Bar Brothers Of DC Redux

Yesterday I posted some photos of the Bar Brothers.

They are so much fun I thought I’d post some more photos today.

I looked at these photos and I think – I can do that.

Well, maybe not that.…

P90X is getting here on Friday! I’m getting mentally ready for my new hard body…

Yup.

Bar Brothers & P90X

Chinatown in Washinton DC encompasses just a few blocks and compared to Chinatown in say – Honolulu – it is relatively small. We walked it in just a couple of hours and it would have taken a much shorter time had we not stopped and watched his young man hanging on some scaffolding. He stayed in this position for about 30 seconds.

Then he did this – abs and arms of steel…

Last week, I was looking for new inspiration for my work-out and on a whim, I purchased the P90X workout. I’m not working out until it arrives. No need to over-tax myself ahead of time.

This is a group of guys called Bar Brothers of DC. They apparently get together to climb on scaffolding.

It’s as good a reason as any to get together. Look at them…pretty cool.

This is their signature move – called the “muscle up.”

As we watched they had a contest to see who can do the most muscle ups.

They went down…

And up…

And down…my arms are starting to hurt…

And up…you get the point.

They did this until they dropped out one by one.

The muscle man was the winner and the last man standing – or hanging.

It was pretty incredible.

There’s a universal behavior among young males everywhere. They love to rough house and wrestle. I find it very endearing as long as no one breaks any dishes.

They have a website! http://www.barbrothersdc.com/. Check it out. There’s a tutorial on how to do a muscle up. I’ll meet you next week on H Street and we’ll do a couple ok?

Dancer Vs Cheerleader

I go through highs and lows with my body image and lately I’ve been at a low. I haven’t been very disciplined lately with my workout or my weight so I found some discipline and focus in the pair of jeans I couldn’t fit into anymore.

For a long time I’ve wanted to go to a class offered at the gym called So You Think You Can Dance? The answer for me of course is “no.” But a long, long time ago, I was a cheerleader so I thought I would try it out.

What could possibly happen? I’d faint from exhaustion? I’d make a fool of myself on the internet? Yes to both.

Here is a video of what could happen when  middle-aged woman and her friend, who is 25 years her junior and could be her daughter, do a fitness class together. Let me set it up for you. I did a yoga class then ran a couple of miles in the morning. Then I taught a yoga class and did the So You Can Think You Can Dance class immediately afterward – that evening. Miss Alicia runs half marathons so she didn’t have to worry about passing out – but I do. And I almost did.

Enjoy.

By the way, I intend to continue going to class but I may or may not allow future filmings. Miss Alicia vlogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/starr9dust. If I were that photogenic I’d vlog too…

Fashion Sense & Cents

This was the dress my beautiful daughter chose for the homecoming dance. It’s a deep blue that matched her coloring perfectly. I love the rhinestone accents, it’s perfectly placed, not gaudy. It also had pockets, that is a huge bonus!

I was at her field hockey game last night and a teacher from the school came up to me and said, “I heard the girl was the prettiest girl at the dance.”

I think so too.

Here’s a summary of fashion and cost for a homecoming dance. I don’t know if it’s the going rate – but it’s what I paid.

Girl

- Dress: $60 at Macy’s
- Necklace and earrings: $10 at the $10 store at the Southwest terminal in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ll have to write about it some time.
- Shoes: from 8th grade dance. Can’t remember how much we paid.
- Hair: Julianne’s Hair Design. With wash, trim, dry, curl, tip and shampoo and conditioner purchase for me – $105. I know, I know. She needed a trim anyway.
- Makeup: mom’s except for the lipstick and mascara. $6 for Cover Girl lipstick, can’t remember what we paid for the mascara.

Boy

- Shirt:  from Walmart, can’t remember the price. Purchased two years ago.
- Pants: from Walmart, same as above.
- Shoes: Dad’s
- Tie: Dad’s

Kids – absolutely priceless.

For Wordful Wednesday.

Reminder To Be In The Pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and there is pink everywhere.

The girl’s field hockey team purchased pink pennies to wear over their uniforms for a couple of games.

The girls look adorable.

The mouth guards and goggles are -

- not so adorable. But – they look lean and mean and I’m intimidated enough to wait until she’s out of her uniform before I tell her to clean her room.

This is a great action photo isn’t it? The girl leans down to for a shot while Becca-girl says – “Wait a minute, my shoe is untied.”

I know many of you are football fans, as I am. The players wear so much pink during the games that I get distracted. I don’t think football players are as cute in their pink and I spent a lot of time discussing it with the husband.

And then I realize – I didn’t make my appointment for screening. That’s the whole point isn’t it?

There is so much pink around me and I was so distracted by that fact, I didn’t focus on the true message.

This month, I pledge to get a screening. How about you?

For Outdoor Wednesday and Wordful Wednesday.

