TREADMILLIONAIRES!

Look out world, I'm a Treadmillionaire!

After months upon months (actually, it might be years upon years) of being dissatisfied with my weight and overall fitness, I've decided to take the necessary steps to edumacate myself on the subject and get my act together.

I'm in the prime of my life, yet my body and fitness habits are super-blah.  I'm not fat by any means, but I'm not very fit either.  I sit at a desk all day and act pretty carefree about what I eat and now it's slowly starting to catch up with me.  I'd like to get it together before it becomes an even *bigger* problem.

So for the past few months I've been trying to come up with a strategy, but without much success.  One day a friend of mine posted something on Facebook about getting a personal trainer...this post got a conversation going between me and a new friend I had just met and it turns out she was in the same boat as me.  We decided to team up and try to lose weight and develop healthy habits together. 

Our biggest tool to do this is not a gym, nor a work-out video or cookbook or weights or a jump rope or anything like that...it's a...BLOG!

Everyday we keep each other in check with a blog we nicknamed the "Treadmillionaires" and it's slowly developing into a great motivational tool not only for us, but possibly for others who feel the way we do about our eating/exercising habits.  So, please, feel free to check it out.  In addition to posting our daily food and exercise logs, we will also post tips, tools, recipes, insights and more about our journey from blah to bam!

http://treadmillionaires.blogspot.com

For the record, I'm not dieting...just trying to be more conscious about what I put in my body.  Also, I hired a personal trainer who meets with me once a week to teach me about fitness in addition to kicking my booty with all sorts of weight-training torture techniques such as burpees and jump squats and planks, etc.  It's hard but I'm loving it!  I'm going to be in tip-top shape yet...

A blog post about Zach White, my friend and former protege

I DJ'd this morning at WLUW...being the manager of the station, usually when I'm at the board it means something has gone wrong. But not this time...I signed up for a winter freeform shift and spun my 80s-crazy head off.

And then I got a call from ZACH WHITE on the request line. Zach is not only my friend and former protege, he is also the owner of this domain name, AdorableChorus.com, in addition to another failed blog of mine, FlourBed.com. When I don't update my blogs I feel guilty about ZACH and wasting his domain name monies.

Zach is still in Lawrence, Kansas. But tomorrow he will be at Chicago's Union Station for five hours. So I will be there too and we will catch up.

And now, a photographic journey through the life and times of Zach White, the owner of this blog, technically:


he's like a kitty cat!


Oh, Zach!


Like angels crying


back when Zach was my protege


around the time he stopped being my protege

Thieves are stoopid

See the blog entry below this one? The introduction of our new bicycles? Yeah, well, those happy days are over.

We came home to lame-weathered Chicago to discover that our brand new bicycles had been swiped from our own building. We only owned them for a little over a month.

Monday morning, December 28th, Dave said, "bye," and I said, "have a nice day at work," and I heard the front door close and thought it was going to be a regular morning until about five minutes later when I heard the front door open again and Dave belted out a very panicked, "HEY!!"

When I came to the door he explained that glass was everywhere downstairs...the small window on the door of our basement bike room had been smashed. Of the twenty some-odd bikes in that room, his brand new $1,000 Specialized and my brand new $500 GT were the only ones gone, along with our new bike pump.

No, the bikes weren't locked up while in the bike room...nobody does that as there's no room and nothing to lock them to except an extremely hot water pipe. Someone must have been watching us, because the bike room isn't in a completely obvious location and it's extremely strange that only ours were stolen. We last came home with them together a few days before Christmas after gift shopping and they were stolen while we were out of town for the holiday.

It's shattered our sense of security in Logan Square. When we purchased the bikes I pondered the absurdity of paying so much while living in a bike thief-riddled town like Chicago. So I'm not surprised they got swiped. I just thought they'd get taken from us while out and about. I never would have guess someone would have pulled something so meticulous as to steal from our own home.

Anyway, that's that. $1,500 down the drain. Riding the CTA in the morning is miserable enough...even more so when then only reason you're doing it is because some asshole stole your bike.

P.S.--we called all the pawn shops nearby, combed Craigslist, etc. Our bikes were registered with the city, but I doubt that'll make a difference.

Also: http://chicago.stolenbike.org/ for more horror stories, if you're into that sort of thing.

Back on the Horse

Meet my new commuting machine.

This weekend, after four irksome weeks commuting to work on the CTA, Dave and I set out to get him a new, not-cursed bicycle. A car door landed him in the ER one month ago, the second major accident and fourth or fifth worrisome mishap he had with his old bike. As a show of support, I've been taking the CTA with him this whole time and it finally got to a point last week where we were both really tired of it.

