Oh, Exercise

In the end of June, we got back into the Couch-to-5k plan that we had started earlier this year before we lost a family member and began planning the wedding. We have made it through 4 whole weeks so far and I’m very pleased with the progress.

We’ve definitely come a long way and I would highly recommend the program to anyone who thinks they can’t run or hates running. I hated running when I started because it seemed so impossible. The couch-to-5k plan shifts the focus from distance to time.

We also have started to integrate strength training exercise on some of our off days from running. Some days we do circuits of workouts with dumbells, while other times we opt for yoga.

The “D” word

Though we’re not following a specific diet plan, we’re watching our food intake by counting calories. We started out using a web app called Hot Cal, but have since discovered MyFitnessPal which seems even better. I have to say, counting calories is not my thing. I hate counting calories and having to figure out exactly what is in every single thing I ingest. Thankfully, Jason doesn’t seem to mind and has been faithfully calculating our meals. It has been really eye opening to see the numbers and how having a sedentary job makes losing weight even more difficult.

The positive thing we’ve discovered is that you can eat pretty much whatever you want a couple times a week. It’s really all about balancing it out with lighter meals and/or exercise.

New Job

To go along with all the changes in our personal lives, I’ve made a change in my professional life as well. I have accepted a position with the Center for Educational Networking, which is where Jason currently works as a Web/Multimedia Specialist. Everyone we’ve told so far has been left aghast when we explain we’ll be working pretty closely together, but I’m actually not too concerned. We have always made a good team and I think we’re both professional enough to make it work.

It has been a rough year, and we’re excited to start this new chapter in our lives.

If you’re looking for DIY bridesmaid’s gifts, I recently devoted an entire post to that.

Bridesmaid Bouquets

Approximately $8 each

I didn’t really have a color scheme in mind and actually just left it up to the girls to pick whatever they wanted to wear. Since my own dress was off-white, I decided I’d just go with basic white bouquets with off-white ribbon. I bought two dozen carnations, 15 white and 9 a springy green color, 3 “football” chrysanthemums, white floral tape, wide off-white ribbon, and a narrower off-white ribbon.

Using the mum as a centerpiece, I arranged the carnations around the mum holding the flower tops all at the same height. I wrapped the stems very tightly with the floral tape and then evened out the lengths afterward. To cover up the tape, I used the narrow ribbon around the stems. I then tied a big bow around the very top with the wide ribbon, leaving the ends very long for a little bit of drama. Since I made the bouquets two nights before the wedding, I left the stems long for a day so they could sit in water.

I had issues with the ends of the ribbon fraying, and since I was in a pinch, clear nail polish worked perfectly.

Hair Barrette

Approximately $5

I had some leftover narrow ribbon and floral tape from the bouquets, so I decided to make something for my hair. I had Jason pick up one rose and carnation and bound them to a comb by weaving floral tape in between the teeth of the comb and around the stems. Much like the bouquets, I covered up the floral tape with the narrow off-white ribbon.

I included one leaf from the rose to make it a little more dimensional and life-like.

Frosting

Approximately $1 per dozen cupcakes

Because of the short time frame, I couldn’t really afford to be a bridezilla about many things related to the wedding. One thing I really wanted, however, was red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I had never had red velvet cake before, so I was pretty dead-set on it. Unfortunately, our cake plans fell through at the last minute, so I decided we would go for red velvet cupcakes instead.

We called around (the day before the wedding, mind you) asking about red velvet cupcakes and while one place could make them, they only used butter cream frosting. I really wanted cream cheese frosting, so we ordered the cupcakes un-frosted so I could frost them myself. I used the frosting recipe from the Neely’s buttermilk cupcakes, omitting the cocoa powder. I must say, it was probably the most delicious cupcake and frosting combination I’ve ever consumed devoured!

Favors

Approximately $0.50 each

Even though we weren’t having a formal reception, I still wanted our guests to have a little something to go home with. I decided to turn the standard wedding bubbles into favors for the occasion. I had found this awesome plantable confetti (paper with wildflower seeds woven in) and I was determined to use it for something.

