His Valentine to Me

In the previous entry, I talk about the long and tedious gift I created and assembled for my husband. Now it's time to share what he did for me.

I got home from work to this awesome display on my counter:

Over the last several months I have taken to popping homemade popcorn. It's healthier, tastier, and. . . well. . . cheaper in the long run. Just like I bought him a tea sampler. . . he bought me a popcorn sampler pack!  Nine different kinds of popcorn, all with different taste profiles. Very awesome. Shockingly, I see us going through this very quickly, because we always have popcorn on hand. It's a great snack.

He also got me tea-based jams. We're going to do some taste-testing, but he saw them and thought it would be interesting to taste a tea-based jam. Long ago, when we first bought a house together, we started drinking tea. I'm not big into coffee, but I wanted a warm drink to enjoy that wasn't hot chocolate. Thus was born an obsession with tea. When we moved to Edinburgh, we were completely consumed by the tea culture. We'd buy loose-leaf teas and make our own combinations and blends. I went to the The Elephant House Cafe (of Harry Potter Fame) and did a tea-tasting. My hubby and I tried different teas with different accoutrements, like the adorable shortbread elephant cookie.  A record was kept about the amount of sugar that was required. . . whether it tasted better with or without creamer and whether it was a good shortbread cookie dipper. I remember looking out the window in the back at the graveyard that supposed holds the grave that inspired the name of Tom Riddle.

As you can see, tea is just part of something that makes the two of us happy. We love trying different flavor combinations and things like that. So instead of beer or wine, we love tasting tea. And I love how, without any hints of anything, our gifts sort of crossed over to reflect our common interests.

It was so super sweet and I was so glad we were able to enjoy a wonderful Valentine's Day together. We didn't go on a trip to Chicago or anything, but we did have a nice weekend at home tasting teas and popcorn with our daughter. We went out to Olive Garden together for "noodles and meatballs" and my daughter and I stopped in a craft store to by some geeky crafts to do together later in the day.

Yeah. . . it was a wonderful surprise.

Our Valentine's Day

I LOVE Valentine's Day! I also love saying I love it, because it's never for the reason  you would think. So instead of being that jaded person who is like "shouldn't I always show them I love them, not just on one day," I embrace the holiday for simple childhood tradition. My family and my godparents always went to Chicago for a weekend family vacation over Valentine's Day weekend. We'd get those hotel rooms that have a door in-between the rooms. We'd always stay at a place with a pool (usually a Marriott). We'd spend one of the days at either the Shedd Aquarium or the Field Museum. Then we'd always do a "dinner theater" type thing. For example, Medieval Times or we'd go to a dinner with a western or mob mystery theme. I want to say it was like a murder mystery with audience participation, but I was so young and I don't think we participated too much. I know my brother and I were always excited about the story and the performance and the costumes. Because of this, I always looked forward to Valentine's Day weekend.

St. Valentine in Dublin

In addition to this family trip, there was another family tradition I embraced that involved Valentine's Day. I had a great-uncle, his name was John and he was my favorite grandpa's brother, who would send my brother and I a Valentine's Day card and would always write St. in front of the Valentine's on the card. He was a very staunch Catholic and told us the story of the origin of Valentine's Day. When I started being more engaged with researching and understanding religion and denominations, I always held fast to the interesting and elusive story of St. Valentine, much like I hold fast to the story of St. Sebastian. With that, I also refute the naive people who say that Valentine's Day was created by Hallmark. That was Sweetest Day, not Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is really a day to appreciate the sacrifices we make for that which we've dedicated our lives to and the pursuit of the virtuous thing called true love. He is, after all, the saint of happy marriages.

When I got older and I met my future husband, I still enjoyed saving Valentine's Day weekend for a special weekend. I always went above and beyond for Valentine's Day, too, because it was a time to step aside and honor my happy marriage/relationship. We actually met online through AOL profiles at the end of January in 1997 and we then dubbed February 20th our Anniversary, because according to our chat logs and e-mails, it was roughly the date that we first said, "I love you." I'll talk more about that in my Anniversary entry, since this year is a special year for us. Suffice to say, February was a special month for me not matter what the year was.

Now, take a moment and erase the negative ideas about Valentine's Day from your mind, because beyond this point I am going to be a super geeky gusher of my love for my adorable husband. Well, sort of. . . I'm going to gush about our Valentine's Day this year and how it makes us giggle how much alike we have a tendency to be.

