Time Management: How Efficient Are You?

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Had an interesting experience with TIME this week. Late Tuesday afternoon I went into my spam folder, looking for an e-mail I thought might be there. While scrolling through the list, I found a writing assignment that had been sent to me on Friday. I'd known the assignment was coming but thought maybe the editor had just gotten bogged down and that's why it hadn't been sent.

I opened the assignment only to find that the 800-word article was due the next day. YIKES. I e-mailed the editor, explained what had happened and asked if I could have until Thursday/Friday to turn the piece in. Luckily, he was fine with that. 

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Dena Harris... Underwear Model

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HA! Not really. But makes you want to at least check out today's post, yes?

Underwear model is a stretch. Underwear mannequin may be closer to the truth. From time to time, Hanes Brands puts out a call that they need women on which to measure and test new bras. A recent e-mail to be the body dummy for sports bras went out and they noted they were looking for active women.

Hello! I feel like I plan my life these days around workouts and am occasionally up to three showers a day. Need to test a jog bra? I'm your gal. 

If my body is a match for their needs, that is. I went in today for a measuring. They'll plug my numbers into their spreadsheet and if I am close to the "ideal" (meaning, "truest form" not "perfect") for a bra size, then I get to be on call to come in for fittings as they piece the bra together. A little money is involved but the glory of claiming myself as an underwear model is where the real payoff is, don't you think? ;)

See what happens when you freelance? Waaaaaaaay too much time to fill. 

Cheers,

Dena

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 4 Stress Test

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Week four of the One Hundred Push Up Challenge asks you to perform a stress test - simply do as many push-ups as you can to failure. 

I wandered into our exercise room before breakfast, did a quick 30-second wall sit to get the blood pumping, waved my arms about in the air a bit to loosen them, then dropped to the ground and went at it.

45. That's my number. Kind of disappointed as I'm pretty sure I could have done 50 if I had just stuck to it. However, once any form of pain sets in my mind pings and says, "Okay, good enough," and I quit. 

Still, 45 push-ups is excellent for me. A couple of months ago I could maybe eke out 25. So overall I'm pretty proud of myself. Still can't quite get my mind around being able to drop and do 100 though. 

Week 5 looks scary. The first day asks you to do sets of 36, 40, 30, 24, and 40 pushups with only a minute break between sets. Uh-huh. Yup. You betcha. 

How goes it for the rest of the crew? 

Next On the Food Network: Dena's Dinner Disasters

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Blair and I went grocery shopping today (where we ran into not one not two but THREE sets of neighbors when all we had yet in our cart was Gilette razor blades, birdseed, and two huge boxes of Playtex sport-glide tampons because we had a coupon about to expire - one can only imagine what they think of us) and then I came home and cooked. Blair, wise/cowardly man that he is, disappeared upstairs. He crept back down a few hours later and peered around the kitchen door.

"Everything okay in here?" he asked. 

"Fine," I said, smiling cheerfully while I drained some edamame. "Why?"

"Um, I heard some... questionable noises a while back."

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