I divided up the confetti and put it into a cellophane “treat bag” you can find in the candy making section of craft stores. My pal Kélé over at How Delighted let me use her template for the favor tags, which was a huge time saver! I just changed the text, printed them, and punched them out with a 2″ craft punch. To assemble, I put a piece of leftover ribbon through the bubble top, then tied it around the cellophane bag once. Finally, I strung the tag onto it and tied a bow. It was a little bit tedious but totally manageable for my small ceremony of only 30 guests.

Conclusion

By now, I’m sure you think I have a few screws loose for volunteering myself to do all this for the wedding, and you may be right. But I really did have fun doing it–I liked being able to add special touches that made my day a little more unique.

Regardless of where the nuptials took place, I knew I wanted to have my three bridesmaids standing up there with me, and so I began to mentally plan bridesmaid’s gifts for them. My mom has helped out a lot, so I wanted to make her one too. In general, I wanted the gifts to be:

• Reusable
• Consumable
• Natural, if possible
• Home-made

Since I like flowers so much, I decided to do a flower pot theme, where the “plants” were the gifts. First, I headed to Michael’s and found some cute and extremely colorful flower pots. I got some ribbon to accent the rim and tied a bow.

Next, I found some Jelly Belly Jelly Beans (in cappuccino flavor) that could be my “dirt.” I lined each pot with a plastic zipper sandwich bag and poured the jelly beans in.

To show who each pot belonged to, I thought it would be cute to make a label like the ones that come in potted plants. I freehand drew a general shape for the tag (I didn’t have any on hand or I probably would have traced one) onto some card stock and cut four out all at once. I also picked out some of my own photography to use as the flowers, looking for photos to match the flower pot colors.

With a little rubber cement, a gel pen, and some research, I completed the labels. I decided to put the origin of each girl’s name on the label. The name meaning would have worked well here too.

After that, it was time to assemble the goods. I wanted to get natural products that were likely to be consumed. I went with Burt’s Bees hand sanitizer and lip balm, as well as alba body wash. For some little accents, I found cute gerbera daisy writing pens at Pier 1. I also got a fake gerbera daisy for each pot as a little filler.

To fill up the pots, I actually ended up taking out a lot of the jelly beans to give a more “buried” look. I started with the tallest item as my base.

I continued with the next largest and added a the filler daisy as sort of a background.

I added the smallest item and filled in the pot with the “dirt.” I stuck in the name tag and the daisy pen.

And voila! Home-made gifts that I’m actually quite tickled about.

To create a flower pot gift of your own, you will need the following:

• Flower Pot
• Plastic zipper bag or flower pot liner
• Ribbon
• Rubber Cement or Glue
• Card Stock
• Gift products
• Fake Flower
• Flower Pen
• Jelly beans in a brown color
• Photo Paper
• Stock plant photos

So on Saturday afternoon we made the trek over to East Lansing to see Dr. Beef at Goodrich’s. We ended up getting two ~7oz prime cuts (we just recently learned that “prime” and “choice” are two separate levels of goodness). The prime had just come in, and we figured if we were already going to get the most expensive cut of beef there is, we might as well go all out. That way we could definitely rule out the meat as the problem if the recipe didn’t turn out well. I also picked up some baby yukon gold potatoes for a quick skins-on mash.

I cut the potatoes into like-sized chunks and dropped them into some boiling water. I don’t think I salted the water but I meant to. I also started to reduce the balsamic vinegar. I actually think my balsamic vinegar might have been too good for this purpose. As proof that Jason knows me better than I know myself at times, he got me some 25-year barrel aged balsamic vinegar for Christmas. It is nothing like the grocery-store stuff and definitely a worthwhile splurge at least once! Anyhow, I don’t think I needed to reduce the vinegar quite as long or add as much sugar because of the age of my vinegar, so it turned out kind of sticky. Next time I will cut the cook time in half or try something younger, maybe like only a 4-year old balsamic or a pre-made glaze.

Meanwhile, I seasoned the steaks on both sides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and melted the butter in a medium sized pan. Giada’s recipe was for 6 servings but I used the same amount of butter for just two.