Work-out Nation

I was going through some archives last week and found some fun photos of my friends doing yoga. There’s Danny in the down dog, Beth in the triangle, and Lisa in the side plank.

She can hold that plank like no one’s business but kids, modify at home if you must.

I was walking down the hall one day last year and a co-worker whose name I will not mention said to me, “Puna, your shoulders are so wide. Wow.”

So I ask you, is that a compliment or not? I’m leaning on the side of yes -

I have wide shoulders because I do and hour of planks and chatarungas twice a week for the last oh – four years.

You know who else I want to have wide shoulders? The boy.

I met this man last week. His name is Trainer John and he’s 78 years old. He’s nothing short of amazing. I met him during a Bible study – bonus;) Anyway, he was a physical therapist and he works out every day. He says he does 500 triceps dips every other day. He gave me a demonstration and then I felt his arm and it was like a rock. Impressive. Arnold Scharzeneger has nothing on Trainer John.

Last year, the boy dislocated his shoulder on the second wrestling practice and sat out the rest of the year. Before training started I said to him, “Please start working out. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He said, “Ok mom” – from the couch.

I asked Trainer John if he would be willing to spend some time with the boy before his wrestling season and he agreed to a limited number of sessions. So we’re starting next week. I probably should wait to see if it will work out before I write about it but I’m so excited about this that I can’t wait.

It could be an epic fail and we might all go down in flames but I owe it to my boy to nag him about getting into shape for his upcoming season.

And I forgot to ask him his opinion. Ooops.

I want to leave you with two inspirations – 1) this class is called The Right Weigh…God’s Way. It’s been keeping me busy the last month or so. I’m not participating in the exercise. I’m just helping the instructor be successful as this is her first foray into teaching a class of this type. It’s fun – and I really should participate, rather than just tweeting the photo:)

2) Speaking of tweet, anyone follow Austin-Lee on her tweets? She’s pregnant and she’s running 7 miles. She’s an inspiration to me. Here’s her twitter link. She’s one of those good-at-everything people. You may be inspired – or you may hate her – either way, she’s gonna keep running.

Tomorrow, the girl runs a 5k. She’s been plagued by shin splints all season. We’ve been icing and ibuprofin-ing but I’m not sure it will get better until she gets some rest after the season is over. I will be there to watch her run – with my camera phone – so she can give me another look like this – she loves it when I take her photo, can’t you tell?

Run Forest Run!

It’s Friday. Forgive me.

For Photostory Friday.

Rapid Lash Growth

Sometimes I see other women with beautiful skin or hair and I will wonder what make up or hair product they use. Of course genes have quite a lot with how people look but so does life style and diet. I’m sure even Angelina Jolie uses good eye cream.

I started a new beautify regiment six weeks ago. I have a friend whose lashes are beautiful and lush and I commented on it. I’m going to share with you what she shared with me.

This is the product she uses. It’s called Rapid Lash and it has amino acids and proteins that stimulate lash growth. I have heard about products that do just that – like Latisse – but I never wanted to try because I was afraid of oh -  blindness.

My friend had been using the product for about a year and still had her eye sight as well as beautiful long lashes so I decided it was worth a try.

These are my eyes prior to the beginning of the treatment. Scary huh?

I have always had short, stubby, fine and almost non-existent lashes. As a result, I can count on both hands the rare instances that I have worn mascara. It didn’t seem to make an impact so I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

Six weeks later, these are my eyes today. You can definitely see growth. I can actually feel them now. I know it may be hard to tell the difference so therefore -

I put on mascara this morning so you can really see the difference. This was not a careful application by the way. I am no mascara expert.

I am so thrilled. I put Rapid Lash on once a day at night time after I’ve done my nightly face cleansing routine. You can see that my lashes are extremely long and it certainly was rapid growth, especially in six weeks.

My lashes are growing like my hair, I have very thick hair but I don’t have a lot of it. My lashes are growing the same way. As you can see, I don’t have any lower lashes yet. My friend assures me that it will take longer but that they will grow. I can’t wait!

What are the side effects you ask? The product can sting slightly when you first put it on but it’s quite tolerable. Since I am now wearing mascara, it takes about twice as long to put on makeup. Other than that, there is no negative side effect whatsoever. One “bottle” will last between four to six weeks depending how often you put it on. I just ran out and you can be sure that I’m getting another one this week!

Disclaimer – this was truly a product that was recommended to me by a friend. Here is the Rapid Lash website. I purchased this at Jacqueline Morgan Day Spa in a town close to where I live. Perhaps your local spa carries it. I also edited the above photos to hide some of my freckles, sunspots and wrinkles. People will sometimes tell me how young I look but I see myself in photos and I am truly horrified so this is quite a brave thing for me to do. I didn’t edit my eyes though. I wanted to show them in all of their true and unedited glory.

I’m watching my bottom lashes carefully. I’ll let you know if they grow. Now I have to get my brows waxed. It’s slippery slope . . .