I had planned my Valentine's Day well in advance. I ordered the things that I wanted to give and I LOVE to theme out my gifts. We were having a little bit of distance issues since we had our daughter. It wasn't often that we were able to have mommy-daddy-time or enjoy things together that we both like that also didn't include our daughter. Right after Thanksgiving, though, we found something that we both just enjoyed so much, we immersed ourselves in binge-watching for two months! I had, on a whim, started watching Supernatural through Netflix. I started watching it in the living room on the TV and Ray was around and he got hooked. We were both addicted and couldn't stop watching!

Because we were able to reconnect through watching the show, I thought it would be cute to commemorate that on Valentine's Day. First, I spent a good while trying to win a Castiel Funko-Pop character from NerdFu and finally gave up, because it just wasn't ever going to happen and I was getting tired of posting their stuff all over my personal networks. Not to mention I was getting frustrated having to listen to their shows to find the secret word (Like I have time to listen to them drone on about stuff. . . mom of a toddler. . . teacher with papers to correct. . . my time is precious. . .clearly). I ended up finding a site that sold Castiels for $14.95 and cheap shipping (the price went up since I ordered. . . or maybe I just have a faulty memory. . .who knows anymore).

Then, I found an interesting site through NerdFu and SewGeekAustin called Adiago Tea! This is my new favorite site. SewGeekAustin had some Supernatural themed teas available on the site and I was excited to buy them. I'll admit, though. . . I was a little naive about how the site worked and I was excited to see a Sampler Pack for Supernatural and I thought it was the same teas that SewGeekAustin made. They ended up not being the same and I was upset about it, but it was my own mistake. The sampler tins were super awesome and had most of our favorite characters in it. So I rolled with what I got and lesson learned for next time.

From there my gifts spiraled into a tea downfall. I went to ThinkGeek.com to look for some loose-tea infusers that were geeky. How I missed it on Adiago is beyond me, but I saw the IngenuitTEA infuser cup! YES!!! This thing looked awesome and almost too good to be true. I ordered one and I ordered the ducky infuser just to cover all my bases.

The final piece was a scavenger hunt that I created through my premium Geocaching membership at Geocaching Labs. I called it Hallowed Sentinel and it went like this:

As you know, I always love to theme out your gifts. This year, I wanted to focus on something that I feel helped us to reconnect after some of our rougher moments settling into the new phase of our adult years.
First, you're looking for the home of a aerial craft named Sputnik of Desire. This will lead you to the first gift and the clue to your theme.
Next, go to the place where we store the missing word in this C.S. Lewis quote: “You can never get a cup of ____ large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
You'll need to find the item that matches this quote if you really want to indulge: “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”
Make the one who said this quote and go upstairs for your last surprise: "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition."
Happy Valentine's Day, my confidante, companion, and lover.

The code he had to put in was the Supernatural License Plate that I wrote and attached to the Castiel doll. A special message showed up that is just for me and him. What I liked about this and how it connected to Supernatural was that it was just like the guys on the show. They have to use bits and pieces they already know to solve a puzzle. I thought it was kind of neat in that awesome sort of way. Each piece had to do with something special to us and he had fun solving the puzzle I made for him.

See what geeky cute thing my husband did for me in the next entry. . . .

(HILARIOUS NOTE: I had already planned and ordered everything and Ray and I had watched, in full, The Walking Dead. We were rewatching all three seasons on AMC in preparation for the return of Season 4 and. . . I saw the IngenuitTEA being used in Season 3, Episode 3 by Milton when Michonne, Andrea, The Governor and Milton are sitting down to a breakfast together. This was further proof of it being the perfect, meaningful gift for my hubby-do.)

Adventures in TTG as Parents

Today my husband and I really wanted to play some tabletop games. We just haven't been able to play much lately. Even my own gaming has been limited to what I've gotten in with my kids in the gaming club. The last thing I played was Tsuro of the Seas.

We were getting ready to play Smash Up, while our daughter took her nap, and we just weren't quick enough. She was coming down the stairs as we were starting to move towards the table to start playing. Even more shocking was that she was onto our decision to play. She started rambling off the game titles on the table, none of which were going to work well with her.

Then I said, "How about 'Ticket to Ride'?" I forgot that she watches me play that online all the time and she jumped at the mere mention. She started to run around the island counter saying it over and over again. My husband groaned and didn't want to do it. I pushed the issue, asking my daughter to help me clear off the table and we started to take the items off the table and prepare the game.