After the butter had melted and the pan was appropriately hot, I dropped the steaks in for their first side. The hardest part was to stand there and not move them for 3 minutes straight, but the thought of seared crusty goodness was enough to keep me from fiddling with them.

While I finished up the steaks, Jason got to mashing the potatoes with a little milk, chives, and some of the leftover goat cheese that we wouldn’t be using for the steaks themselves.

When the steaks were done on their second side, we topped them pretty liberally with goat cheese and popped them under the broiler for just a minute to get the cheese melted. We plated the steaks up on a bed of mashed potatoes, drizzled them with some balsamic sauce, and were ready to eat!

I must say, they turned out FANTASTIC! The meat was a perfect doneness and the combination of flavors was excellent. I wish I had a picture of the inside of the steaks but I was too busy devouring it to stop for a photo. Was that TMI or TMB (too much bragging)? Whatever the case, I would definitely recommend this recipe. It couldn’t have taken more than 45 minutes to prepare and the results were excellent.

We had never seen anything like it, and immediately decided it was the set we wanted. The perfect combination of form and function, it was very pricey. We were already engaged at the time though so we didn’t rule it out completely. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so a great set of knives would be well worth it–we literally only have ONE good knife right now. Wüsthof knives are also the kind that my favorite cook Ina Garten uses, so suffice it to say they made it to the top of the must-have list.

When it came time to (begrudgingly) start some wedding registries, I was excited to find that the set was available at Bed Bath and Beyond. I added the set to our registry and and told my family it was the only thing we really wanted. We would even pitch in and pay part of the cost if it came down to that. Yes, we wanted the knives that badly.

Part 1: Initial Letdown

So about a month ago, at a surprise bridal shower in Ohio, we were given the knife set of our dreams! We opened it up as soon as we got back to Michigan, but were disappointed to find that the knife block itself was not the dark wood we liked so much. Instead it was a light oak color that really just seemed “blah” with the knives. Since the set was so expensive, I called Bed Bath & Beyond to see what the deal was, since the picture on the website shows the dark block. I apparently got some incorrect information but was told to come in to the store and see if they could order the correct set.

Part 2: The Wait

So we packed up our set and headed to the store, only to find out that the item was now on backorder. All we could do is sign up for an email notification when the item got back in stock. We were extremely frustrated, but about a week later, the knives were back in stock. We headed back to the store again and were told a new story this time–that the knife set we got had the same UPC as the online item, so it seemed that the light colored block was correct and that Bed Bath & Beyond probably just had an outdated photo.

“Well THANKS A LOT!” I was thinking. The dark block was a huge selling feature for me and I never would have added it to the registry if I knew that the picture didn’t represent the item you’d actually get. The knife set was way too expensive to not have it be exactly what we thought we were getting. The guy we spoke with was very understanding and offered to call Wüsthof and see if he could get a dark block.

Part 3: Throwing In the Towel

A couple weeks went by with no word on the block and we finally gave up. We decided that we really just wanted to start using our knives and that we could deal with the block for now and buy a dark one out-of-pocket later.

But it wouldn’t be that simple

Part 4: The Unanticipated Complication

While we were placing the knives in the block, we noticed that the tip of the biggest knife was bent. And I mean REALLY bent. So we packed up the knives again and headed to the store (thankfully it’s only a five minute drive). The salespeople were pretty shocked at seeing the knife and did an exchange with no questions asked. The new set was scheduled to arrive in no more than two weeks.

We also ran into the guy we had spoken with before and he told us he’d follow up on the block situation. A few days later, he called and said that they would be able to get the dark block for us and that he would let us know when it came in. We were finally getting somewhere!

Part 5: Rinse and Repeat

Our new set arrived yesterday and we opened it with excitement. When we pulled out the knife block we literally hugged each other and jumped up and down because it was the darker version that we had been wanting! I quickly rubbed it with a little mineral oil and it looked gorgeous. Clearly, I thought, this would be the end of our crazy knife story.

Clearly, I was mistaken.

Jason closely inspected each knife as he unpacked it and slid it into the block. We were aghast to find that the large Cook’s Knife had a damaged blade–AGAIN. Not as much damage this time, but to replace that knife alone would be $129.99. At that price, I kind of expect perfection.

