Raptron: Queen of Monsters

[Mad Hatter]

32 minutes ago, raptron said:

preventing polar opposite political dads from talking about the only thing they talk about these days (politics)

Oh god. This is the worst.

[Deciduous]

48 minutes ago, raptron said:

+ an extra top set of squats and bench so 4 x 3. This was a GOOD CHOICE because man these weights did not feel light. 

They certainly do not look light! Holy heck, nice job!

The coming week sounds super fun! I love that you have a gymnastics camp!!! Fingers crossed that politics are respectfully avoided lol

[dancezwithkittehz]

Coworker retreat sounds like it was awesome! Yay for amazing coworkers! (Main reason I work where I do is amazing people I work with. Like. I like the job but THE PEOPLE!!)

 

Trip with the parents sounding maybe not so joyful fun. Ugh. Good luck!

[raptron]

21 hours ago, sylph said:

Well, that sounds like a super awesome time....

21 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Oh god. This is the worst.

20 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

Coworker retreat sounds like it was awesome! Yay for amazing coworkers! (Main reason I work where I do is amazing people I work with. Like. I like the job but THE PEOPLE!!)

 

Trip with the parents sounding maybe not so joyful fun. Ugh. Good luck!

I think we have come up with a good plan in the middle of ALL OF THE PARENT TIME and having real vacation time. I like my in-laws fine but I always feel on edge around them and can't really engage in any good conversation. I often revert to a whiny teen around my own parents -- which is not something I enjoy -- but haven't seen them much outside of the context of going home for the holidays, so maybe being out of that environment will negate it? My mother is not a big fan of the heat and will have been traveling by car with my dad for days in advance of meeting up with us and the general camping set-up is probably going to be very scant on luxury/comfort. Hubstron also gets irritable without access to Wifi/cell data and the likelihood we have that during our eastern Oregon camping is VERY LOWWW. Traffic is likely going to be a disaster going both in and out of the viewing region we're going to.

 

Basically, I think people are going to be cranky during at least 2 days of the trip, but I AM NOT GOING TO CARE. NIGHT IN THE DAY! COOL ECLIPSEEEE STUFF! I'm just going to bring plenty to read and some games to play if people are feeling sociable. (And hopefully get to hiking a bit around there or at least escaping for a walk/run on my own if need be!) 

 

20 hours ago, Deciduous said:

They certainly do not look light! Holy heck, nice job!

The coming week sounds super fun! I love that you have a gymnastics camp!!! Fingers crossed that politics are respectfully avoided lol

Thank you! I'm stoooked. Gymnastics camp is the best. <3 

 

Day 4.4

I was pretty aimless at gymnastics. I did floor basics and my front tumbling passes -- probably about 20 passes in total -- up through front handspring + front layouts. I thought about doing some front handspring + front fulls on our tumble strip onto the big soft mat, but ultimately didn't feel like it. After that I did a bit of bars and some cast handstand drills. And then I was just done. So I stretched the last 20 minutes. L O W E N E R G Y, B O Y S. Went to dinner with some of the team and crushed a huge cobb salad. However, that meant I got home a bunch later than normal and had no time to clean much. I swept the kitchen floor up though (mostly because my cat knocked half of his food out of his dish). 

 

Workouts: 2/5 

Veggies: 9/14 <-- salad, carrots, and snap peas

Cleaning: counters 0/2, sweeping 1/2, boxes 0/1

Beautifying: braiding 0/30, lotion 0/1

 

Plan to lift tonight, gymnastics tomorrow, and a run or something (or lifting or climbing) on Sunday continues! 