I explained that her and I could play on a team together. Once everything was setup, I ran through a refresher on the directions and we started in. I was the blue pieces, my husband was black, and my daughter played with the green trains. In Toddler-Speak we played with Thomas, Diesel, and Percy.

It was a success, except when it came to scoring. Our daughter kept slightly moving the counter or might have moved a train or two, but we weren't playing for money or our lives or anything, so it wasn't a super big deal. I won the game, scoring 127 and my husband scoring 117. He had the longest railroad. I had the most routes completed. It was quite a bit of fun.

When that was over, our daughter kept begging to play the panda game. My husband took to trying to convince her that we were done with games for the evening and I, once again, found a way around that. I said she'd be fine and could do something. He let her roll the weather die! She became our Resident Panada Weather Girl!

It was really wonderful to be able to play a few games and involve our daughter. We constantly feel like we can't play, because she's so hands-on and she can't really play-play the games with us next. Heck, she's still learning the fine minutiae Candy Land! Granted, she's created her own game play for Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, which is AWESOME!

Takenoko went really well, though. I even let her move the panda for me and she told me what the weather was for that day. It went wonderfully. Ray won Takenoko, but it was a close game. We each had 9 cards out at the end of it.

So we've reached a new point in our parenting as adults who love TTG with a toddler always present. We can play most games as long as she has a role to complete and the game doesn't go on too long. Like, we couldn't play a long campaign game with her around, because she just would not be very patient.  Most importantly, have a fresh, homemade popcorn snack available. So during those long daddy turns where he's busy strategizing and rolling his dice or spinning his dice ring for every little movement, we don't starve to death.

Hopefully we'll have another family gaming session soon. It was a really fun time and our daughter wasn't too difficult or impatient. I'm wondering what other games we have that she would do well with playing.

Star Trek Counter Jars

Today's quote was fitting for the activity I completed:

"We're going to stumble, make mistakes. . . . I'm sure more than a few before we find our footing. But we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about."
- Archer, Star Trek: Enterprise - Shockwave, Part 2

One of the aspects of my geek fitness regime is to have a counter jar. I mentioned previously that I had seen these kinds of jars on Etsy and around the web on some of the crafty pages. What bothered me was that so many of them were so foofy and had Bible passages on them. Or they had some mindless girl junk that I could seriously care less about. 

Since I had made the decision to geek out my fitness goals and my weight loss badge was the Star Trek Medics symbol, I created Star Trek Counter Jars. They're my weight loss goals in jar form. I made the counters red, yellow, and blue. I used two quotes that I thought would be fun for each jar. I even used one of my vinyl car stickers of the little Uhura. I think they look pretty nifty. Whenever I lose pounds, I move counters to the other jar, so I can see my progress.

My only disappointment with the jars was that the stickers I made were not printed on the clear sticker paper the packaging promised it would be. So I might remake and fix those stickers if the new pack of sticker paper I ordered is actually clear. The other disappointment was the black Star Trek emblem stickers. I ordered two of the large, but the guy sent me one little and one big. I'll just take it as a need to go from larger to smaller. 

My weekly weigh in is going to be a good one this week, so I'll be excited to move some beads and earn some badges. Also, this was my first geeky Star Trek craft project. I don't typically do a great deal of crafting. No time, but this was cool. Who knows. . . maybe I'll start making more crafts over the summer with my daughter.

My Geek Fitness Plan and Goals (Shortened Version)

My Fitness Goals broken down into easy to digest tablets that align with my badges.

Walking 
10,000 steps a day = about 5 miles a day. Use the Runtastic Pedometer App to help track your steps every day. The goal is to Walk like a Hobbit to Mordor and Back! 3871 miles.

  

Gym
It's hard to get to the gym, so any physical activity at the gym or outside counts as gym work. At least 3 days of week at the gym or some sort of outdoor exercise.

  

Gaming Fitness
I'm going to use my Wii at least 5 hours a week to help fill in the need for physical activity. For every 5 hours I'll earn a badge.

The Nom-Nom-Noming and Hydration
I'll be monitoring calorie intake using MyFitnessPal. The goal is to try to eat the recommended calories, but burn at least 300 calories that are not used for intake calories. I'll also be drinking the recommended 8+ glasses of water a day, depending on how much additional hydration I'll require due to physical activity. These are weekly goals to earn.

