What the Inner Child Wanted

I bought a water tattoo. I actually bought two. The other one says backstroke.

It's ironic that I chose this tatt since the breastroke is not one of my greatest accomplishments. I do it Frank Sinatra style i.e. my way. I don't even bob up and down. I missed that class while out of town. My teacher's interest, at the time, was getting me to complete a lap by any means necessary with or without bobbing.

I selected the frog to remind me of how I should be moving my legs. In the end, a young child's needs are not so complex as to require justification.

I swam 17.5 laps or 35 lengths today in less than an hour. I noticed that my swimming is more efficient these days. I also noticed that the straps of my swimming suit or starting to slide again. Either the safety pins have moved from my first adjustment or swimming suit two is further evidence that I'm loosing inches again despite the stuck scale.

For the most part, I resorted to the back crawl and sidestroke with a few attempts at the front crawl.

Tonight's attendees at open swim included four kids, a guy with scuba gear and, of course, the front crawler. In my mind, I refer to her as Leon: The Professional since she's like an assassin. The front crawler is neither unfriendly nor sociable; she just comes in and gets the job done.

And what does a hungry swimmer eat? The lentil vegetable soup that she made on Sunday...

The Weekend Circus

I thought about going to Forest Park today but when I stuck my head outside it didn't feel nearly as warm as it felt yesterday. I decided to go to the fitness club. "Eye of the Tiger" came along at the right time in the MP3 shuffle rotation because I was about 57 minutes into an hour-long workout and my speed was at 4.0. I thought that I would have to hit the pause button but I managed to gut it out with my musical inspiration.

According to the treadmill, I burned 462 calories and it felt like it. I was all tuckered out which, of course, did not stop me from trekking to Schnucks to pick up some ingredients for soup.

Yesterday, I swam 16 laps -- a little shy of half a mile. I also went to see Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. I've heard that heroin users spend subsequent highs chasing that first dynamic one. I'm using heroin as an example but I don't know anything about heroin addiction since the world is better off with a drug-free 'Drea. Plus, given my obssession with ordinary things, let's face it, I would be a superb addict. The first time that I went to see Cirque du Soleil, the show was exceptional. I wanted to plan a trip to Las Vegas just to see the circus of the sun but I haven't felt that way in awhile and I can't even remember which shows I went to see. One was definitely a big top show. I feel like I went to see Varekai and Quidam.

Is Cirque resting on their laurels?

Cirque is certainly not resting on the souvenir prices; maybe they're counting on the $100 ticket holders to indulge. There are usually acts to admire in any Cirque production and while there were some jaded elements to Saltimbanco, I absolutely loved the boleadoras and the artistic bicycle acts and, by the end of the show, I was on the edge of my seat hoping for an encore.

Weigh-In

The scale has not moved in a month but that's par for the course since it usually takes me about a month to move the scale. Plus, I see the telltale signs of weight loss. There's a looseness in my pants and my new glasses no longer hug my face.

I was relieved to find my beloved MP3 player under a mountain of clothes. I have yet to deal with old clothing. I really shouldn't keep my larger clothes around but I've toyed with the idea of having some items altered. My taste in clothing has changed though. I find myself drawn to flower, leopard, paisley and zebra patterns and, sometimes, a combination of two patterns. My swimming cohort refused to go with me yesterday once she heard me coughing. That unidentified doctor is right about the inability to shorten a cold. Mine is waning but still hanging in there and it's almost been a week and I've been downing all manner of Emergen-C, ginger tea and, still, my body produces impressive amounts of mucous.

Instead of my usual Friday night swimming, I watched the French flick The Grocer's Son while nursing a hot cup of Holiday Plum Spice tea. The movie was pretty good if you like laid-back foreign flicks that emphasize relationships.

To Exercise or Not to Exercise?

When I wake up in the morning, I think about what form of exercise I'm going to do especially if it's a non-swimming day. I have already worked out Sunday through Wednesday and wondered whether or not I should take a day off since I will probably go swimming on Friday and Saturday.

I'm not at 100% because of a lingering cold but, for the most part, I feel fine. Should I bench myself, despite being in the zone, because the experts say you should give yourself a day off?

I decided to do yoga at home, eat and then head to Trader Joe's because if I had gone to the fitness club, I would have gone straight there after the j-o-b then to Trader Joe's and the last thing that I wanted to do was shop while hungry.

