What? A new post?
Yeah.
I am going to start posting on here again as a lot of the things I want to write about don’t apply to the mission over at HealthKitten. To be frank, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be blogging over there. So, I’ll put the update here.
1. Health. Good, for the most part. Getting a foam roller has really helped with my IT band issues. However, I haven’t been able to put on the miles like I did back in 2010 when I did my first half marathon. Mainly because I haven’t been running through the pain like I used to. That mindset literally bit me in the ass last year and kept me from running for 3-4 months. Stress has also been a factor in my lack of mileage. While running is a stress reliever, my mind hasn’t been in the right place to really train effectively.
Weight is stable, but I can stand to lose some pounds. Having no gym membership that would give me access to a scale, I ended up buying one of the Fitbit Aria scales as a present (more on that later). After an arduous setup, it’s been neat getting my weight and body fat percentages. Now that I’m monitoring things, I’m trending downward. Result!
2. Food. The garden has been a mix of successes and failures. Successes: kale, tomatillos, and summer squash. Failures: peas, green beans and peppers (jalepeno, poblano, bell). The already-established asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry patches gave us a great bounty as well.
I’ve been having issues with other people’s recipes lately. Mainly because they’re just not that good. I made a mushroom stroganoff the other night that was dreadful; bland and all the leftovers just went into the bin. There’s another food blogger with a great following that has more misses than hits too. Everything of theirs that I make is just underwhelming…which baffles me as people rant and rave on their blog as to how “delicious” the stuff is. Perhaps I just have a more refined palette?
My greatest successes with cooking lately have been when I just improvise with the ingredients I have on hand. I made amazing tacos from summer squash, kale, pinto beans and homemade salsa verde. No measuring – I just threw in what looked right. And it was delicious. At our couple’s cabin retreat last weekend, I made two egg bakes for the morning we were responsible for breakfast: the ubiquitous sausage/cheddar and the vegetarian kale and artichoke (with swiss and gruyere cheese). Did I use a recipe? Nope. Was it awesome? Based upon everyone’s comments, I would say yes!
Stuff just seems to turn out when I cook with intuition.
Also, my lack of recipes (and lack of food photography) makes for a shitty blogging experience! More reason to blog here and not HK. 
3. Work. Here’s where the big shakeup is happening. As of Friday, I no longer work at the law firm!!! Quitting that job was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I had been struggling with the stresses of the job for months now, and almost two months ago, I figured out what I wanted to do: go back to web development.
How was I going to do that? Well, I immediately started finding resources to update my skill set that didn’t require me to 1) go back to college or 2) spend a bunch of money. I found a great resource at Lynda.com and I’ve been absorbing like a sponge the latest on HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and jQuery. Next my plans are to learn PHP and get really good with the WordPress stack.
Then? Take over the world! Mwahahah! 
However, doing this on nights and weekends started to take its toll on my well-being (and cut into my half-marathon training time!). After a long, heartfelt discussion with Tim, we decided that I needed to devote more time to my career change and by reducing my work schedule to 3 days a week, I’ll have more time to study and work on any freelance projects I would land during this time.
Once that decision was made, there was no stopping me. I found, interviewed and landed a PT job within 48 hours and I put my two weeks notice in as soon as I had the offer in hand. I start the new job tomorrow, and I couldn’t be more excited. Initially I’ll be working as an Educational Coordinator, but in the interview process they mentioned (or more like offered?) that “we have a web development team here too…so maybe if you really like it here, you can transition there after this contract is up!”
Um, yes please?
Also, as word has gotten out over my departure from the law firm, a former colleague (who now has her own business) asked me if I could help her out with her website and what my rates would be! First potential freelance client and I haven’t even started yet! Woot!
When I put in my two weeks, it felt like the 900lb gorilla of stress finally got off my back. I didn’t realize how unhappy I’ve been until then and now I’m so happy and I’m super excited to get started on my new career. I was especially happy to finally get away from Windows XP and the stupid Websense filtering BS that the firm uses. The picture that is accompanying this post was from the last day of work. Bye bye, crappy OS! LOL!
I never could’ve taken this leap without the amazing support that Tim has given me. I’m so lucky to have him in my life.
(d’awww)
Anyway, expect more from the ol’ ‘kitten in the future…along with some hawt new website action!