So tonight we will be heading back to the store. This time, we will ask if we can just exchange the one knife, because we would really like to start using the other ones if possible. I will update this post tonight with our findings!

Part 6: Things Are Looking Up

The people at Bed Bath and Beyond were very cooperative and ordered us a new knife, no questions asked. We were able to keep the rest of them, which is great. I finally got to try some of them out tonight and am very pleased. Hopefully the new knife won’t get damaged in shipping for a –third– time.

Update 05/26/2010: I am happy to announce that the Cook’s Knife arrived safe & sound today, in perfect condition! Finally the saga has come to an end!

1. Perform a search in the inbox, or hover over an email, click “More” and choose “Recent Conversations”
2. Click the “All” link to select all the emails matching the query
3. Click “Delete”

By default, the “Archive,” “Report Spam,” and “Delete” buttons are set up to flow next the search query. See below:

The point of annoyance is this: the longer the query, the farther to the right the “Delete” button gets pushed. This means that every time I want to delete a set of emails, I have to relocate the Delete button. It slows my process down because there is no standard place where I can always find the delete button:

User-Defined CSS to the Rescue

If you’re using Firefox, you can pretty easily fix this by creating some CSS of your own to override the default behavior. First, you need to find your Firefox Profile folder. On Mac, it is in *username*/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxx.default/chrome/ while on PC it is at C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxx.default\chrome. The “xxxx” part is a seemingly random string of letters and numbers.

Next, find the file named “userContent-example.css” and create a duplicate. Name the duplicate “userContent.css” and open it in a text editor. Add the following at the very bottom of the file:

.AQ {
	width: 100% !important;
	padding-bottom: 10px !important;
}
.yV {
	padding: 10px 0px 5px 2px !important;
}

Save the file, quit Firefox, and then restart Firefox and return to gmail. You should now see that the buttons are always below the search results line, effectively anchoring them in place.

How did I come up with .AQ and .yV? Being the web nerd that I am, I used Firebug to inspect the code and figure out what container the buttons lived in – “AQ” in this case. While I was there, I checked to see what container housed the “Select: All, None..” buttons– yV – and gave it some extra padding.

Well, there you have it! In only a few minutes you can customize a website to meet your needs. There is a slim chance that the CSS used here could interfere with another website (if the same container names were used on both), so if something looks funky on a website other than gmail, make sure to try removing the custom styles you created and see if that does the trick.

This year, we’re trying the extremely popular couch-to-5k program. Friday, April 2nd was our first workout.

For Week 1, the schedule is as follows (do this 3 days in week 1):

1. Walk 5 minutes for warm-up
2. Alternate between 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking until you reach 20 minutes (25 if you count the warm-up)

Getting Started

Our first run of Week 1 was on a Friday. It went pretty good and wasn’t difficult to where it takes away all your motivation. We ran again the following Monday and it still felt pretty good.

Then it started to rain. And by rain, I mean it poured. If it were 60+ degrees and pouring, I would have still entertained the idea of a run, but it was only 40 degrees out and cloudy. So we set our sights on Friday.

Cue the family emergency that thwarts even the best intentions. Again, our run would have to wait. Thankfully by Sunday, the madness had died down enough to sneak in the last run for the week.

Thoughts Overall

Though it took more than a week for us to complete Week 1, it feels good to know we were able to fit it in even when life handed us trash (lemons are nowhere near adequate to describe the weekend we had). The 60 second intervals for Week 1 were just enough to get us a little tired but not long enough to make us hate running—really important when you get easily discouraged.

Next stop, C25k Week 2. I’m not really sure how it will go, but there’s no harm in repeating Week 1 if need be.

Update 04/20/2010: While we intended to move on to week 2, we recently suffered the passing of a family member and have not yet had the time to get back into a routine.

The most common process I’ve seen is as follows:

1. Develop the basic layout (the “boxes”)
2. Once the layout is set, go back through and style the text

Styling Text Last

I think the main idea behind the “style text last” method is that you focus on one part at a time. First, you sort out how page elements fit together. Then, you go back in and give attention to the typographic details. It is common to divide typography styling into a separate stylesheet, so theoretically, your workflow is improved because you don’t have to keep jumping between stylesheets.