Swim & Sport ~ The Best Bathing Suit Shopping Experience

I will be away for a couple of days next week and I wanted a new bathing suit for the occasion. It was to be – gulp – a two piece, not necessarily a bikini though I was open to the idea. After all, I hope to be blissfully surrounded by strangers, people who will not care about my love handles and cellulite. There will be no teenage boys nor any acquaintances that I will run into at church.

At least I hope not.

And I wanted a little sun in parts of my body where it rarely shines, so I was on the hunt for a two piece.

Up until now, I have shopped online for bathing suits because I couldn’t take the time to get in my car, drive to various stores, and try on a million suits. And I have largely been unsuccessful. The suits looked great on the models but they were woefully lacking on me.

I went to Sport Authority first to hopefully find a “sporty” type two piece. The bathing suits from yesterday’s post were all from that store. And the answer to the Bathing Suit Game is – none of them. I had to suppress a gag reflex every time I looked in the mirror. Way too much body and way too little material. But thanks for playing and it flatters me to think that any of you would think I could squeeze into any of them.

I left the store thinking that this was a bad idea. I will just wear the one piece black bathing suit I bought last year. I won’t get much sun wearing it but I liked it.

Next to my favorite shoe store – same place I purchased my Danskos – is a bathing suit store. I vaguely remembered it and though I wasn’t really in the mood to hurt my already bruised ego any more, I summoned the courage and drove there.

I found this . . .

The racks were organized by color and style

-  by size

– and by one pieces and by two pieces.

I was really impressed.

This is Terry. She approached me and said that she would help me fine a suit that best fits my body. I told her what I wanted – a suit that would help me get some sun but was modest in the top so that I can wear a cover on the bottom and not be too exposed with teenagers around.

Isn’t that middle one cute?

She told me to choose four or five suits and to come out and show her after each one so she can give me input. Really?

“Yes, really,” she said.

Then she said she would choose a couple of suits for me. She handed me a suit that I would never in a million years – that’s a trillion years – choose off the rack to try on. I took her recommendation and you know what? I bought it. I was really cute and it fit all of my needs and most of all, it fit me!

I was happy – ecstatic. It wasn’t any of these, but I did try the middle one on.

Then she said I looked great in deep purple. So I tried that color and – I bought another suit – in purple.

I must have tried on 9 or 10 suits that day, the two I purchased were the two she recommended. There really is a value to this thing called personal shopping.

It was also a fun experience but because it was so unexpected, it was a little surreal. I didn’t feel at all self-conscious showing her the suit each time. It was like shopping with my mother, without the weird criticism and judgement. You all know what I mean.

I bought this too, and happily so.

Thank you Terry, for making what could potentially be a traumatic experience into one that I will remember! And talk about! And blog about! Tell your friends ladies! The Swim ‘n Sport store. I will never again venture out on my own for a bathing suit.

The Bathing Suit Game

I went bathing suit shopping the other day. Women understand what a humbling and humiliating process this could be. Men have no idea.

I tried on the bathing suits below.

So tell me, which one did I buy?

Hint: I ate a handful of peanuts for dinner.

Here Fishy Fishy Pedicure

Look at my beautiful friends. And look at their toes. They look pretty happy for they know in a few minutes, they will literally become fish food.

I don’t know how the subject of a fish pedicure came up but here we are. I could claim it was my idea but I think it was Miss Ann’s. It really takes two to tango or in this case, three, so I am very grateful to have partners in crime who don’t care about sticking their feet in aquarium water and letting fish eat our callouses.

There was a lot of squealing and squirming and hyperventilating, especially in the first few minutes.

It felt like – well, like your feet were getting eaten by fish. It’s very uncomfortable and disconcerting at first. However, after letting the fish nibble for about five to ten minutes, it wasn’t so bad.

Really.

Miss Shannon had the biggest fish. They were huge! Shannon had a blister that was healing and I think they fish were enjoying their meal.

I don’t know what type of fish they are but I’m certain they weren’t piranha. I think they were some kind of carp. They can grow to be as big as your forearms but luckily there weren’t any that size in our aquarium/pedicure baths.

I think the water is changed after each customer or at least I hope so. It was really clean. They fish will eat the dead skin off of your feet, softening it for the pedicure afterward. We were told that the fish can eat up to 100 people a day.

I am aware of how that sounds.

I had the tiniest fish of all three of us. It was a good thing, I thought I might pass out in the first few minutes.

So here we are, the three course fish meal.

We went to lunch afterward and I almost ordered the crispy fish but I couldn’t justify it in head or in my stomach.

Next time you are in Washington DC and you find your feet tired walking from the Capital to the Lincoln Memorial, stop by Yvonne’s Day Spa, the fish pedicure experts. It’s a fun experience so worth checking out if you don’t mind being at the true bottom of the food chain. Diane Sawyer did it, you can too!

Posted on Wordful Wednesday and Photo Story Friday.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

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