Workout

Last night~

- With hands on a box, jump feet back and do a push-up. Jump feet forward, jump on box, and then jump up for a pull-up. (15x)
- With one leg propped up behind on the box, bend the other knee to touch the ground. (15x each side)
- One-legged inchworm push-ups. (5x each side)

Did each of these twice.

workout

Monday night~ balance balls

- With each forearm on a balance ball, and knees on the ground (i couldn't do these from my feet), roll the balls out sideways and then back together.
- Face down with belly on the ball, lift two 10 lb weights up and down with arms in the shape of: a Y, T, W, L, and I.
- With a balance ball between the back and the wall, and with one foot having only toes touching the ground, bend the knees to crouch all the way down and then back up.
- Lying with the ball under the upper back while the knees are bent and the back is straight, hold two 15lb dumbbells straight up and rotate them out from the head, around the body, and back together to bring them up again (without the weights going below the plane of the shoulders).
- With hands clasped together, rest forearms on a ball (had to do these on my knees too) keeping torso straight, and roll the ball forward then back.
- With one leg up behind you balanced on a ball, bend down with the other knee (i had to hold onto the wall or else i was falling over).

Last of the ABin5 dough

I finished off the last of the Artisan Bread in 5 min dough today. It was probably close to 1.5 lbs. I had to leave a little bit of dough that had dried out on the edge of one of the containers. This loaf I cut with a scallop pattern on top after I let it rest for at least an hour after taking it out of the fridge. While baking I used some tips I picked up from Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I let the oven (including my roasting pan) heat up to 450F while the dough rested.

After sliding the dough in onto the tile, I poured hot water into the roasting pan so it would generate steam. We actually picked up a mist sprayer from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so I used that to mist the sides of the oven and generate more steam. 15 minutes in I flipped the tile around to help even out the bread's exposure to the heat in the oven.

I think I opened up the oven to mist toooo many times. Nearly 30 minutes in, I stuck in the thermometer and the internal temperature was at ~160F. I needed it to be at 200F, so I upped the heat to 480F and left the thermometer in the bread to monitor the temperature. The alarm feature is awesome. :) The crust turned out a nice color, and this time I definitely slashed it deep enough.

I just tasted it, and I think that I over-handled this dough again. The holes are not as big as I'd like. The crust, although crispy on the outside, is not as thick and flavorful as the first bread I baked with the ABin5 dough. I'll have to think about this a bit more to figure out what I did. Perhaps it was the changes in oven temperature from constantly opening the door?

Workout

Last night:

- 30x double handed swings with the 12kg kettlebell
- 30x right handed swings
- 30x left handed swings
- 20x two-handed cable exercise, pulling from down low on one side, up and across the body while keeping arms straight and twisting the torso
- 20x while holding a 10lb dumbbell in each hand, with both arms extended straight up the entire time, lean all the way back on a BOSU ball and then do a crunch into a sit up and then stand up

Repeated all of this twice.

I'm going to try to get a bike this weekend.

More bread

I baked my 4th loaf of bread today. I baked it at 470F for 35 minutes. This time I didn't cut into it deep enough on top before baking. It probably would have expanded more. I tried not to handle it too much while shaping so I wouldn't disrupt the air bubbles. I tried to keep the dough flatter and wider too so that it wouldn't be too thick in the middle. I think that may have been a factor in the middle of my bread loaves never being fully cooked.

Bread #1: Rosemary Bread (or what was left of it before I realized I should snap a photo)


Bread #2: Rosemary Bread


Bread #3: 5 minute Artisan Bread


Bread #4: 5 minute Artisan Bread


The color on those last 2 photos is a little darker than it's supposed to be because we had no natural lighting and no good camera lighting.

Parents

I had lunch with my parents on Sunday. I taught my dad HTML in the afternoon. It's interesting talking to them about various issues because most of our conversation for the past 5 years consisted of them complaining about me or trivial daily talk. We started talking about religion, and it only came up because I didn't know the name for Christianity in Mandarin. I brought up a bunch of other religions that I didn't know the Mandarin names for, and Lawrence brought up Scientology. It turns out my parents even know about Scientology! Haha, initially it was the religion that Tom Cruise is into, but my mom told us about how there were people she knew who got into Scientology. She had a middle school friend who used to be a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and all. Turns out she had a change of heart and turned to Scientology. My mom, and I love her for this, exclaimed at how she could drop one thing she devoutly believed in and pick out another devout belief. It didn't make sense to her that one could just pick and choose a religion, swapping for other religions whenever one felt like it. I agree. Go mom!

