Bring on the Sun

We are actually having a real spring this year. The dominating story in all local news lately is how we've had 6 nice weekends in a row. Having grown up in California, I find that both shocking and comical, but more comical that it continues to be headline news. In a few years global warming is going to make Seattle the best city to live in! I'm looking forward to that. 

The onslaught of nice weather brings about all the fun stuff in our house- major home improvement projects, cleaning, home workouts, and of course SUNBATHING! We bought a fixer upper home, and for the past 2 years have been steadily chipping away at projects. The list from our home inspection was a mile long, but the list of cosmetic stuff we want to do is probably 1.5 miles long. We've been trying to find a balance between doing the stuff that really needs to be done and the cosmetic. A few weeks ago we got a new water heater- a gas one, since last year we switched out our oil furnace with a gas one, and part of our "deal" with the gas company was that we would get a stove and a water heater. The more appliances you inform them you are going to have, the cheaper the upfront cost is for them to bring gas to your house. We got the gas stove when the furnace was totally installed, so now we are all up on our promises. Of course, we will start to draw more gas and the gas company will still get plenty of money over the long run...

So, the cosmetic task we are now beginning is tiling the big family room. We don't have a garage, it was converted to a vaulted ceiling w/loft family room. When we moved in, we didn't even use the room because the carpet was so nasty (I HATE CARPET, especially other people's carpet). After a few months, we realized we weren't using the biggest room in the house, and that was dumb, so we got a few area rugs to cover the big nasties, moved our living room furniture in there, and promised to tile the bitch the first chance we got. Last Thursday, we pulled up the carpet. Touching gross carpet and the pad underneathe has to be on my top 10 list of things that totally skeeve me out. The bf deluxe doesn't seem to mind, and released me of touching duties and just ripped the whole thing out in one fell swoop. We knew that we would be looking at some form of concrete pad under the carpet, but we had no idea what condition it would be in. Turns out, it was in pretty good shape. After consulting some tiling friends, we learned of a waterproofing layer that you can just paint on. It goes on Peptol-Bismo pink, and dries red. It sort of is like liquid applied rubber. This made for an awesome workout room for me on Sunday:

I'll post before and after pics of the room if the tile looks good when we are done.

Yesterday I chose to do a quick Tabata workout of handstand holds and box jumps. I practiced some double unders, burpee box jumps, and kettlebell snatches for my warm up. It was super hot out, so it only took me about 2 seconds to break a sweat. I must be psychic or something because our workout today at the gym involves handstand holds and box jumps! Good thing I got practice in!

I
've heard some rumblings in the paleo community about sun exposure- rather, how people have claimed that since going paleo, they no longer need sunscreen (HERE and HERE to scratch the surface). I have very fair skin. Freckles, green eyes, the whole bit. I can't even look out the window when its sunny and not get pink, so these tales seemed far fetched to me. I also LOVE the sun. I love laying out in it, playing in it, and when exposed everyday with sunscreen, I have been known to get a decent tan. I've read that sunscreen might be more harmful than helpful, then, there is the whole argument about what did people do before sunscreen? 


Well, I've been doing some experimenting the past nice sunny 6 weekends, and the results are pretty interesting. I've just been going outside for a few minutes, sans sunscreen and drinking my coffee, or doing a few yard chores. I know myself well enough now to know when enough sun without sunscreen is enough. The past 5 weeks I would get out and have my time in the sun, and then at the end of the day, expect to see a little pink (which, I'm ok with). Nothing. I kept thinking- maybe I wasn't out when the sun was the strongest, or maybe I really wasn't out for that long?

So yesterday, I tried to get some sun. I wasn't looking for a burn, but I definitely wanted some noticeable lines. Anything. Around 11am, I drank my coffee and did some reading for work for about an hour in the sun. I had sunscreen on my face, that's it (not ready to mess with that yet). I could feel the sun warming me, it was fantastic. I went inside, did a few chores, and then at about 1:30 I put on my swimsuit and I layed out for over an hour. My suit is a tankini, so there was just the tiniest strip of my stomach visible- hasn't seen sun all year, no sunscreen, excellent conditions for a good red burn. At the end of the day, when I was getting ready for bed, I inspected myself for some sweet red vs. white flesh. There was next to nothing. Only the slightest touch of pink on my stomach, my chest, and my arms. My legs seemed to just go straight to their version of tan. I'm baffled.

All of the data I have up to this point in my life suggests that what I did yesterday should have left me with a pretty good burn. More research is necessary. Oh, but, I did notice this awesome thing while sunbathing:

See that? See what that is? A gap between my thighs. Yes, I know it's not much more than the thickness of a sheet of paper. But, my knees are touching