fitness friday 6.3.16

today i'm going thru some of my favorite apps, free and not.

map my fitness: an upgrade of sorts from map my run, b/c you don't need more than one "map my" from the same company. my friends and i like to give each other transatlantic encouragement. i'll be tracking my bike rides soon as i plan to purchase a bike this weekend. love the 30 second delay on the "start" feature, gives me time to get myself situated before the playlist begins.

10 favorite travel apps

as i've mentioned before, the prospect of a year in budapest initially bummed me out. but then i got on kayak and saw all places i would go for a quick weekend trip and cheered up pretty quickly. i've been in budapest nearly 3 months now and have found some apps i could not get thru this year without. wether going on holiday or spending a year abroad, here are my most used apps for travel. (i'm not including google maps, b/c i use that everyday everywhere, even at home)

bonus - they're all free!

from the west coast to eastern europe, how do you dress that?

since i was taking off from los angeles and landing in budapest, i had 2 completely different climates to adjust to. when i left la it was cool and rainy but i was totally comfortable in my leggings and flannel tunic. but i knew when i land i was going to need winter gear.

i have a fairly standard travel outfit: leggings, tunic/pullover top, blanket scarf or zip hoodie and uggs.

is works regardless of the time of year. if i'm doing somewhere very warm, i'll wear sneakers instead of uggs. i tend to alternate between a flannel tunic and a linen one, both from j.crew, depending on the season. i usually take an oversized hoodie because, while not the most stylish, it's not binding when moving around in the air plane seat and the hood also covers most of my head, keeps the light, and other people, out of my face. i left that hoodie in california this time and opted for a sleep mask to block the light.

packing for a year in europe ...

if you thought the ... would be followed by a "in 1 suitcase," you've come to the wrong blog.

there's no way i was going to budapest with just 1 suitcase. i have mallory with me after all.

i did pack for this trip to north carolina in one suitcse

2016: cha-cha-changes

how many times has that title been used on the overshare sites of the interwebs? i'm willing to bet it's most frequently used on "it's the new year" blog entries.

recently (ok fine, ages ago when i actually posted stuff) i've made brief references to some work changes happening "soon". i've been vague so as not to jinx the whole thing and have it called off. but here it is...

i'm "moving" to budapest.

it's been a while...

do i title a post like this every 6-8 months? it feels like it. i've been extremely absent and also extremely busy. the thing about life in freelance film is that the work can go from manic busy to snail slow from day to day. since march i've done the same job on 2 different shows and the work flow/pace are completely different.

in the spring i had a steadier, slower paced workflow that allowed for earlier nights and more time to write and plan. since mid-summer i've been on a higher concept show for a smaller production company that requires longer days and leaves little time for writing.

weekends are no longer just meeting up with friends, running, butt school or shopping. they're for getting all the chores done that fell to the way side during the week: dishes in the sink, mountains of laundry, crap i'm out of quarters, how did the milk go bad, why didn't i buy toilet paper last time and how am i going to make the random dreggs of food left in my fridge into a meal.... it can be a bit overwhelming. but i'm trying to make yet another come back. i'm like barbara, endless farewell tours.

i'm getting back into a groove. i've gone to butt school once a week and since my office is now 4 miles from home (the dream in la) i'm better at dragging myself out of bed for a morning run. i also managed to fit in a few fun activities with my friends. here's a brief update, more (hopefully) to follow.

used the force to get the psl a little early

week 2 of (f)unemployment

week 2 started off strong: went for a run on sunday, yoga on monday, run on tuesday and paid for it all on wednesday. it's time to accept that i am no longer as naturally fit as i used to be. i decided to take thursday as a rest day and return to yoga next monday.

monday and tuesday i did a lot of admin around the house. i repacked my work kit and cleared out all the non-office items. i had 5 bags of comic books from when i was walking distance from my favorite shop at disney, getting caught up on those trade paperbacks is on my to do for today. i also worked on a few post drafts from my make shift floor/coffee table "office".

mal likes to be involved

i play video games

i don't want to say i'm a "gamer girl" for the same reason i don't call myself a "trekkie." i don't feel i have enough cred to make those claims. i do enjoy playing video games and watching all things star trek, but i don't play every game and i can't speak klingon so, all do respect to those who do. moving on.

i'm a fan of all things mario, that damn kart race can ruin a relationship and it's awesome. my best friends and i have a rock band called 502 pussy control, and we're awesome! i spent so many consecutive hours playing lara croft: tomb raider reborn one week that even my dreams were of being ship wrecked on an island. (binge watching arrow when my fingers were cramping didn't help but that's another post.) i still have the original game boy i got for christmas when i was 9, it can still play mario, kirby, home alone, zelda, all the classics. but i still think i'm a little shy of being a "gamer."

mal is a gamer

girls are super heroes too

in the spirit of keeping the comicon fun going for one more week, i thought i'd take a moment to shine the light on some of my favorite female comic book heroes.

lately i've been

i was able to prep this post while on the plane from nyc so, here we go!

lately i’ve been…

since i’ve recently started posting again i decided to on this survey i saw on peanut butter fingers blog so we could all get better acquainted.