Workout + the unexpected

Yesterday was 3 sets of plyometric exercises.

1.) 15x Jumping left and right over an exercise bench with both feet together.
2.) 15x Plyometric Incline Push-ups (jump at the top).
3.) 15x each side Cable arm pull (ok, not the official term, but basically pull to the chest, using the shoulder).
4.) 15x each side Hop Steps (jump forward, back, left, right on one foot).

On my walk home, at the intersection of Colorado and Arroyo Pkwy, there were pro-Health Reform demonstrators on all four corners with big signs and banners. I couldn't help but wonder how it could compare to something similar up in SF or Berkeley.

Pizza Stone/Baking Stone

These can be expensive if you buy one from a cookware store. What you can do instead is go to a hardware store and buy a "quarry stone" which is a non-glazed ceramic tile. It needs to be non-glazed and lead-free, made completely from clay. I've heard that this alternative does the job starts at $.99.

Stress, stress, stress.

No WoW tonight. I'm exercising from 6:30-7:00pm, picking up my dinner from Gelson's on the way home, and then doing stuff that needs to be done in the apartment - vacuuming, scrubbing floors, washing dishes, doing laundry, throwing out trash, etc. Maybe I can do some stuff to relieve stress because I am seriously getting stressed out.

Stupid cat has started peeing on stuff around the apartment. It could be because we switched her litter around. It could be because we've been switching her food around. It could be because his brother has been in the apartment and she's feeling territorial. Maybe she has a urinary tract infection. If she does it again, we should probably take her in to the vet.

Monday night workout

15x - step back into a lunge with arm extended holding onto a cable, then pull cable towards chest while bringing up the opposite knee
20x - double-handed kettlebell swings, 16kg
20x - single-handed kettlebell swings on each arm, 12kg
15x - lean back on a BOSU ball and then stand up, while holding a 15lb medicine ball above head
15x - lift two 10lb dumbbells from the ground to the shoulders, then press up

repeated through the kettlebell swings

It's been a little cold lately and my tummy got cold on the 2nd set of kettlebell swings, giving me some cramps. Otherwise, I might have been able to get a little further. I didn't get as tired as the last few sessions so I think I'm getting back into the routine of things. :)

2nd time - success!

Success of sorts at least. This time, I left it in the oven without having turned the oven on. I let it rise twice and baked it at 375F for 30 min.

It turned out a little denser than optimal, and a little undercooked towards the bottom center. Perhaps it would have cooked more evenly if I didn't just stick it on a cheap baking sheet. If I let the dough rise in a warmer space, it might have also turned out a little lighter.

Taste-wise, it was pretty good. It didn't turn sour so I know I didn't let it rise for too long. The crust is actually decent. We don't have a spray bottle, so I just flicked some water into the oven with my fingers to add moisture (supposedly for better crust).

When it came out, the outside was not brown and pretty. That could have been due to not baking long enough or not putting stuff on the outside (olive oil? egg?).

I would love to do this again, but I think I'm not strong enough to knead the dough properly. It seemed to be kneaded so much better after Lawrence did it...and ugh, that sucks. I hate not being strong enough for things. With practice, I hope, it'll get better. This can be a supplementary arm workout for arm endurance.

Bread attempt #1

FAIL.

This is the recipe I'm using: Jo's Rosemary Bread.

I got the yeast activated and kneaded the dough. I let it rise for an hour but realized that it was just sitting on the counter and was probably not in a warm enough place to properly double in size. So, I put it in the oven on the lowest setting, 170F, which was apparently way too hot. I should have realized. One site I read said 80-90F was ideal. So...time to start over.

Shoes?

I've been wanting to get new boots for a while. My old ones are too old. I looked around for some last winter, but none of the ones I saw at DSW really did it for me. Becky's awesomely cute boots inspired me to look some more.

I saw this pair in Anthropologie's newest catalogue, and I actually thought they were really cute. But, OMG, $500 price tag WOAH!

Kitchen tools

I want these, but sadly they are either too expensive for me to justify or their utility is too limited.

- a KitchenAid stand mixer
- a food processor
- a rolling pin
- a santoku knife
- a ramekin set
- a springform cake pan
- a bread machine
- a pastry cutter
- a nice frying pan
- a nice sauce pan
- an Asian hot water thermos that's not plastic lined

Dad

My dad is so cute sometimes. I'm glad my relationship with my parents is getting better. I had dinner with them on Sunday and my dad asked me about web hosting and creating a website for his Chinese Kunqu Opera group. He has been talking about it for a long time, and maybe close to 10 years ago, I created a basic page for him on Angelfire.

