A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. In this week's edition the weather outside got frightful so we made chili, I've been hiking up a storm, and I've got lots of TV and book things to talk about, including an old book that is very much in today's headlines.
When I got back from my New Year's Day hike, I wanted something warm for dinner. Chili mac is very easy but the kids aren't into it - oh that's right the kids just had their wisdom teeth out so for a few days they weren't eating the same foods that we were eating. I took advantage of the situation and Hubs and I found ourselves happily eating chili mac on repeat.
For lunches I'm back on the chickpea salad train with avocado and pickled onions.
Workouts
Stop me if you've heard this one before...I'm really digging cardio and not feeling strength.
But seriously, the 3-12-30 workout (3 MPH, 12% incline, 30 minutes) plus the hiking is feeling good. I'm still into pushups and my baby attempts at hanging on the pull up bar, but the rest of strength work, not so much. Asking for a friend, if I decided to just do basic squats, lunges, etc instead of Caroline Girvan workouts how long would I keep it up before I got bored and stopped doing it? Let's find out!
For the hiking challenge, I was able to sneak away and take a very long lunch on Friday and got back to the trails on Sunday as well. I don't have the words to tell you why this is such a good time, but it is.
Watching
Now that I'm regularly doing 30 minute treadmill workouts again, I needed a treadmill TV show. A treadmill TV show is a rare class of TV shows that are so good that they make you forget that you're on the treadmill.
Upright is an Australian odd couple show. A 40-something year old man is in the process of driving an upright piano across the country when he causes an accident that totals his car. The other driver is a 16 year old girl who says that she too is driving across the country to see her mother. Two people, one car, and a piano set off on a long journey while their backstories unfold and adventures await.
This weekend the Hubs and I wanted something silly so we turned to Caddyshack. We laughed like idiots.
In Cute Youtube viewing, the Hubs and I are addicted to Olive and Mable videos. Remember how we started taking selfies with our dog back when the pandemic started? Olive and Mable is that on a whole new level. Their owner is a sports commentator who was laid off since there were no sports in early COVID times. He turned his professional talents toward his dogs and the rest is history.
Reading
The hits keep coming!
- I chowed down the second book in the Linda Castillo Amish murder mystery series, Pray for Silence. I don't have much to say besides she's got my interest and I'll get to the rest of the series in due course. I've got to make time for the Alphabet series as well;-)
- Everyone who is anyone is reading You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. At first I said, "cool, Countess Crowley wrote a book". And then I realized that the Maggie Smith I was thinking of is not this Maggie Smith. I put in a hold for Place and saw that she had another book that was very short so I started with that.
- Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change is a very short audio listen that Smith adapted from the daily tweets that she did when she was going through her divorce. It's basically a pep talk, and who doesn't need that? I wouldn't class it as required reading, but it's a great intro to her way with words and a pleasant use of two hours.
- And yay my Libby hold for You Could Make This Place Beautiful came in just as I was finishing Keep Moving. The hype about this one is well deserved, and without telling anyone else what to do, I'd recommend making tracks to get your hands on it. The reason is to hear Smith's craft with words. It's simply dazzling and her words are so good that it almost doesn't matter what the book is about. But fine, it's about her divorce and rebuilding her life. I'm about halfway through and torn between wanting to gobble it down and wanting to make it last. The struggle is real.
- But wait there's more! I just started another Nevil Shute reread. This is a book you might have heard of since it was made into a movie back in the day. The book is called No Highway, and the movie was called more descriptively, No Highway in the Sky. We're in the very underrated genre of the Engineering Thriller. It's post WWII England, and a new supervisor has just started at a aviation testing lab. He gets up to speed on what everyone is working on, and learns that one of his engineers is running an underfunded study to test a theory that...wait for it...a new popular aircraft line has a problem with metal fatigue that will cause the airplane's tail to fall off after 1,440 hours of flight. On the one hand if the engineer is right people's lives are in danger so hello why is the only action item an underfunded study that will take a year to complete? But on the other hand the theory is highly mathematical and the engineer is kooky AF. Then one of the airplanes crashes under mysterious circumstances and the race is on to find out why it happened, how to handle the politics of keeping the manufacturer and an unhelpful investigating committee in line, and just how kooky is that engineer. Not to mention TFW you pick up a book that was written in 1948 and see it play out in today's headlines.
In Other News
It's puzzle season!
Stay warm everyone!
Oooh what a fun puzzle. And hiking! My favourite. AND AVOCADO TOAST YOU ARE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE. Imagine being on that plane, just imagine. Eeeeee.
ReplyDeleteI had the EXACT reaction when I first heard of Maggie Smith. Wow, what IS a weekend? Anyway, I loved her books. I just finished Alicia Keys' memoir and whoa, is it bad. It is one of the most boring memoirs I have ever read, I am side-eying the ghost writer. Although, probably not her fault, I feel Ms Keys has artistic control over everything.
Um excuse me all of us over here are writing about our non-rock star lives and it's fascinating so Alicia has some nerve putting her name on a boring book.