 

Weight Loss Goals

My goal is to lose 50lbs by August of this year. For every 5lbs I lose, I'll receive a Star Trek Medic Badge. 

 

My Geek Fitness Plan and Goals

Great motivation! Being a Geek taught me this!

Well, here it is. The geek fitness plan I'm going to start with and add to as I progress through it. There's no hard and fast about; just basic common sense and some fun little additives. I'll post once or twice a week about the progress, depending on the length. I think the post every day is too excessive, but once a week feels okay. So let's see what I'm up to!

Inspiration to Keep the Motivation
I'll be compiling quotes to keep me motivated every day. At least one a day. I have a few things to help me with this. I already have a quote compilation going on my GoodReads account. I also got a Star Trek Tear-Away Daily Calendar, which is sure to offer up some interesting and fun quotes. I'm even working to get my husband in on the quote thing, so he can occasionally send me a quote in the morning so I see it before I leave for work.

In addition to the quotes, I am working on creating these "weight loss" jars. You fill the one jar with how many pounds you want to lose. . . um. . . not literally. You use those adorable little counter stones or marbles or something. One counter represents one pound lost. Every time you lose a pound, you move it to the other jar. It's a visual inspiration. Instead of ordering these from someone on Etsy or something, I'm making my own two jars and I'm going to theme them out with Star Trek. Each jar will have a Federation symbol. Then the "want-to-lose" jar I'm going to put Picard's quote "Make it so!" and on the "weight lost" jar I'm going to put Scotty's quote "I'm givin' her all she's got, capt'n." I think I'm going to use a combination of yellow, red, and blue counter stones, as well. Once they're finished, I'll post pictures.

The Physical Fitness Portion
This is where things get a bit more fun. There are two parts to this particular plan. The first involves walking and the second involves gaming. The walking part is rather proud and incorporates a few aspects, while the gaming aspect has a few different pieces as well. Let me lay them out.

Walking
Everywhere you go and everyone you talk to about fitness will tell you that people should walk 10,000 or more steps a day. Due to our sedentary lives, most people walk around 4,000-5,000 steps a day or less. Depending on your stride, these steps can add up to different mileages. I've been step-counting for a few years now and I can tell you it does keep you active, because you have a number goal that you're striving for. My 10,000 steps equals about 5 miles, give or take.

And did you know it's 3871 miles from Hobbiton to Mount Doom and back, plus the trip over to Grey Havens?  Yeah. Seriously. So my little steps and miles covered everyday will be converted into Hobbit Steps for the Lord of the Rings journey!

I found a helpful guide through NerdFitness.com when I was looking for different geeky things to use in my workout and, of course, I needed to have a walking goal. They created A Hobbit's Guide to Walking. On this page they have the breakdowns for each step of the journey and even a link to a spreadsheet to help track those miles. On my end, I'll be receiving a badge for each leg of the journey.

Here is an example of the blank badge that I'll edit for each leg of the trip, when I earn it.

Here is the first badge I'll earn along the trip, marking the beginning of the trip. The next badge will mark travel from Hobbiton to Rivendell. I've got to walk 458 miles. Granted that's. . . like. . . 14 weeks of walking, 13 at best. . . but hey. . . Gondor wasn't built in a day!

Sadly, this walking quest only really follows Frodo and Sam and doesn't seem to really take into consideration any side-adventures with the other hobbits or Aragorn or anything. Part of me wants to think about traveling to some of the places that they went, but I'm already on this epic Frodo journey, so what am I complaining about? I recommend checking out the walking guide. It is fun and makes that 10,000 steps a day goal even more epic! Every step you take with your trendy Runtastic Pedometer App outside your front door. . . every length of the front of your classroom you walk. . . you are getting closer to saving Middle-Earth from the evil Sauron!

The second part of the walking involves actually getting myself to the gym. I live in the incredibly frigid Midwest with all our negative temperatures and frozen tundra. Going outside for a leisurely walk typically involves bundling up heavier than Ralphie's brother in A Christmas Story. Try walking around in that suit and feel good about it. This means a trip to the gym for any kind of extra walking I might need to do.