[Jonesy]

20 minutes ago, raptron said:

I think we have come up with a good plan in the middle of ALL OF THE PARENT TIME and having real vacation time. I like my in-laws fine but I always feel on edge around them and can't really engage in any good conversation. I often revert to a whiny teen around my own parents -- which is not something I enjoy -- but haven't seen them much outside of the context of going home for the holidays, so maybe being out of that environment will negate it? My mother is not a big fan of the heat and will have been traveling by car with my dad for days in advance of meeting up with us and the general camping set-up is probably going to be very scant on luxury/comfort. Hubstron also gets irritable without access to Wifi/cell data and the likelihood we have that during our eastern Oregon camping is VERY LOWWW. Traffic is likely going to be a disaster going both in and out of the viewing region we're going to.

 

Basically, I think people are going to be cranky during at least 2 days of the trip, but I AM NOT GOING TO CARE. NIGHT IN THE DAY! COOL ECLIPSEEEE STUFF! I'm just going to bring plenty to read and some games to play if people are feeling sociable. (And hopefully get to hiking a bit around there or at least escaping for a walk/run on my own if need be!) 

 

Thank you! I'm stoooked. Gymnastics camp is the best. <3 

 

*Not you - the cranky ones  

 

Have fun and stay sane! 

[WhiteGhost]

20 minutes ago, raptron said:

but I AM NOT GOING TO CARE.

I like the way you roll

[Mad Hatter]

On 8/4/2017 at 5:17 PM, raptron said:

I often revert to a whiny teen around my own parents

Uggh I do this too, and it never ends well. The worst is that I KNOW it's happening and yet I CANNOT control myself. And then of course my parents revert to their old parenting roles and everything becomes a huge mess. 

 

On 8/4/2017 at 5:17 PM, raptron said:

Basically, I think people are going to be cranky during at least 2 days of the trip, but I AM NOT GOING TO CARE. NIGHT IN THE DAY! COOL ECLIPSEEEE STUFF! I'm just going to bring plenty to read and some games to play if people are feeling sociable. (And hopefully get to hiking a bit around there or at least escaping for a walk/run on my own if need be!) 

Ignoring everyone sounds like an excellent plant!

 

 

[raptron]

Whine-blinders will be on.

 

Day 4.5

Repeated of last week's day 4 workout, with 4x3 as the top sets again instead of 3x3. I dropped 185# on my front squat though! I think I just didn't fight hard enough for it. It was fine last week. 

I took a short nap when I got home, ate some leftover chicken broccoli roasted potato dinner, and went to bed a bit early. 

 

Workouts: 3/5 

Veggies: 11/14 <-- carrots, broccoli

Cleaning: counters 1/2, sweeping 2/2, boxes 0/1

Beautifying: braiding 10/30, lotion 1/1 <-- Cerave PM and so far it's been lovely! 

 

Day 4.6

Gymnastics practice on Saturday morning. We set up the mats for straddle back practice but I a) felt like I was going to rip after a few tap swings and b ) chickened out on actually releasing to I stopped that pretty quick. This is a straddle back (the release from the high bar to the low bar), but we were not working them to handstand, just to a legs-parallel with the floor type situation:

From there, I did a bunch of tumbling up on our tumble strip. I had wanted to do some front fulls onto big soft mat for landings, but wasn't quite getting the turnover I wanted in the handsprings. On the strip, I only have room to take two steps into them so maybe I was just not quite getting the power I needed. I did a few on the floor to reassure myself that they were still going well otherwise -- and they were fine.

 

I had to leave a bit early to get downtown for my blood donation, which went smoothly ( and quickly). From there, I met up with a friend to wander around Eataly (which was a lot smaller than I expected!) and then grab a late lunch / early dinner nearby. I walked a ton on Saturday, which I am always happy about. Got home, took another short nap (short = under an hour in this case), was actually pretty full from linner still so I just had some snap peas, cheese + crackers for dinner, and then I finished my first playthrough of Dream Daddy (the single dad trying to date other single dads whilst also trying to be a good dad simulator -- it's adorable). 

 

Workouts: 4/5 

Veggies: 13/14 <-- mesclun greens salad, snap peas

Cleaning: counters 2/2, sweeping 2/2, boxes 0/1 <-- cleaned before and after making chocolate chip cookies 

Beautifying: braiding 20/30, lotion 1/1 <-- I am getting a handle on basic french braids! 