DeleteAll of my free time this winter is going to be split between hiking and puzzling. I'm telling you I'm a busy lady!
Count me in on the Maggie Smith confusion, I had the exact same thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYour hike is beautiful, I think I would try to get it in as often as possible as well.
I heard today that one seat was actually blown out on that airplane, thankfully it was empty. Terrifying.
I thought that it was just me who was getting tripped up by the two Maggie's!
DeleteOh my goodness, those Olive and Mabel videos are adorable! Love the Scottish accent, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd yay for hiking! I think being outdoors, preferably forests, is the best thing we can do for our mental health. Bonus points if you get blues skies along with it!
That's Nevil Shute book is scarily current... what are the odds of you reading that and an airplane falling apart in real life???
I'm going for a run and picking up my second-hand Kindle on the way back home. So looking forward to using it!
Enjoy your kindle! You will wonder how you ever got along without it.
DeleteLet's talk about books! First of all, I read Keep Moving and loved it- yes, I can't really remember anything specific from it offhand, but I definitely enjoyed it. I've been holding off on Place because I thought it might be kind of sad- but no one else has said it's sad, so I should just go ahead and put a library hold on it.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile I'm almost done with Dover Two, and used an amazon gift card to buy Dover Three and A Town Like Alice. I'm thinking of saving Dover Three and starting the Nevil Shute. So many good books!!!
Yes, I would get bored with CG if I did it all the time. I would MUCH rather be outside hiking, and I keep hearing so much about this treadmill workout... I want to try it.
BOOK TALK!!!
DeleteI know what you mean about Place. I'm a big fan of divorce if you're talking about my husband's first marriage, but it's not something that I'm curious about otherwise. The way that Smith writes, I'd be just as big a fan of the book if she were describing the contents of her refrigerator. So don't let the content sway you. I think I'm going to read Pete and Alice in Maine soon, which Lisa paired with Place.
I'm so happy that Dover was a hit! Dover Two was the first book that I read, and it's the closest to a "normal" book that she ever wrote. Dover Three is a retelling of Agatha Christie's The Moving Finger and it's a riot. Not to get too far ahead, but the 4th book Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All is what I'd call "the money book" of the series. I'm not saying that it's my favorite, but it definitely has the biggest payoff. And just wait until you get to Shute!
I LOVED Keep Moving. One of my fav books in 2022 (I think that was when I read it?). I really liked You Could Make This Place Beautiful, but I found it a bit redundant at times and it felt like she overused that technique. Still...fantastic and I highly recommend both to anyone who asks me.
ReplyDeleteLove the hike pictures. So glad you're enjoying the 12-3-30. I'm aiming to do that 2-3 times a week (on days I don't walk the kids to school; I sweat a lot). I'm also doing a daily yoga challenge and LOVING that. Especially since I'm marking things off with gold star stickers :)
12-3-30 is a sweat maker, that's for sure! Yay for gold stars.
DeleteYou know what makes hiking/walking (let's be honest - this girl here only walks) through the woods even better?! A canine friend with you! Food for thought on the young lady shepherd front!
ReplyDeleteSo, here's the scoop. Engineering thrillers sound terrible to me. I worry so much about infrastructure - bridges and buildings collapsing, ships hitting obstacles (thanks, Titanic) - that I think I would be a very receptive audience, but it would also possibly give me nightmares. I'm going to have think on that one!
I've been enjoying seeing dogs on the trail. It's mind boggling though because it's very muddy right now. I'm sure the dogs love the hikes but probably not the baths that come afterward.
DeleteI get what you mean about infrastructure. I will never ever never read the TJ Newman books because I get freaked out by flying enough as it is. No Highway has an edge of suspense but it deals more with how to get through the bureaucracy when you know that something's wrong. So it's pretty tame BUT an effective, memorable book.
I love hearing that you are loving your hikes and cardio. And yes... I think doing the strength basics is a great idea and you'll definitely keep it up!
ReplyDeleteOoo, I need to check out You Could Make This Place Beautiful. I just started a book (Wellness) that is beautifully written and I love it! I need more of that! No Highway sounds really good too!
I think that you would like No Highway (1) because it's just a great book and (2) for the detail on planes. I'll keep my eyes open for when you review Wellness.
DeleteI have purposely been avoiding reading anything about the Boeing 737 Max issue because I fly too much to think about what might happen! Ahhh!
ReplyDeleteSo I actually did not know that there was another Maggie Smith! When she talks about Meryl Streep reading her poem and saying, "no the other one" I was confused! So I had to google it. I am glad you are appreciating that book as much as I did (it feels wrong to say enjoying??). It was so heartbreaking and so incredibly moving and well done. I need to read Keep Moving.
I'm the opposite of you and have been feeling drawn to strength training with CG over cardio... although I was kind of cursing CG as she had us keep doing lunges with the front leg elevated for 40 seconds immediately followed by 'dead stop' lunges which is the move where you put the knee of the lunging leg down on a mat. I had to drop the weights for that move after the first set of them. But they are super effective. I did the 3/12/30 last week at the office gym. It was effective but I didn't love it? But I would rather do that than run on the treadmill so that will be my workout at the office gym. I'm hoping to do that workout once/week when I go back to the office (I'm home for 2 weeks as they are restacking us from 3 floors to 2... which means I am working out pretty much every day since it's way easier to fit in when you aren't leaving for work with 2 small children by 7am).