We have a treadmill, but it's still down at my mom's house from when we were living there briefly. It seems to be an ongoing struggle to find the manpower to help get it out of the basement and also to procure transportation to get it up here. All I picture is The Big Bang Theory and the original Time Machine. ::shivers:: That means I need to somehow get myself to the gym. I have all sorts of reservations. Not as many as you'd think, but the long and short of it is that. . .well. . . it's loud and hard to find a not-extra-busy time to pop in for a treadmill.

Don't underestimate my desire for adorable little graphic badges, because that is so how I'm going to motivate going to the gym. I have to earn my little badges! I even have one for the gym. Right now I have myself going to the gym at least three times a week. That could be Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or whatever combination of three days I want. Every time I achieve this goal, I'll get my adorable Whovian TARDIS badge. I mean, it's like I traveled through time to get to the gym anyways.

Here is an example of a blanket one and if I earn the badge for attending the gym that week. I think it's pretty cute and I will collect them all!!! When it gets warmer out, it will count for my long walks outside and not just the gym. This will also count if I do finally get my treadmill up here to my house.

Gamer Fitness
"WHAT?!" you might say. Yes. I have worked in some gaming fitness. I am an original Wii addict. I have my Wii Fitness Boards, Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sport, and I just got a copy of Just Dance 2014. My daughter and I  have so much fun playing the Wii Fit Plus games together. We do the 2-Person Running activity and we'll switch out playing stuff, where I mimic her on our other Wii Fitness Board (yes, we have 2). She also starts dance when we play the Just Dance games. I don't do those as frequently, but it's cool.

See, the bonus is that I don't just sit there and do yoga stuff. I'm not looking to cheat the games. I'm looking to actually use them to my benefit. Plus I hate more workout videos. I can even get my husband to play a few rounds of tennis. We really get into it. Don't. . .um. . .don't go trying to peak in our windows for a laugh. You can really get your heart pumping and the sweat going on these games. Which is great when you're not in the toning phase of your fitness.

This particular gym is also conveniently located in my home. I also get a little badge for completing at least five hours a week of my own workout minutes. Here's the little badge I made. . . reminded me of Skywalker's training with ObiWan. It was like alittle video game and so cute!

Nom Nom Noming
I still have to do the whole eating well thing. I have had great results when being active using MyFitnessPal. It's not an exact science all the time, because I just don't have time to laboriously enter in all the food I cook, but I think things that are comparable, or I just make sure I have a calorie buffer at the end of the day. My scale is synced with my account on MFP and every week it sends in my weight and adjusts my calorie in-take. I can also put in the calories burned exercising. They recognize all my Wii games and are also synced into my pedometer to count my steps and amount of time being active.

Whenever I keep to my daily plan  (for the whole week), I'll get an adorable Takenoko badge. Ya' know, the poor panda is always nom-nom-noming all over the game. So I thought it was an adorable connection. Here are my example badge.

Hydration, Hydration, Hydration
I also am big into keeping hydrated. I used to be an avid soda drinker. In 2001 I switched from drinking Pepsis and Colas to drinking Diet Rite White Grape, Lemon, and Raspberry. It became a hard drink to find, especially when I moved to North Carolina. I was buying out 2Ls at the local grocer. Then I switched to Propels. Then I moved to Lemon Green Tea Crystal Light. I had those shipped to me overseas and I drank a lot of water when I was over there. When I came home I was pretty much completely water and occasionally drank Crystal Like PURE Lemon. They stopped selling those around me and I've gone almost strictly water. I drink Earl Grey Tea, Green Tea, occasionally milk, water, fountain soda, but 95% of what I drink is water.

To go along with the food, there is the Drink Like a Fish badge, inspired by Game of Thrones and the Tully Family.

Losing the Weight
I know I have high expectations for this year. I want to lose 50lbs by August, but I think if I can keep motivated and keep active, I'll be fine. I also have a badge to commenorate my weight loss.

The Original Star Trek Medic insignia. The number of pounds lost will be in the little plus. I also got a Star Trek TOS gym bag to keep all my cute equipment in. . . err. . . my gym shoes and gym clothes. This also matches up to the jars that I'm going with the Star Trek theme.

Rewards for Results
What kind of process would this be if I didn't get rewards along the way? I've gone to some of my favorite sites and made wishlists of items I might want to buy as part of my new and growing interests. I also have a list of things that I want to do and at what point during my journey it's something that I can go out of my way to do. Usually something I have to pay for or plan or make special.

