Weekend Redux: COLD

I'm not built for the cold. It's 26 degress in Las Vegas right now. Even though I'm typing from the warm safety of my desk, I'm still freezing.
It was cold all weekend, so I spent most my time hiding under a blanket in warm fuzzy pants and thick fuzzy socks.

Saturday evening we had a show. We played with Asesino, featuring Dino from Fear Factory and Tony from Soulfly. We played an awesome set and had a great response from the crowd. We had a lot of fun too. We got to hang with friends, make new friends, and enjoyed ourselves as you can see.

Productivity

On Monday a coworker/ fellow blogger and I attended the New Media Expo. We only had exhibit hall passes which unfortunately excluded us from any of the great classes they had available.
We met some interesting vendors and I found some great opportunity for my little blog here. Almost every vendor I spoke with commented on how cool or unique my blog topics were.

Unlike a lot of the blogs I read on the regular, I don't have a big readership (yet) and I don't really make any revenue off of it. Which is fine, as it's more of an outlet for my writing and ranting about being an unsigned musician than it is a career choice.

I would definitely like to grow my audience... I mean in all aspects of blogging, music, and such. I want to know from you, dear reader, what you like about my blog and what topics you think I should tackle.
Thanks!

Healthy (metal) Living: Trying a Diet

If you look to the left you'll see a link to a book I bought recently: Flat Belly Diet. Thanks to my awesome gift giving guitar player (say that three times fast) who gave me a gift card to Barnes And Noble I picked out this book in the bargain section to give it a try.
I walked around the store for over an hour with a handful of books. This one I set down at least four times and then came back to it. Making the final decision as I stood in line.
Unlike most women my age when I look back at pictures of my twenties or teens I don't wish I had that body again. I was twenty pounds heavier at 19 than I am now. I was two sizes bigger and had struggled with my weight since eighth grade.
After I had Hayden in 2006, for the first time in my life I tried to lose weight. I started with Namaste Yoga: Season One  while I was on maternity leave. I had been super skeptical of my ability to do Yoga. Mostly cause I'm not very coordinated. After watching a few episodes I was convinced and bought myself a Yoga mat and everything. I lost all the pregnancy weight but was determined to lose more.
A few months later I started walking with my coworkers on breaks and started my own version of a low-carb diet. That was the first diet I ever tried.
Within three months I had lost about 28 pounds. The thinnest I had been since eighth grade.
It's been six years. I've only gained eight pounds and a pant size back but I lost the muscle tone that I had due to lack of exercise.
My belly has always been an issue. Never in my life, not even as a baby have I had a "flat" belly. My father's ex-wife used to call it a "pooch" and she wondered why I wore baggy clothes in high school.  I hated it.
No matter how many crunches, sit ups, or exercising I would do it never be flat.
So when I saw a book entitled Flat Belly Diet that claimed no exercise necessary, I thought for $6, it might be worth a try.
I started on Friday with the four day induction, as of this morning I lost four pounds.
So far, so good. I'll try and post updates as I go.

Singing All The Time

We're a musical family. Not like the Sound of Music type musical, but like a modern rock n roll version with only one child.
We all walk around the house singing. We make up our own songs mostly out of other songs we hear.
Hayden is obsessed with the chorus in this song thanks to a fantasy football commercial



He's also obsessed with the acoustics in the bathroom. He takes full advantage of not needing a microphone. I snuck up on him the other day "Rocking out in the bathroom"

The picky-ness WILL END

I remember this look my friend Jimmy gave me when I was in his kitchen cooking Hayden some meal for breakfast while we were there visiting.  It started with an eye roll and then it moved to me hearing this in my head "Really?! You're making him that crap while my perfect NON picky kids are eating blueberries and cereal for breakfast?"
Yes, my kid is THAT picky. I've tried for four years now to break him of it, but it just hasn't worked. I've struggled getting him to try new things, I've read numerous "solutions" and taken dozens of suggestions. Nothing has worked.
His palette consists of less than ten things he'll eat without a fight.
On New Years Eve as a family we sat down and discussed this problem. Hayden really likes these cheap microwave meals that are pretty much crap wrapped up in nugget form with some corn.
I read Hayden the ingredients and explained what some of them were and why they were bad for him.
That officially freaked him out. He's no longer into these meals (for now at least).
I also told him he needed to try some new things for the new year.
So I made him a deal. We made a list of 5 things he wants to try this year. For every new food he tries, he gets a toy worth $20 or less. Here's his list:

1. Bacon
2. Chicken Noodle Soup
3. Scrambled Eggs
4. Rice
5. Spaghetti