Look, I might be scared of flying but it is safer than driving.
DeleteIf enjoying Maggie Smith's book is wrong, I don't want to be right. But for her way with words and because she's addressing an important topic. A few years ago I read Memorial Drive and Born a Crime very close together and I wrote at the time that it felt awkward to say "wow I read two really good books about domestic violence!!!"
Yes, it's a fact that when you don't have to get 2 children and yourself settled by 7 AM to go to work that you just might be able to squeeze a few more workouts in. That's a tough schedule.
I am super excited for your hiking challenge. And I'm glad you have had at least a few days of sunshine to accompany your hikes. There's almost nothing better than a hike on a crisp blue sky day with snow.
ReplyDeleteThat chili mac looks amazing. How have I not had anything chili-esque yet this season?!
I am definitely intending to try Neil Shute one of these days, but I am so glad you gave a detailed review of this one because I get SO stressed out by books that involve airplane issues. Flying is horrific enough without scenes from a well written book playing in my brain.
It's the season for chili mac, though it's also one of our go-to meals for beach vacations. Sadly the weather is turning so unless something changes I might not be able to hike this weekend.
DeleteI'm with you on being stressed by reading about airplane issues and I already know that I will never read the TJ Newman books. All that I can say is that this is the least stressful potential-plane-crash book that you can read that will still have you turning the pages to find out what happened.
I laughed out loud when you talked about the countess, as I thought the same thing! At first I was very confused because isn't she dead? And if she is, why was this book so popular all of a sudden? But I decided to try it anyway, I mean, I love the countess! PS she is also in Harry Potter! I found the same thing that you did -- (a) she is a different person who I had never even heard of, but (b) she has a way with words for sure and (c) I don't know if you listened to it as an audiobook, but if you did, she also has a way of cadence on her words that really stuck with me! And it was a subject that I have no experience in, but it really resonated with me! I could blab on about this for hours, but...
ReplyDeleteA team at work does planks two times per day and I have been doing it with them lately and the first day I kind of thought that it was a bit mundane and not challenging enough, but I didn't know that they were putting in breaks for a coworker. Yesterday we did it without breaks and it was hard! And satisfying! I had forgotten that I have no arm or ab strength but it feels good to break out those muscles again!
Yes, I'm listening on audio and I can't imagine getting her words any other way. I think this book would be a must listen no matter what what it was about.
DeleteI once had a work plank group. It was fun but HAAAARD.
Oh, that chickpea salad looks delicious! I'll have to try that as part of meal prep next week. I am trying to find some just-for-me lunches I can bring in office because depending on leftovers is leaving me left with no lunch, haha! I have been doing treadmill hikes, too, with outdoor hikes in the spring in my hopes; the differing inclines keep me from getting too bored, thankfully!
ReplyDeleteThe chickpea salad is so easy to make and it's really good. I linked to a recipe but I'm really just throwing what I have into a blender - chickpeas, mayo, mustard, onions, relish...I think that's it?
DeleteThank goodness for the treadmill in winter! The weather is getting very, uh, seasonal here so I'm not sure how much hiking I'll be able to do this weekend.
So I'm not doing 30-10-3, but I did bump up my incline and kept my speed "up" (3.8-3.9) and whoa. My HR is so much higher! So thanks for sharing about that.
ReplyDeleteAlso - you didn't talk about it in this post, but taking advantage of posting a comment here - what digital planner are you using? You mentioned it in a comment on Kae's blog and I was intrigued. :)
I swear, we need a central Cool Bloggers Forum to talk about stuff like this. So my digital planner is an "I made it up myself" Excel sheet that I cobbled together from googling a bunch of stuff about bullet journals. I'll write something about in one of the weekly posts soon.
DeleteWe totally need that. Who can we nominate to lead that initiative? :) And thanks, I look forward to the post. Bullet journaling is a tempting approach but it's far too... "messy", I guess, for me. I don't want to flip back and forth in a notebook; I want designated spaces (or, maybe Sheets) for categories of things I am tracking and/or organizing. Sorry to go off on you there. I clearly have Feelings. ;)
DeleteAre you and I the same person? The idea of tracking anything on paper is horrifying to me.
DeleteHives. Blergh. I have 2 handwritten journals, and even those I'm trying to figure out how to migrate to electronic/digital. I have options I just like handwriting my thoughts...
DeleteOh chili! I hadn't had chili in forever and then we made it at the snow weekend getaway last weekend and I was like "why haven't I made chili in such a long time?"
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to join the Cool Blogger Forum... haha... and I am intrigued by your digital planner sheet. I still have a paper planner but also do a lot digitially.
Chili is perfect year round. It's great in winter and it's one of those things that we make for family vacation at the beach - very versatile!
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