Kendra Babbles

Okay, so the song title is actually just Kung Fu Fighting, but its more fun to sing the entire lyric in your head.

Last night I tried my first Turbo Kickboxing class.  I have to say I was a bit nervous.  My last group exercise class was in the late 90’s and although it was billed as a beginner step class, it was obviously not meant for “never really worked out and has no idea how to use a step” type of beginners.  I haven’t really ventured back into group exercise since then.  But our neighbors were excited to try it, so I agreed to go.  Of course, on the way there, 2 of the 4 in the car bailed out, so just Larry and I were left to give it a go.  The class was pretty crowded, but I secured a spot in the back row and started following along.  The first few rounds were good, not too hard to follow along and I could tell I was going to get a good cardio workout.  About 30 mins in I was sweating insanely.  But the fun continued!  I managed to make it through the entire 60 minutes, but I had to take the intensity down a few notches in the last rounds.  All in all, I really enjoyed and planned to go back for the Thursday night class.

Except that today my body is telling me how much it enjoyed the class.  And by enjoy, it means hate.  I cannot lift my arms up too high, and my abs are now telling me that they are uncomfortable.  In a few hours, I imagine that uncomfortable will move into the “hurts to laugh” phase of healing. 

Despite the fun healing process, I’m going to try and go to class on Thursday night.  It’s the first bit of exercise I’ve been excited about in a long time, and once you get the combinations down its fun to punch at the air and get some aggression out. 

I’ve decided that I want to start each new entry with a song title.  At least until I can’t think of any appropriate song titles.  :-)  So the first post was after 23 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.  And today I honor Kermit the Frog with his sad tale of being “different” from others.

But my post is not about race.  It’s about recycling!  Lately being “green” has turned into a marketing tool and less of a way to protect the planet and its resources.  Our local news station website has a “green” section.  Whole Foods, while they are always ahead of the curve in natural and planet protecting products, recently gave away free canvas bags to support the reduced use of plastic bags for groceries.  Funny thing is, it was marketed as this big deal, when Whole Foods has been doing that for awhile now.  Good for them for trying to help the environment, but its kind of obnoxious when you think it was really a way to grab attention to their stores.  Home builders are adding “green” elements to their new construction.  Although I don’t think any large builder will ever be able to build completely green homes, it is nice to see they are trying to make things more energy efficient and to reduce the waste that is created during the building process.

Although I feel this green stuff has crossed the line from being environmentally aware to just being trendy (and I really hate trendy), I still think its important that everyone do their part - no matter how small.  Recently Blake and I received our recycling bin from the City of Dallas.  It’s the same size as our trash bin.  Thinking we would never really be able to fill that thing, I mostly just grumbled about having to find a place for something that size in our garage.  But as the days passed I quickly realized we were able to recycle way more stuff than I remember doing as a kid.  I thought it would be just cans of soup and old newspapers, but we were able to add broken down boxes, aluminum cans, beer and wine bottles, frozen pizza and cereal boxes, etc.  Soon the recycling bin was filled up, while our regular trash can only had a couple of bags in it.  I’m a bit ashamed that we didn’t order our recycle bin a bit sooner, because we’ve been in the house for 6 months and had plenty of trash that could have been recycled.  But we have started now and its nice to know that we are making a better effort.

We also switched out most of our light bulbs with the flourescent energy efficient ones.  I have to admit this was more so we could cut our electric bill down than it was about being “green”.  But I guess its a win-win :-)  Also when we moved in to the house, I chose a wind power plan from our electric provider.  It costs slightly more than a regular plan, but since we have 30 mph winds today, I’m sure the price will start dropping in the future.

So those are the three ways Blake and I have tried to lessen our impact on the environment.  Is there more we could do?  Sure.  But for now this is comfortable for us and perhaps when the mood strikes, we will be able to add a fourth.

Blake and I started our master bath renovations yesterday.  This will be the biggest project we have tackled since moving into the house.  We weren’t planning on starting until mid-February, but the slate tile we wanted went on sale at Home Depot, so we purchased it yesterday.  We were able to save around $130 by buying it at the sale price, so that was a nice incentive.  We still don’t plan to start the project until February, so for now there are 23 boxes of tile sitting on the office floor.  Those boxes will be joined by 15 more boxes of tile on Wednesday when Blake goes to pick up the rest of the larger sized tile.