 

Day 4.7

A bit slow to rise on Sunday morning, but eventually got up and about. I had been planning on going to my friend's family's moving party but it was out in Ashland and unless I went with my friend for the whole day, I didn't have any good way to get there (the commuter rail is even weird right now due to some construction so it would have been an equal commitment). Instead, I had an entirely free day! Whaaat! I decided to walk around a bunch instead of doing a run or something because I was getting short of breath just from going up the two flights of stairs to our apartment so real cardio didn't seem like a great idea. 

 

I picked a used book store as my walking destination, wandered through a small street festival, got a coffee, picked up a book, walked back, and stopped to read it on a nearby bar's back patio with a cocktail (that eventually turned into some food as well). Took another small nap (it was the weekend of small naps!) and then made dinner, re-dyed my roots, and watched GoT. 

GOOD DAY.

 

Workouts: 4/5  <-- eh, I am not counting the walking

Veggies: 14/14 <-- broccoli

Cleaning: counters 2/2, sweeping 2/2, boxes 1/1

Beautifying: braiding 30/30, lotion 1/1

 

 

[CourtnieMarie]

yessss nice weekend! that sounds like the perfect kind of sunday. well done with all your goals tooooo!

[Mad Hatter]

The straddle back looks scary yo! I imagine it feels super weird going backwards like that.

 

What a lovely Sunday!

[raptron]

Challenge Wrap-Up

1. Atomic Breath Weapon -> A 

Skreeeeeeonk~!

   *Idk, work out like you normally do?

2. Eat Your Vegetables -> A-

Lean, mean, green machine

   *Heaping servings of vegetables 14x per week

3. Public Service -> B

Rebuild what you tear down

   *Take boxes down to recycling 1x per week 

   *Clean counters 2x per week

   *Sweep kitchen floor 2x per week

4. Queenly Beauty -> A-

Dragzilla...? would wear a wig...?

   *Attempt to braid hair for at least 30 minutes per week

   *Find a new face moisturizer 

Overall - A-

 

I don't feel like going through and actually calculating out the percentages, but these feel about right for my performance. I got into a better habit of tidying up the kitchen and went out of my way to eat more vegetables. I got a new face lotion and feel more comfortable with a very basic french braid (and almost comfortable trying to make it into a side braid!), so maybe I can move forward with more complicated braids in the future~!  Workouts continued as usual, really.

[raptron]

7 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

The straddle back looks scary yo! I imagine it feels super weird going backwards like that.

 

What a lovely Sunday!

It IS weird! I used to do them growing up but haven't convinced myself to try them again yet, hahah. 

[SymphonicDan]

The straddle backs are the kind of move where I have to watch it a few times just to work out the geometry of what's happening. Like anything with a sneaky half-twist.

 

Nice challenge, looking forward to what's going down next

[Jonesy]

Fantastic challenge! 

 

3 hours ago, raptron said:

I got a new face lotion and feel more comfortable with a very basic french braid (and almost comfortable trying to make it into a side braid!), so maybe I can move forward with more complicated braids in the future~!  

 

Just get yourself a talented raccoon.  

 

[raptron]

^ final bit of godzilla~

 

I put up a new challenge already:

 

[karinajean]

8 hours ago, raptron said:

 

 

 

 

it probably comes as no surprise that this is my favorite monster of your challenge.

 

WHICH WAS AMAZING BTW.

[Mad Hatter]

BOOP!

[CourtnieMarie]

<3 smash sadness!

[Deciduous]

Awesome!!!! You destroyed it! That is a great report card!

Gymnastics looks terrifying. I love that you do that, super bad ass. 

Also, braiding is haaaard. Because of reading your challenge I had pinned a bunch of wedding guest hairdos with braids, day of (no practice) tried to do one. Not so much! You've inspired me to try to get better at it, because there is some fun stuff out there.