Day 25

Guess what? I cooked today! And not just reheating pre-cooked food, either - I marinated, breaded, and baked the oven "fried" chicken strips for dinner! And they were fantastic! I'm so proud, it's gratifying to know I do have the skills to take this lifestyle home with me.

Apparently I have reached and surpassed my physical limitations, however. I woke up this morning with my quads absolutely screaming. I figured my morning workouts would ease the pain - a little recumbent bike, a little water aerobics, and some yoga to top it off. No such luck; halfway through water aerobics, I nearly had to give up! I was whipped! I pushed through it, though, and through yoga, but now? Holy crap, guys. It hurts to use my upper legs in any way - sitting, standing, bending, you name it and I'm wussy about it right now. Guess Pinnacle really did a number on me ...

I did get a huge laugh out of water aerobics today; our instructor, Anna, had us doing some Zumba-type moves underwater. One of them was a little hip-roll/shimmy/shuffle sort of thing, and I was having fun doing it - like the song says, I've got hips and I know how to use 'em. And about halfway through class, one of the little old ladies grabs my arm and goes, "Are you a dancer?" She was just floored by how graceful and on-the-beat I was! I assured her no, no dancing since I was a kid, but for the rest of class all the old ladies kept watching me during that move! I mean, I kinda hoped that toning up and all would help my body attract some attention, but I was really gunning more for young men than old women ...

Had some great geeky time w/ Nate this afternoon. We wanted to rent the new Ghostbusters game, but there wasn't an available copy in town; so, I went ahead and bought it. I planned to anyway, once I got back to Norman, but I had the money to do it now and give us our nerdiness. We set up my XBOX in the den and basically vegged out and geeked out all afternoon and evening. The game is great, really captures the feel of the movie while still bringing its own originality to the mix, and the references laced throughout are great (a message left on the firehouse phone by a "Dr. Jones" asks after the Vigo painting, insisting it "belongs in a museum!"). Gotta love it. Highly recommend this to any Ghostbusters fans.

I'm definitely gonna need a long soak before bed ... gonna use some of those Epsom salts to really help relax my muscles. I can't afford to lose any more time - I'm almost halfway through the program already, I've gotta keep it up! Tomorrow's the Rundown, and hopefully I'll have some encouraging news for you all!