The Friday Five

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Five.

Here’s what’s shaking in my world!

1. I am super excited….the new season of Californication starts Sunday!   I love David Duchovny, who plays Hank Moody, the main character. When we last saw Hank, his crazy ex-girlfriend had just drugged him and left him for dead.  Can’t wait to see how he gets out of that one!

2.  I am taking today as a workout rest day.  I have worked out every day in January (with the exception of New Year’s day) and I am tired and achy.  Plus, I think my muscles deserve a break.  They have been working hard the last 10 days!

3.  I am loving my Polar FT40 Heart Rate monitor.  It is easy to use and comfortable to wear….both watch and monitor strap.  I love knowing how many calories I have burned doing a workout.

I am going to have to read the manual or look up some instructions online as to how to get more out of it.  I’ve seen other people’s pictures with some interesting screens – showing whether it is fitness or fat burning heart rate zones, and something called effect…which I think is how many calories you burn after your workout.  Hopefully I will get a chance sometime this weekend to do some investigation and figure out how to use this super cool thing!

4.  I love KenKen puzzles.  At work, we get the Globe & Mail newspaper and one of my colleagues every day, will make a copy of the puzzle page with the cryptic crossword, the Sudoku, and the KenKen.  I used to just to the Sudoku (once I finally figured out how to do them!), but just recently I started to give the KenKen a try.  To solve a KenKen, each row and each column will contain the numbers 1 to 6 without repeating.  The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes (cages) combine using the operation given, in any order, to the target number in the cage.  Freebies are the single box cells where the number to be put in the cell is given.

For the longest time, I could not figure out how to solve these things.  Now that I have figured out how to solve these puzzles, I am addicted!  I love these stupid little puzzles.  I actually had a really big stack of old Sudoku puzzles that have built up since I was too busy to actually do the Sudoku, and now I’ve gone through them all and finished the KenKen.  It is a quick, fun, nice little mental challenge…and I’m hooked.  If you’ve never done one, give them a try.  Apparently they are good exercise for your brain!  Check out www.kenken.com for some tips and tons of puzzles.

5.  I am getting tired of water.  I have given up drinking diet pop as part of my January goals.  So far, any time I want a pop, I have a glass of water.  I’ve been drinking a ton of water..not just to replace my pop, but drinking lots in general.  All of this water is starting to get a bit dull.  I’m getting a little lot tired of water.  I’ve put some Mio in it a couple of times to give it a bit of flavour, but I think I need to find some other substitutes.  I am going to look into some sort of club soda drink or maybe some flavoured Perrier or something.  Anything to keep me hydrated and off the diet pop.

Hope your Friday was a good one and that you are ready for a good weekend.  I sure am!

Do you do KenKen puzzles?  Do you love them as much as I do?
Got any tips on how to get more out of my Polar HRM?
What’s your go to refreshing drink that isn’t loaded with sugar or aspartame? 

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