cooking: my own lunch for work. it’s mostly some lazy variations of chicken breast and rotating bases and toppings, ie. rice, salad, pasta. i’m going to get into that in next tuesdays post.

sorry i've been away...

the last 2 weeks have been a little crazed. what was supposed to be wrapping up my work on one show before i went on to the next ended up having a quick trip to new york thrown smack in the middle of it.

my dad called monday night (june 28) and said that the family was headed to new york b/c my grandapa was in the hospital, so much for 2 posts that week. i arrived back in los angeles at 2am the following monday and had to start the new job that week, no time to prep posts for that week. i'm a little more settled now so, until the regular content begins on friday, here's some fun from new york. 

said farewell to the gnomes at marvel

so...um...yeah

it's been a long while.

i went back to freelance film work in september of last year and so my life is a tad less structured, which i happen to love. i can be a tad ocd organized but i'm also a problem solver so when the work gets flipped upside down, i dig it. that's probably going to be how this blog is going to go from now on.

comic book love - vol 1

happy comic book day! i love the big bang theory. i jumped on the bandwagon a little late but i'm totally caught up and still enjoying the reruns. some of my favorite episodes are when the girls venture to the comic book store. while i have yet to encounter a store packed with the stereotyped comic book nerds frequenting the store from big bang, i have gotten a few "what's she doing here" looks. luckily my favorite store, house of secrets, has a resident nerd girl so i feel right at home.

my taste in comics is about as far reaching as my taste in music. i'll read / listen to just about anything someone i trust is willing to sell me. here's a few suggestions i'll try and sell you.

i've been stuck in a toy box

it's been awhile and i don't really have an excuse. not much has been going on, except for the awesomeness at the end of this entry. welcome back!

as a kid i had a small box of legos, just enough to build a house with half a roof. legos were a tad pricey and i spent most of my time glued to my game boy. there weren't nearly as many kits as there are today, i think pirate ship and robin hood were about it. my best friend had robin hoods castle, i played at her house a lot. i'm super jealous of kids today as the massive options for legos, but silently laughing b/c there's no way my mom can say no when i just have to have some. (ok, i laugh out loud)

if you read my first house guest entry, you know that i have a little thing for legos. if you haven't read it, go have a look b/c lego land is awesome! also, there's me with lego luke sykwalker --->

the last year has been all about the legos for me. first there was the to scale star wars x-wing in ny.

x-wing in times square

food clubs

a few months ago while doing my morning round of blog reading: into the gloss, peanut butter fingers, the nerd machine, you get the idea, i came across an interesting piece on a food delivery service called blue apron. julie at pbfingers.com had gotten blue apron as a christmas gift and was posting some seriously delicious pics.

as luck would have it that day blue apron was a gilt city deal for los angeles that week, dinner for 2 at half the price. i'm just one so, more food for me! i bought one straight away. after signing in to my blue apron account another deal came up for a wine club they were partnering with, club w. food and wine, gilt.com, you have my heart.

drinks!

friday favorites 4.18.14

box.com
some of you may have seen the stories flying around the last 2 weeks after dropbox announced they added condoleezza rice to their board of directors. i've used dropbox for years and have loved it, but i made the switch this week to box.com for 2 reasons. 1. personal political views, 2. more space for free. clearly, in the course of normal life, more space for free would have been my first reason to switch, but if not for the "rice" of it all, i would never have sought out an alternative. box.com works just like dropbox but with 7gb of storage more for free. it does require a higher os on my laptop than i current;y have in order to have a synced folder on the desktop, but i'll be upgrading that soon as well. even if rice's appointment doesn't bother you, it's still worth checking out box.com.

protein pancakes

nearly every fitness/health food blog i read has a recipe for protein pancakes. also a trend, these bloggers seem to have enough time to make one fresh every morning. sadly, i do not have that luxury. whether la traffic, work sched or inability to wake before 6:50, there's no way i'm getting showered, dressed and fed before i head to work.

then last weekend as i preheated my oven to warm up my trader joe's blueberry waffles i thought, i wonder if the protein pancakes would reheat? guess what, they do!

you'll also need milk

chicken quinoa broccoli casserole

yeah, i know, there's been a lot of quinoa lately. i found a bag in the back of the pantry and i just had to use it. years ago southern living posted a recipe for "invent your own casserole." you basically picked a pasta, meat, frozen veggie, can of soup and added them to milk, water and sour cream. perfect casserole every time. this is the same principal, save the sour cream and canned soup.

friday favorites 4.4.14

trader joe's channa marsala

this is one of those items i pick up every time i go to tj's. i got it first when a friend was going out of town for 8 months and emptied the contents of his fridge/freezer into mine. this is my go to quick dinner with some batsimi rice. i pour half the channa over rice and save the rest for later.

friday favorites 3.28.14

run keeper app
i love this app b/c it not only tracks my run, but i can share my runs with selected friends. i'm not posting all this to social media, but i do have a cross country friend i share my runs with. we occasionally comment on each others workouts, good or bad.