I did Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies and Sara Ivanhoe is right about the relaxation pose being the dessert pose; it doesn't get any better than #12 in the daily dozen. Speaking of dessert, I bought some Trader Joe’s Soy Mini Chocolate Sandwiches which have 0.5 grams of saturated fat and 2 grams of fat overall. I hope that these little soy sandwiches are decent.

What's in the Bag?

I have about seven reusable bags and I am, sometimes, hard-pressed to remember to take the bags with me during my travels.

I went to Whole Foods to pick up a few things because, despite the prices, there are some products that I really like and that I can only find at WF. When I walked into Whole Foods, my eyes fell on pomegranates. Was it a mirage? The $2.99 price tag negated the mirage moment. I decided to treat myself because, apparently, I'm having a hard time letting go of the 'granates.

On Sunday, I was over at my aunt's house and I started to feel something strange in my throat. No, it couldn't be. I haven't had a cold in ages because all pistons in my immune system have been firing. Not anymore. So, one of the first things that I did was crack open the pomegranate. I was going to need those antioxidants. I could feel the acidity in the pomegranate juice as it connected with my tender throat. This cold thing was getting serious and I decided to attack it with Emergen-C, ginger tea and kiwi. This doctor might be right though. He said that you can eat all of the chicken noodle soup that you want but it doesn't lessen the duration (about a week) of a cold.

Despite being sick, I went to the 12th and Park pool today. The water was hot. Not warm but hot, hot, hot. You could see the steam rising above the water. It was hard to do the front crawl because the water was even warmer underneath. As it turns out, the temperature worked well for me since it was like being in a giant steam room and helped with my congestion. Although, I think that I was a bit delirious because I couldn't swim in a straight line today. My apologies to Kate because I ended up in her lane many times.

Attune bars, 365 Organic Honey Graham Crackers, 365 Veggie Chips and Annie's Bunny Grahams were also in my Whole Foods bag. I bought a handful of items and spent about $26 dollars. The Attune bars really put me over the top and I don't even know why I'm so addicted to them. In all honesty, I guess that I'm just addicted to snacking.

Eyeing Cookbooks

I've been reading Mark Bittman's The Minimalist Cooks Dinner as well as The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.

I was disappointed when I opened Bittman's book because there were no pictures. The chapters are broken down into "Soups and Stews," Pasta, Noodles and Pizza," "Shellfish," "Fish," "Poultry," "Meat," and "Salads and Side Dishes." I skipped right over the shellfish segment which might as well have been dubbed "The 'Drea Killer" chapter. All in all, none of the recipes were really calling my name but I did like Bittman's "With Minimal Effort" asides that showed how to vary the main recipe.

I really enjoyed the Biggest Loser cookbook and I thoroughly appreciated the pictures. A good picture of food will make me go to the store for recipe ingredients. I also like the budget tips à la For Dummies since it has a grocery cart icon to alert you that you're about to be enlightened about a budget matter.

I would try many recipes in the Biggest Loser cookbook including "Very Lemon Oatmeal," "Subtly Strawberry Oatmeal," "Mediterranean Chicken Sandwich," "Berry Mixed Green Salad With Grilled Chicken," "Texas Caviar," "Kiwi Watermelon Salsa," and "Chocolate-Peanut Butter Grahamwiches."

The one thing that kind of grossed me out was the "Cheesy Baked Sweet Potato" recipe which is, essentially, a sweet potato with a Laughing Cow Light Garlic and Herb cheese slice in the middle. I love the light Laughing Cow line but why mess with perfection? A baked sweet potato really doesn't need anything else.

Speaking of something distasteful, I've heard that the Bacon Explosion is all the rage. If you have the stomach for it, check out this phenomenon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html?_r=1&em

Superbowl XXIII

I am officially rooting for the Arizona Cardinals since I'm fond of former STL Ram Kurt Warner; plus, I love a good underdog or cinderella story.

Even though I'm rooting for the Cardinals, I definitely have to give props to Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu.

Troy is impressive as all get out. He puts it on the line every game. I was watching him play against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship on Jan. 18th. It was fourth down and the Ravens needed one yard. Polamalu flew sideways over the pack and helped to stop the Ravens' progress.

I remember how I would look at players' profiles on nfl.com and think how I weighed as much or more than some football players -- only most of the players were 6'0 feet plus and I was 5'3 and some change...