Healthy Living, Budget Living

Before we get to the healthy living and budget living portion in this post, you need some background.

In case you didn't know...

Back in July we up and left the United States and took a long vacation to the Czech Republic. We then returned to the U.S. this past February with no home and no jobs, and big dreams of relocating to, and buying a house in, Western Massachusetts (Northampton or Amherst or somewhere in the area).

Needless to say, things have been crazy.

We left our old lives to start new ones. This is crazy. This is exciting. Sad. Fun.
Scary as sh*t.

To add to this mish-mash of emotions, we also know that we want to start a family.

Ha! That's right! For those of you who thought we'd get knocked up as soon as we were married, we surprised you, didn't we? We've gone almost eleven years (with the dating and all) of being baby-free, but now we are looking to go there.

Because we want to procreate we know we have to get healthy.
This has been an ongoing theme in our lives (and most others, I'd think). Lose weight, get healthy. Not smoking. You know.

So, we're not smoking. For exercise I'm using the workout room downstairs in our building since it's free and no one is ever in there. (And there's a big TV. Nice.)

Because we are living on only one income right now (more on that later), and times are tough for everyone, we are on a budget. I'm hoping that some kind of "back to basics" food life will help our weight as well as our wallet. This goes along with my whole anti-preservative and chemically-laden, pro-whole foods talk back when we got to Prague (and I did lose weight while there, despite eating baked goods and butter).

So, I find myself channeling my inner Donna Reed right now as I search for good deals in grocery stores and cook things myself instead eating lots of frozen or packaged processed foods (to a degree - I'm not psychotic and am still using bottled and canned things as components in my homemade meals).

I'm feeling my inner Donna Reed today, that I'm about to make a spreadsheet for my own personal use to compare prices of items at different stores.
Don't laugh.
I've been saving my receipts from Stop & Shop, Target, Trader Joe's, Walmart and Guido's (a market here in Pittsfield) and am totally gonna save money by studying where to go for what. It's research! It's fun!
Don't laugh.

Anyway, I'll let you know how our healthy living and budget living attempts go.

In the meantime, here's some links and suggestions that I've found entertaining and/or helpful.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver I've never read anything by her, but heard about this book and was intrigued. Considering that locavores are alive and kicking in Western Mass, this book about the author and her family living for a year off only what is grown on their land and neighborhood (resulting in each meal costing only 50 cents for a family of four), seemed like it would be an interesting read and good for my own healthy, budgeted living.

A Year of Crockpotting This is a great blog with great recipes for the crockpot. I love my slow cooker (it's the same thing, in case you weren't sure. Crock Pot is just the brand name. It's like Kleenex or Bandaid). No matter what I put in there, it always ends up good. And there's always enough for leftovers.

Great Depression Cooking with Clara
If you don't know about Clara, you must watch this now.
She's great, her recipes are simple and cheap and look very tasty, and her stories are wonderful. I love Clara!


Finally, for the celebrity gossip-loving a-hole that I am (and you know you are, too!), enjoy this site:

Celebrity Body Gossip
I know one of the writers and she's snarky, witty and great. And what better way to spend my time not working out or being healthy, by reading about (and judging) celebrity body issues ? You know you love it.

Vomitness

The last thing I needed to see today when I checked my favorite gossip website, Dlisted, was this picture of Carrot Top, the has been prop comic turned vomit inducer. Well, he always one, but now more than ever.

DisGUSting.

Oh, And Those Awards...

I'm not big into watching the Grammys, really haven't been since I was a sophomore in High School and the Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam were nominated for things. But since I'm at my mom's and she's a musician, I did watch it last night with her.

I really enjoyed Radiohead's performance. They just rock. The other high point (hee hee) of the night was when Whitney first came on to present some award.

Mom and I are sure she was on the pipe.

Unfortunately I can't find a clip. Sorry.

But, if you DID see it...what do you think - was she high as a kite or what? She did a lot of eye-closing and thinking while she was up there. It wasn't as exciting as old Anna Nicole Smith high-points-at-awards-shows, but it was enough to make us wonder...

Special Celeb Birthdays!

I was obviously very ill yesterday because didn't read all of Dlisted's posts! So I didn't realize that yesterday was the birthday for two of my favorite people!

Mike Patton from the bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle turned 41 AND actor Alan Cumming turned 44.

I have seen both of these fine men in performances.

Edith and I saw Mike Patton years ago at the Knitting Factory.
Just a couple years ago I saw Alan Cumming in The Three Penny Opera on Broadway.

Besides being an awesome show, and Alan Cumming being super sexy, I remember the show for this:
Right when Macheath (Cumming) was in the middle of saying something, someone's cell phone rang. Right in the first row. Alan stopped what he was saying, walked to the edge of the stage and reemed the person out and made them feel terrible.

I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was essentially "Are you going to answer that?" or "I'll wait" or something like that.

It was obnoxious, and uncomfortable, but highly appropriate. I mean, dude, you're sitting in the first row of a Broadway show where Alan Cumming, Jim Dale and Cyndi Lauper are performing and you DON'T turn your phone off?! You deserve a new asshole.

I love Alan Cumming.

More Sad Czech Stuff!

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have
broken up!! Yuck!

For anyone who, like me, was obsessed with the movie "Once" and the soundtrack, this is sad news.

As I've mentioned, for my birthday last year Andy, Edith, Carrie and I went to see these two play at Radio City and it was an awesome show...seriously one of the most kind of sincere and large-but-felt-small, rockingest shows. It was a lot of fun.

AND, of course, we can't overlook the fact that Marketa is, of course, Czech! That's always exciting when we find famous Czech people, especially because she was so adorable at the Oscars last year. And their winning Best Song was seriously one of the best Oscar moments I've ever experienced.


Oh well, To old relationships!

Celeb News

The exciting celeb news for this week that caught my eye was that Christina Hendricks from one of the greatest TV shows ever - "Mad Men" - has gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Geoffrey Arend.

This is exciting on many levels -
I love "Mad Men", I love her character, Joan (see my 101 Facts About Me, #97), and
I went to high school with Geoffrey Arend and have hung out with him on several occasions, though I'm sure he doesn't remember me (see #26). Whatever. It's still happy news.

Goodbye, Bettie Page

So sad!

Bettie Page has died at the age of 85. I am not a celeb/gossip writer, just a follower, so I won't write more, other than she was such a kick ass awesome beauty. I mean, seriously, who didn't want to be her!? RIP BP.