Toe Stretching

I admit it, I'm a sucker for gadgets.   So awhile ago I bought some Yoga Toes.  The idea is that they help you stretch your toes and help you with your yoga.

Of course I purchased them and used them a couple of times and forgot about them.  Since I'm somewhat seriously doing some yoga again and was able to find them, I've started to use them.  I haven't seen a huge difference yet, but I think it might actually help.

I'll post again in a few weeks to see if there really is any benefit.

Dilly Meatballs not so good

Tonight I tried a new recipe for dinner called Dilly Meatballs from Company's Coming Make-Ahead Meals.  It was not so great.  I thought it would be tasty, but it was just kind of bland.  Which is odd as there are a good number of recipes in that particular book that are on the tasty side.  The meatball part was tasty.  It was just the sauce that wasn't so yum.

It was a combination, of ketchup, sour cream and dill.  There was just something missing.

Granny Squares

Well, I seem to have about 45 granny squares as it stands today.  I think I need to take a little break from the granny squares though.  I forgot how hard on my hand the crochet thing is.  Well that in combination with all of the data I've been moving around at work.  So a little resting of the hand is in order.

Pasty Success

Our pastry making session was pretty much a success.  We ended up making far more pastry than we actually needed by accident.  But that's ok.  I now have enough pastry put away in the freezer for about 4 more pies.

We did have one accident with the pastry making.  We had several Deep Dish pie plates and a couple of shallow ones.  We had a cherry pie filing for one of the pies.  When we put it into one of the deep dish ones it kind of,  well, wasn't quite enough.  So the brilliant group of us decided to try a whole pastry transfer to a shallow plate.  Didn't work too well as you can see from the photo, but it was funny as all hell and we named our cherry pie "Victim Pie".

All in all it turned out fairly well.  I need to work on my pastry rolling skills.  I found it wasn't as thin as my Mom's usually is.  But that will come with time.  We may try the blind baking too so the crust doesn't get to soggy too.

All the pies together

The bats

The great pie transfer

The Victim Pie

Pastry

Today is the day I'm trying to make pastry for the first time.  Hopefully it will go well.  My Mom has given me the recipe for her never fail pastry dough and some of my friends are coming over to partake in the pastry madness.

Here's hoping it goes well.

We will be attempting, cherry pie, raspberry pie and chicken pot pie.

Yoga and Wii

I've been feeling much better these days and I'm sure it's in part due to my increased activity level. Still exhausted as I'm not sleeping well, but the body is getting back to normal post surgery. Hopefully getting to better shape. I need to get more activity going. I went to my second Iyengar class this week and it was great. More difficult though. Which was good. There were a couple of poses that put some pressure on my incision scar, but it wasn't too bad. It also highlighted for me my issue of wrists. I have a hard time staying in the downward dog pose for any length of time because of my wrists. They always start to hurt and I have to drop in and out of the pose. One of the instructors gave me some exercises to see if we can strengthen them. Overall, it is making me happy to be doing yoga again and be able to do it with some friends. I think I may want to try a hot yoga class sometime in the near future. In addition to the Yoga, I've been using my Wii fit to slowly work up my activity levels.  
This morning I managed a Wii fit milestone. I tried all of the routines in the Wii Fit Plus section all in one session. It was pretty good. I even did the running one. And I can't stand running. I'm forcing myself to do it though so I can get in better shape. I didn't do too badly either.

Chakra Meditation

One of the types of mediation that was introduced to us in the second meditation course was Chakra meditation.  I was quite interested in it, but both times we had the guided Chakra mediation I fell asleep.  My poor body and mind were exhausted at that point and took that opportunity to get some rest.  I also had a tendency to do the same thing during the Body Scan.

Now i'm reminded that I need to find a good Chakra mediation to explore that type of meditation further.

Wikipedia Entry on Chakra Meditation