So I came along on the bike hunt with the sole purpose of making sure he did not spend past the budget he gave himself. Dave's not a spendthrift by any means, but I've seen him under the trance of a desired but stupidly-priced object, and I'm pretty darn good at getting him to snap out of it. He knows this, and that is why he requested my presence.

I have a bike (what's your bike gotta do with me?), but I don't like it much. I like that it's pink and that I got it at Working Bikes for $40, but that's about it. It hurts to ride, the gears are rackety, and I can't go very fast on it. But it works and it cost me barely nothing, so I've never thought about replacing it.

I was watching Dave wizz around on the third floor of Kozy's Cyclery, testing out his potential new pedalmate. He wanted me to try out the bike he was considering buying, and even though the seat was so high up I couldn't sit down, I instantly felt what a difference a good quality bike made.

So I snuck back down to the main floor and starting poking around. And there I found it: a 2010-11 GT Traffic 4.0. I took it for a test spin indoors and my heart started racing at what an easy and fun ride it was. I took it outside and some construction workers wolf-whistled at me, probably because I was riding an awesome bike.

I'm not the kind of person who would ever spend $400 on a bike, because I've never liked riding enough to justify it. But then again, I've never owned a new, quality bike. So I bought the bike. And I haven't been off it since.

I got to work in 20 minutes today, without waiting for a bus or train, without spending a dime, and without being sandwiched between strangers...and I got some exercise to boot.

P.S.--Here's the mama Dave got: 2010 Specialized Tricross Singlecross, and he didn't spend a penny over his budget.

Three Years of Nose

Yesterday marked 3 official years of D+D! It'd be really easy for me to get all gushy on here, but I ain't gonna. But here's some pics of us around anniversary-time over the years:


Oh happy day! in 2006


On top of the world (or a building in Manhattan) in 2007


Loving me, loving you, loving Groucho in 2008


We've-been-together-so-long-we're-starting-to-accidentally-dress-the-same in 2009!

Austin, Texas

Went down to my home state of Texas for the 2009 College Media Advisers conference for work, but had the chance to throw in plenty of pleasure, and migas.

Bat attack.

And we'll go honky-tonkin', honky-tonkin'.

Shoop, shoop.

Pedernales Falls State Park

6th Street Halloween wakka wakka

Unfortunate.

Blog, I'm sorry I've ignored you

Dear Adorable Chorus blog,

This is ridiculous. It's been months. I should be updating you more often. When we first got started, it was exciting...like the beginnings of any romance. But then I got "busy." I started and stopped posts without ever publishing them. I'd write something out but couldn't find a good photo to accompany it. I'd read other friends' blogs and think mine could never be as entertaining as theirs, so why bother.

Well, whatever. It's time to start again. I'll blog on my lunch break. I'll get up 15 minutes earlier than usual and blog before work. I'll quit vegging out at home in the evenings and think of some fun way to update you. This blog is supposed to be about my every day encounters here in Chicago. Well, I'm encountering stuff out the wazoo. Time to start writing about it again.

Attached is some random photo I thought was pretty. Talk soon.
Love,
Danielle

I rode my bike to work today!

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I did this! 8.1 miles! Took me nearly an hour but I did it!

G Twanky

via Wonkette

Happy Birthday, Miro

I can't believe it's been almost 6 years since I first laid my eyes on Miro, a little grey furball of a kitten who was rescued from the streets of Dallas and brought to Denton Veterinary Center, the clinic I vet teched at while attending UNT.  

Miro was born on March 15th, 2003 and today is his 6th birthday.  In celebration of his big day he gets:

• a big bowl of tuna
• as many hours as he wants hanging out on the back porch
• a brushing session, as long as he wants, and a nail trim (which he strangely loves)
• catnip galore
• a thorough scrubdown of his litter box
• unlimited scratches and pets, and an open-minded attitude from his owners about his taste for toilet bowl water

And now, here are some other things that have made Miro happy during his six years on this earth:

Attacking the sheets while the bed is being made

Hanging out with E.T.

Dancing

Posing with various pooches and Bascis

Inspecting the preparation of Jack-o-Lanterns

Taking drugs while roadtripping

Admiring himself in the mirror

Dressing up for Halloween

Sleeping like this

Hanging out with E.T...even more...

Getting caught drinking out of the toilet bowl

Graduating

Being an all-around wonderful and adorable feline companion!  Happy Birthday, Miro!!