I'm actually pretty excited about teaching him HTML. I could probably handle it myself too since they're not looking for anything particularly complicated, but I've already told him that he would have to give me all the content first. One of the ladies in their group is a graphic designer, so she may be able to help with the design of the site as well. Maybe I could help with the English translation of the pages, as he wants to do the site in Chinese.

My boss suggested I go ahead and pay for the domain and hosting for my dad so they could have their own domain, as a sort of father's day gift. Maybe if they get the pages going, I'll do just that.

Religious Confrontation

Watching Bones has got me thinking more about religion. I liked the series at first, but I'm getting more ambivalent the more I watch. It's becoming a show where the conservative, religious, righteous, traditionally masculine cop is converting the logical, open-minded, atheist anthropologist scientist. But maybe I just feel that way because of my own biases? :)

I've always felt like my life has been rather bland and without confrontation. Granted, I actively avoid confrontation, but it seems like so many other people get it thrown at them whether they want it or not. I've always imagined how I would lash out if someone tried to confront me - I'd come up with a scathingly witty retort, or land a swift sturdy kick to the groin and then a solid hook to the head. I know that if it ever actually happened, though, I'd be caught like a deer in headlights. People are rarely ever that definitively antagonistic. Things do not happen in stark blacks and whites - things happen in shades of gray. People try to sweet talk you and they keep a smile on their face. They won't touch you, or if they do they are so polite you can not fault them. In those cases, you would be breaking social conventions by lashing out. If you lash out, they will have ammunition to call you the crazy one, and they would have won. These people need to be handled with finesse and not brute force.

In any case, all these situations take practice to know how to handle, and I don't have that experience. I suppose that is why I like to read about others' experiences, so I can think of ways to handle the situations. Religion is something I go back to because it's one of the few widespread ways in which people can still discriminate and not be socially ostracized. Living at home, I'm pretty certain we've had religious proselytizers at our door, but if our parents or grandparents answer they always had the excuse of not speaking English. After moving out, I've only lived in secured apartment buildings. That definitely keeps away most of the door-to-door people.

All my experience with religious proselytizers has thus been when I am out - either on campus, sitting at a public place. In these situations, the proselytizer has many options and will not usually continue to bother me if I express that I have no interest in their religion. Isn't that what we atheists want - to not have the religious push their agendas on us with their talk of hellfire and brimstone? Sure, but damn it, I want that religious person to see my point of view. I end up feeling silly for that - the anti-proselytizer atheist wants to try to convert the religious proselytizers! A new thought came to me when I read a thread on the atheist boards. Instead of me feeling like I want to shove my anti-woo rationality down their throats, how about I turn it around and ask them why they believe in what they do? If they can acknowledge there is no rationality in their reason for believing, then I can be satisfied. There's nothing I can do if someone is willing to believe in something they have no evidence for.

The next time I get approached by a religious person in public, I hope I will have the courage to be confrontational and actually talk to them. Ugh, I suppose that means I'll actually have to remember facts and things. Eh, maybe it will be fun?

Exercising resumes

I actually worked out last Thursday, but I can't remember what I did besides that it was very exhausting.

Yesterday night's workout:

- 30 2-handed kettlebell swings with a 26lb kettlebell
- 20 1-handed kettlebell swings on each side
- 15 push-ups with each hand on a medicine ball
- 15 lunges on each side where the forward step is on a mini BOSU ball
- 15 squats with each foot on a mini BOSU ball
- repeat all the kettlebell swings

dentist

Wow, my dentist wrote me a letter welcoming me to his office and also a thank you letter to Lawrence for referring me.

So, a couple weeks ago I went in for a teeth cleaning. It was my first time at the dentist's office in probably 3 years. One of my molars was experiencing pain and sensitivity to cold and pressure, so I knew something was up that I needed taken care of. Turns out it was a large cavity. I scheduled with them to get it cleaned out after my trip to SF.

On Thursday I went in and they cleaned out the cavity and infected areas and put in a temporary filling. My dentist said that I needed a root canal, which we scheduled for this coming Saturday. After that, I'll need a crown on the tooth. It would have been a lot scarier, but my dentist did a good job calming me down. With the anesthetics, I could barely feel a thing. It was my first time seeing a dental dam being used, but it really helped because I didn't have random bits of things flying around my mouth. They even put goggles over my eyes to protect them. Because of the fear I had expressed over the procedure, the dentist was very careful to make sure I was numb and not feeling any pain. He even gave me headphones so I could listen to the radio and not think about the noise of the drill.

The bad news...dental work is expensive. I just hope I won't need more done for a long time.