London Calling

Nike + Love

Although I’m still getting to know it, I think that I am falling in love with my Nike+ iPod toy.  I still have to find the just-right calibration because the marked trails I’ve been running on don’t seem like they’re totally accurate.  (I always question a mile marker that appears just before a road attached to another sign.  Too suspicious.)  And I don’t know if I should trust Google Maps to accurately “Map My Run,” but I still love the Nike +.

Nike +, reasons why I think I love you:

1. You have a nice, calm voice
2. You encourage me with updates on my mileage.  (1 mile to go …)
3. I like that you help me track my progress so that I can easily determine if I’ve reached my 20-mile manicure goal.  (See previous post for details.)
4. I like that you show me how many calories I burned.  It inspires me to run farther.  Okay, okay.  Knowing that I can have a naughty treat if I run another mile inspires me.
5. I like that you’re little and don’t skip like my old minidisk.

That’s it for now.  My Ode to Nike+ may continue at a later date.

Weight Watchers, Please Save Me!

I start it every Monday and usually fall off the wagon by Monday afternoon.  Honestly, I’ve never had a big problem with weight – outside of the Freshman 20 and the just graduated college 15.  But those instances were short lived and soon remedied with the help of my good old standby:  Weight Watchers. 

A few years ago, I added running to my workout. A big night out was followed shortly by a big run to even the score.  I gained the requisite first year of marriage five pounds and then started a new job. 

I didn’t realize I was a stress eater until I gained 10 lbs in only six months at my new job.  Then, bingo, we found out that we were pregnant and I gained another 50!  I was as big as a house.  After baby was born, the weight started falling off and I was back to pre-pregnancy weight just one month after I returned to work -- although everything had shifted a bit and looked a lot flabbier.  But it all started creeping back because the stress was multiplying daily and suddenly I was 10 lbs heavier.  I'm pretty sure that the last 5 pounds had something to do with not having a kitchen for the past few weeks.  Take out food rules!

There is no denying that I need structure & I need it now.  Three days on the plan & I’m not starving & I’m motivated.  I’ve given myself a few incentives.  See below:

• Manicure each week that I run at least 20 miles (I’m up to 8 so far this week!  Pretty nails, here I come.)
• New outfit or pair of shoes for each 5 pounds lost
• When I hit my goal – 20 pounds total – it’s a spa day

Taking this one day at a time.  Once I get back into the lifestyle change, I think that it will all come together.  (At least I really hope that it will.)

A refrigerator in my living room

The chaos is slowing, so I’ve taken a few minutes to write.  Project Libertyville is moving along – not as fast as I’d wished – but it’s still moving.  As of tonight, we’re down to only one kitchen appliance in the living room.  We have a working microwave and most of the cabinets are in place.  The granite guy is coming tomorrow to measure and I hope, hope, hope that everything will be done by the middle of next week.

Ziggy, our contractor/friend, is hooking up our oven so that I can bake a flourless chocolate cake on Sunday for a Monday night Seder dinner.  It’s my first Seder and I’m very excited.  And, if we don’t have an oven, I’ll be running around Bucktown to find one.  If I have any notice, The Goddess and Grocer may have something.  They’ve helped me out in a bind before.  Ah, I’ll miss this neighborhood.

London is taking it all in stride.  Although he’s not fond of all the Gerber ‘lil soups/mashers/etc., he’s surviving.  The biggest challenge has been keeping him out of trouble with all of the kitchen junk in the living room.  Thankfully, the weekend weather allowed us to play outside for most of the day. 

Kitchen, I dream of a kitchen

Week 2 and I'm so over it already. We're about to finish the living room floors and then we wait and then we move everything to the living room and then all of the building begins. I feel like I can't take a big breath without a side order of dust. There's just no way that I can run on a treadmill when I feel like I need a filter or cheese cloth or something to keep all of this crap from getting into my lungs. We've been keeping London away as much as possible, but everything with baby is a challenge. This morning we had his breakfast upstairs while he toured around. Emily followed London while he smeared banana and yogurt on just about everything. I've shared a few images so that you can witness some of the insanity.

TV Advertising: A big decision for smaller companies

While large advertisers are moving money away from TV, smaller companies struggle with making that leap.  Big brands are, well, big brands and everybody already knows who they are which gives them the freedom to move 30% of their big TV budget to online and Word of Mouth.  But for the rest of us, TV advertising makes us look like a big player to buyers.  Without buyers there is no distribution and without distribution there is no sale.  And so the story goes.

According to Monday’s Ad Age article entitled, “Skip this TiVo story at your peril, Top Marketers,” 15% of all households currently have a DVR and that number is expected to grow somewhere between 26% and 38% by the end of the year. 

So what’s a marketer to do?  The simple answer is to create an integrated campaign that takes advantage of new media while continuing to put dollars towards TV and pray that the 60%+ of people who still watch commercials are influenced by your ad. 

As a mom, tech geek, runner, traveler, etc. – so basically I’m just about everybody’s target market – I pay close attention to what influences me.  What stops me during my busy day?  My friends, family, other bloggers, and a really good magazine ad – like the great sports bra made by a Wacoal corporation and that I can’t seem to find any information about online. 

SAHD

For the past 6+ months, my husband has been a stay-at-home-dad (SAHD) with great benefits. We still bring London to the nanny five days a week and a wonderful woman cleans our home once a week. To give him credit, he is starting a new business that is growing quickly. Still, everyone has to make sacrifices to follow their dreams -- well, almost everyone -- and he seemed unable to commit to either starting a business that will grow to be his primary career or keeping it as a side "hobby" and working a job with a regular paycheck. Either way, we can't afford for him not to work and continue to pay for nanny & cleaning lady.

Finally, just this afternoon, he decided to pursue his business full-time which would mean that he'd be a SAHD full-time too. (His business is web based and can be managed any time of the day.) I think his biggest challenge in making the decision was that he was too proud to be a SAHD. Think you'd ever hear a woman say that? I'm too proud to stay home and raise my children. No way!

Warning: about to get on my soap box.

While I'd love to spend much, much more time with my son, I don't know that my son would be best served if I were a SAHM. When I'm home too long, I feel like I have to accomplish "things" but when I only have a few hours, spending time with him is my most important, and often only, accomplishment.

Back to the soap box.

How is it that we -- my husband and I -- are both frowned upon by a good part of society. I'm selfish because I work outside the home and my husband is a "failure" because he stays home. I realize that this backwards Cleaver family is becoming more and more popular, but do people really accept it? Will anyone ever see a dad grocery shopping with his kids on a Tuesday afternoon and think that he's successful? Or see a mom picking up her toddler from preschool in a business suit and think that she always puts her child first?

So, hey, suburbs! Get ready for an nontraditional family to join your ranks!

Mom Sans Kitchen

On Saturday, we’ll officially begin our main floor rehab.  And even though I’ve been packing up boxes for the past month, this is where we really get to business.  Before I go to bed tonight – which means no run for me – I have to finish removing everything from the kitchen cabinets and pantry.  No kidding -- we already have over 20 boxes from the kitchen and china cabinet. 

Since our friend is doing this project as a side job on weekends and evenings, we’ll be without a kitchen for over a month.  The plan is to create a temporary kitchen in the dining room (which will also be out of commission for about three days while we refinish the floors).  Can a family live with a microwave and a refrigerator for that long?  Well, a microwave, a refrigerator and a lot of take out.  The bigger question is, how “big” will we be at the end of the rehab.