Here are some of the rewards I'm looking forward to:

• Hobbit Slippers
• Star Trek: The Next Generation DVDs
• Binge Watching Day
• Funko POP Collectables (there are a few I adore)
• Tabletop Games
• Adult Weekend (no kids)
• Movie Date of My Choice
• Shirts from SnorgTees or Woot.Shirts
• Ebooks
• Supernatural Minion Keychains from Etsy

What are you waiting for?
I started and it's going well. I actually started two days ago to get my body motivated. Today I was back on track and going strong. So here is where my journey begins. I'll try to post details and if you're interested in participating and earning your own badges, I'm more than happy to share.

14 Geekolutions for 2014

My Geekolutions for 2014 in all their glory! Some seem a little like goals, but I'm resolving to do these things, so yeah. I tried to be reasonable about the whole thing and there's no hard and fast "do or die" mentality about them. I do what I can. Besides, no one knows what the future holds for me.

1. Watch all of the Original Star Trek.

2. Watch all of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

3. Participate in 3 5K walks (ex: Dirty Girl Mud Run, Turkey Trot, Famous Racing Sausages).

4. Lose 50lbs (min.) using my geek fitness goals.

5. Attend at least 2 Cons. I'm hoping to attend GenCon, Chicago's Wizard Con, and Gameapalooza. I so badly want to hit up some others, but. . . well. . . I'm new to this whole thing and. . . broke.

6. Keep my geek fitness goals for at least six months. (That's a reasonable minimum.)

7. Read 30 books, half of which should be from my Augmenting Geekology List.

8. Organize my closet (give a home to all my geek shirts).

9. Play 5 video games through completely.

10. Play all of my tabletop games at least once this year.

11. Go to Door county (tour lighthouses or learn some paranormal history or something).

12. Complete at least 50 geocaches.

13. Go out of state at least twice. Preferably to new places I've not visited before. This could be a ghost hunt or a vacation or even a Con.

14. Eat at a celebrity chef restaurant (Chicago is really full of 'em). We've been to Graham Elliot's and Gordon Ramsay (when we were overseas). I'd love to, on our 10-year-Anniversary this year, to do a tasting weekend. This totally feeds my food geek.

Reasonable Geek Fitness

I've spent a large chunk of my life playing the extreme yo-yo game. The heart of my weight issues lies purely in being able to be active. My eating habits are, overall, monitored alright, but what really makes the difference is getting up and out. Sadly, I'm just not a health nut. I'll talk in general about healthier choices, but I don't do the raw foods thing or the vegan thing or the no-processed-foods thing. I just can't, actually. Trust someone whose been there. . . eating healthy is expensive. I can get a taco at Taco Bell for $1, but make homemade healthy tacos. . . not $1.  I try, though, to make smart choices about calories, fat, sugars, sodium, etc. But my pocketbook does not allow for me to be extremely picky. (Don't even get me started on gardening. . . me and the green thumb have not worked out, despite my passion for wanting an herb garden.)

I was on a good track for a while after I had my daughter. I was working with the Curves workout program in my town. It was great. 45 minutes-wam-bam-thank-you-mame! I was seeing results and I was feeling good about it. Then I moved. . . to where there are no conveniently located Curves. Yet, as my daughter was getting older, her and I were able to venture out into the great big world together on walks and things. Oh yeah, and my work was having a physical fitness competition for the last half of our 2012-2013 school year.

We walked and walked and I was using my Wii games and Wii board to stay on top of things and add in new routines, etc. etc. But then we had a long stretch of inconsistencies. It started with our trip to visit the in-laws. Almost three whole weeks of no home cooking, only eating out and very little exercise. It was in the 90's outside, so you don't just go outside for a little jaunt, especially with all the wild dogs in the neighborhood where they live. We used to live around the corner. We know.

Once we arrived home, it was the most stressful time I'd encountered since that time last year, but it was already too late. I had already gained back 15 pounds and with all the stress, the poundage was quickly rising again.  Sad to say, by October I was feeling like Tim Allen stuck as Santa. I had lost sixty pounds already. . . I didn't want to gain back half of that in only a few months. That was a devastating thought, but things just were not working in my favor. Work, money, mood, you name it. . . It wasn't working out for me. Yet, now is as good a time as ever to jump back on the treadmill, right?

I'm always jump-starting my workouts and things, only to be derailed by life. Such is my lot, but its hard to do alone. So I'm going to be super-motivating and I'm tying it into my geek journey! What a perfect way to get in shape, by tying it to something you love!