One Workflow Doesn’t Always Fit All

Apparently I’m an anomaly (if you’ve read some of my other posts, this probably is not a shock to you). I guess it never occurred to me when I started doing front-end coding that there might be an optimal process. Being primarily self-taught, I just dove in and did everything at once.

As I gained more experience, I adopted a type-only stylesheet method for organizational purposes. I tried many times to save the text styling for the end, but I just couldn’t get into the habit of doing it regularly. I had become very efficient with my own method, so changing it actually slowed me down.

I realize now that my preferred workflow is completely a product of my personality. I’m a perfectionist, but also a “big picture” type of person. When I’m coding a design, I can’t mentally separate the text from the layout. I am a visual person so if the text doesn’t look the way it should, I get perturbed and need to fix it immediately.

For me, the supposed time-savings of focusing on one stylesheet at a time just isn’t worth it. I know there will be text style changes that affect the layout and so I’ll end up going back to the main stylesheet (remember, I’m a perfectionist) anyway. Any time I might have saved by putting off the text styling until the end would be negated.

what works for you?

Like many areas of web development, I think it’s important to figure out what works best for you and go with it. I’m curious to hear how others tackle front-end coding. Do you style the text last, and if so, how does it help your workflow? What is your process like? Is your process directed by a higher authority (such as a lead developer or manager) and would you do things differently if you had the choice? Let me know in the comments!

Fast forward to now. We’ve signed a new lease for an apartment and are settling in for the long haul. I couldn’t be happier with the decision, so I thought I’d outline some really good reasons one might choose to be a renter rather than an owner. To be clear, this isn’t intended to discourage or mock home owners in any way but rather to challenge the idea that renting is just “throwing money away.”

[Just to clarify, when I use the term "owner," I mean someone who has a mortgage on a home, not someone who owns a home outright.]

1) Grounds-keeping duties are not your problem

Hate mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, or shoveling snow? When you rent, all of that is taken care of. Instead of spending time doing those types of chores, you can spend your time doing things you enjoy.

2) Maintenance is included in your rent

It’s a big relief knowing that if an appliance breaks, your landlord will take care of it. No need to worry how an unexpected repair will fit into your budget. It just gets fixed.

3) You may not be responsible for all utilities

It’s fairly common for at least some utilities to be including in your rent. Heat, water, and trash removal have all been included. This is simply impossible in the land of home ownership. And depending on what you’re renting, your utilities might cost a lot less than a home or condo.

4) If your financial situation changes, it’s much easier to get out of a lease than a mortgage

Consider two families. Family #1 rents a duplex, while family #2 owns a home. The economy starts to downturn and layoffs mean that both families are now down to only one income. Family #1 decides that it it would be best to break their lease and move in with a very generous relative until they get back on their feet. Family #2 also has a generous relative, but “breaking” the mortgage isn’t an option.

The point is that Family #1 has a lot more flexibility to make drastic changes in order to prevent going into debt. Though breaking a lease will result in a fee, it’s a one-time hit. Getting behind on a mortgage can really quickly snowball into foreclosure.

5) You don’t have to pay property taxes or interest on a loan

A major factor that caused Jason and I to stop house hunting was that we weren’t sure we’d be staying in Lansing for a long time. If we had found a house, the first few years of payments would have just gone to paying off the interest on the loan. Therefore, a home is a good long-term investment.

Property taxes are an easy to overlook part of home ownership. They can significantly change how what mortgage payment you can afford and they never go away. As a renter, you don’t directly pay property taxes, rather, it is included in your rent payment.

Conclusion

This probably sounds like a renter trying to justify the fact that they couldn’t afford to buy a home, but that’s definitely not the case. We simply took a hard look at our finances and realized it wasn’t the right time for us. We don’t regret our choice and have learned that home ownership isn’t always the best option.

Update 05/31/2010: Jason found a helpful calculator for determining how long you would need to live in a house for it to be better than renting.