’s about the compact fluorescent bulbs that you’ve probably been seeing in stores lately. According to the article:

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households
bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in
the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough
to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough
electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island.
In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the
atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the
roads.

I’ve been replacing the light bulbs in my house with compact fluorescents since late last year and I can report that they’re amazing. The light is just as strong and steady as you’d expect from an incandescent bulb. Best of all, not a single one of them has burned out since I started using them. I used to go through ridiculous numbers of regular lightbulbs.

The latest lightbulb advance to catch my eye is this LED spotlight. I need to replace both spotlights on the side of my garage and even though these are extremely expensive, they’re supposed to last 10 years and cost only $4.00 per year in energy. That’s a pretty compelling argument.

The way energy prices have been fluctuating, it’s a little difficult to tell how much effect the fluorescent bulbs are having on my electric bill. We keep quite a few lights on all the time, and my sense is that our bills are lower than they would be with the standard bulbs.

Do you have any energy-saving tips to pass along?

That’s right, it’s "Slept Too Late Wednesday" again, so you get another list post. I’m trying to flex my daily blogging muscles to participate in Eden Kennedy’s NaBloPoMo, which is much more likely to be possible for me than another abortive, non-attempt at NaNoWriMo.

• New Seven Wonders – This site seeks to update the Seven Wonders of the World list and invites you to vote for your seven choices.
• The AntiCraft – Needlework, knitting and other crafting for the more rebellious among us. For example, there’s an article about knitting with wire (ouch!) and a pattern for a knitted tea cozy adorned with deadly nightshade blossoms and berries.
• Haunted When it Rains – A collection of Victorian post-mortem photographs. It sounds creepy, but when I look at the photos, I can see why people found them comforting.
• Jewels, Ink and Feathers is a freaky little animated short that’s like the dark side of a children’s picture book.
• Zappa Plays Zappa – Dweezil Zappa is out on tour playing Frank Zappa compositions and I have tickets to see it tomorrow night. I can’t wait!

Okay, that’s all for now. Have a great Wednesday!

Last Saturday, my husband and I braved the retail massiveness of Nebraska Furniture Mart with an eye toward getting a refrigerator and/or a couch. We left with a Mac Pro computer for the studio. It’s all about priorities.

We’re still going to get a fridge and living room furniture, but when I got to the store I quickly realized:

1. It would have really helped to know the width of the current refrigerator and couch.
2. Damn, refrigerators are EXPENSIVE now!

Other than that, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m looking for. I want a stainless steel fridge with a pull-out freezer on the bottom and double doors on top. It would be delightful to have an ice maker, as I’ve spent the last 11 years buying bags of ice for drinks. If you’re wondering why I don’t just use ice trays, you obviously haven’t seen the inside of my freezer.

The sticker shock hasn’t completely subsided, but I’m going to branch out to Best Buy and Sears before I make up my mind to buy. My current refrigerator has started making a gurgling water sound at random intervals that just can’t be a good sign. I haven’t seen water come out anywhere, but I fear it’s only a matter of time.

As for the couch, we’re thinking chocolate brown leather, wide enough to seat three people without making the middle person feel awkward. Leather is a must because the cats can’t weave their hair down into the fibers. See also: cat puke, cleaning from furniture. We’ll need a chair or two as well, but I’m not dead set on having them match the couch.

The timing has to be just right for the furniture purchase. The living room needs to be painted, but the current couch is notorious for scraping up the wall behind it. Optimally, I need to get the new couch right after I’ve painted. I should probably take a vacation day on a Friday and just get that out of the way.

So those are my purchasing plans for fall. There’s nothing like a massive spending spree before Christmas, huh?

While browing my Bloglines feeds this morning, I ran across a link to this article: 13 Haunted Houses That Will Make You Wet Your Pants. None of the ones listed are near me, but I drive through Kansas City’s main haunted house district on my way to and from work every day, so I’ve been thinking about them lately.

My primary thought: I don’t want to pay money to be scared.

It costs $20 to go through one of the elaborate haunted houses here and the line can stretch for blocks. Once you’re in, you stumble through the strobe-light accented darkness, occasionally accosted by weapon-wielding people in costume. At the end, you’re shoved down a multi-story slide of which your chiropractor would NOT approve, and the next thing you know, it’s "This Way to the Egress" and it’s only been 15 minutes since you walked in the door.

When it comes to expensive scares, it’s not just haunted houses I dislike. I don’t like scary movies or roller coasters either. I’m also exceedingly unlikely to ever skydive or bungee jump.

For whatever reason, I’m content to keep my adrenaline levels on an even keel. Oh, and I’m cheap, too, so there’s that.

What about you?