First, I started by looking at pre-established geek fitness programs. All of them seem to assume I have some semblance of fitness already. Sure, lifting weights and blending cardio and strength training are the way to go, but quite honestly, this isn't the Biggest Loser and the amount of time I have between work and a three-year-old and housewifery and the need for personal time isn't going to work out for an extreme blending of hardly anything. I also felt like most of these workouts were geared towards twenty-somethings and I am so a thirty-something. There will be no Super Mario Parkouring outta this nerd.

I abandoned most of what I saw, because I was being realistic. I needed to do something that was very much me and not try to fit into someone else's program. So I made a list of things that I want to change and geeked them up a bit.

1. I need inspiration. What better way to inspire than by using inspirational quotes? I love quotes. While I was looking for something on Etsy, I came across two Star Trek quotes that just seemed so geared towards what I was looking to do and I knew that inspirational quotes would be what I would need to motivate myself.

2. I need to get physical. What are the things that I can do to get my ass off the couch? Well, there are my Wii games and my Wii board. No, I'm not a couch-Wii-playing. I'm full-on-intense about it. I even got Just Dance 2014 for funsies. My husband does not approve of that particular purchase. I also want to get walking again, because I need to get some major weight down and walking, the long and short of it, is the best thing for right now. I also just need to get off the couch more often. I know it's winter and harder, but what are my trade-offs? Binge-Watching Trade-Off.

3. I need to be rewarded. I need to be validated for the work that I'm doing to keep me moving forward. To keep caring about what I'm doing. I function very much on a rewards and recognition system. Doing this solo makes it difficult to always feel validated for the work I do, but I came up with some ideas for how to make this happen.

4. I need to consume in a healthy way. Yeah. . . I can't just go whole hog and think that the input isn't affecting the output. So I have my food goals that will be set up through my favorite calorie-counting site, MyFitnessPal. It is not only food, but water. So I'll be keeping track of that.

I'll post what the actual goals and plan are in another entry, but I think this is going to be pretty awesome. I've made geek badges to earn along the way that I can post. I'm even constructing a list of reward items that I can purchase when I meet certain goals (that are also hubby approved purchases). I'm really looking forward to making all this work together and it feels like it's going to be fun. I just need a swift kick to the ass to get myself out the door.

Don't Forget the Wrapping Paper

I wanted to have some special wrapping paper this year to have fun with. I didn't want the traditional glossy sparkles of candy or Santa images. I do enjoy the classic snowflake styles, but I wanted something special this Christmas. So far it's turned into the most fun Christmas, because of all the neato geek stuff I've done.

Googling around the net, I discovered this pretty nifty site called Spoonflower.com. They print custom fabrics, gift wrap, wallpaper, and decals. They have some incredibly cool patterns for the modern hipsters out there, or anyone, quite honestly. I spent a good while browsing the keyword "geek." What I turned up made me squeal with girlish delight!

The wrapping paper of my dreams started to appear before my eyes. So much so that I couldn't contain my need to geek and purchased more rolls than I intended.

I found:

Chemistry Christmas

Chemistry Christmas (which reminded me of Ho3 = The Element of Cheer). I loved this one so much I ordered two rolls of it so that I wrap the majority of my gifts in it.

Red Christmas Dice

Polyhedrals

Then I saw two awesome dice designs that I just loved. I figured I could wrap some of my gaming clubs gifts in one of the two and gifts for my family with the other.

Minion Hearts

As I browsed even more, I saw this minion wrapping paper and figured it would be perfect for the special Santa gifts for our daughter. Only the gifts from Santa would be wrapped in it. We'd keep the paper hidden, so she wouldn't see any of our gifts, and it would stand out under the tree!

Trek Stripes

Last but not least, I ordered a selfish little purchase of Star Trek paper. As a little bit of backup for if I ran out of paper, but I couldn't help it. It was just too cool. 

Can I just say, my gifts look so geekin' awesome! I am loving this site and I'm already finding My Little Pony paper for my daughter's birthday and even trying to get my husband to tell my mother-in-law so that she can make some cute little summer dresses out of some of these really awesome material! Part of me even wants to take a stab at being more crafty so that I can buy some fabric and make some quick dresses and things. . . or bags. . . hmmm. . .

Bottom line. . . check out this site for all our geek cloth or wrapping or decaling needs! It is AWESOME!