my visor

Our whole trip, all I wanted was a visor. We borrowed one for me from Ellery, but it was too big for me, so I decided I was going to buy one from somewhere as a souvenir. Everywhere we went, I looked for a visor. I was hopeful about buying one at an In-N-Out Burger in Las Vegas that had a hard core gift shop next door, but Alfred wouldn't let me. Nice, huh. I finally found the visor of my dreams in Ithaca. It's blue and says Cornell in red letters. I love it. I wore it on the rest of my trip whenever it didn't clash too horribly with my outfit. It was especially good for days when we didn't get to shower, it kept the little hairs on the sides of my head from sticking up too much. Also, it gives me special powers. It's like an amulet. Let me give you some examples. Here my visor has stopped a bus in its tracks, saving my life:

Here my visor is giving me the power to command the ocean:

Today it gave me the power to jog in September in Florida at 6:30pm. It's still really hot and humid in September in Florida at 6:30pm. But with the protection of my visor, I could do it. It wasn't even sunny out, but when I tried taking it off I just felt so naked. I needed it. And it helped me jog for (almost) half an hour tonight. And so, I love it. The end.

power hour live blog #3

We're up to minute 20. "The final countdown" was in there. Ah, GOB. "Damn it feels good to be a gangster" was in this 10 minute segment, too. We were discussing our workout for Sunday morning. This morning Mike and I met at 6:10am on our front porch to exercise together. We ran, did squats, push ups, a bunch of ab stuff. He kicked my ass. I may not going to be able to walk in the morning. It's great.


Stay tuned for minute 30: halfway, bitches!

return of the jogger

For the last 3 weeks the weather has been freaking gorgeous. Sunny, in the 70s, getting into the 80s a few times. All, of course, while we had no school groups at the museum and I was stuck in the office or store all day long. This week we have groups again, and of course it's goddamn freezing and rainy outside. It sucks! This isn't why we live in Florida. Also, speaking of work, I just realized this morning that I never took out my hoop earrings that I put in over Christmas and am not supposed to wear at the museum. Oops. Ha!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I also went jogging this weekend! I knew I did more productive things than cook and take down decorations! I wasn't even all that sore afterwards. It's been a long, long time. Someone accidentally broke the mp3 player that I got for my birthday last year, so I hadn't gone in a long time, but then Alfred got me a new one for my birthday this year, so I have no excuse anymore. I sort of enjoy it, I guess. I don't exactly love it, but I do it. Slowly. It's funny that I ran track in high school. I only did it because a) I wanted to hang out with my friends, and b) it was the only sport (indoor track, not outdoor) that I could do along with dancing. I didn't take it very seriously. Whenever we had Saturday morning practices, we'd run to my (parents') house and eat doughnuts and watch tv until we had to run back to check in at the end of practice. Anyway, I always wonder what I look like when I jog, I see people jogging as I drive to work and some of them look stupid. I hope I don't look too stupid.

food and work, a.k.a. I have no life

You can tell I'm back on the wagon because all I'm writing about (and thinking about) is food. I've hauled myself back onto the eating-well-wagon because now that I'm not going to the gym anymore, I have definitely noticed a difference in my body, and not one for the better. The little muscles I worked so hard on are shrinking. I miss them already. We should have gone to the beach more this summer. Stupid job, making me work a full 40+ hours a week.

I just watched an episode of Good Eats about making bread. Now I totally want to go bake a loaf of bread. Go figure. All that flour is just sitting in my freezer, waiting to be baked into delicious little bites of carb-laden heaven. Sigh. Actually I may have used all of that giant bag of flour we bought, I can't remember if there's any left in the freezer. But still. There's some in the pantry at least, begging to be made into something tasty and fulfilling, like cinnamon rolls. If I were to have visitors I would bake them some delicious cinnamon rolls. Ahem.

Ah, the good old days. When we were fat, dumb and happy, and ate whatever the hell we wanted. And weighed more and were less healthy, of course. I don't really look any different in this picture but I was definitely sucking in my stomach. And all the health consciousness keeps me from turning into this (gratuitous photoshop usage ahead):

But that would be so much easier. Sigh. (by the way, Katherine, I don't think walking in snow is as good for you as walking in sand. I think the cold shuts down your metabolism or something, I'm pretty sure it's a scientific fact. Also I've developed a severe snow allergy. Sorry!)

Ok, onto something that won't make me hungry, but will make me mad instead: venting about work! I had a teacher call me today and tell me that I booked her for the wrong dates. This is kind of a big deal, because she had already set up the busses and planned out the rest of her field trips for the year. The thing is, I didn't mess it up. She did. I know because I took notes during our conversation and those notes were right there for me to look at today when she called. I had listed several possible dates, she picked 3 in a row in December, but now she says she had picked 1 each in October, November, and December. The dates she thought she had were dates that I offered her, but she ruled one out because the start time would have been later, which she said she could not do, which I wrote down in the aforementioned notes, thus proving that she decided against that date and I WAS NOT WRONG! Ugh, I was SO frustrated about this. Because of course I can't blame her and tell her she made the mistake, I had to apologize and take the blame and apologize some more and try to fix it. Unfortunately since she took 2 freaking weeks to look at her paperwork and realize the dates were different, other schools have since taken the dates she wanted. Double fuck up on her part, really. I was really extremely angry about this for a good portion of the day. Well, now that I'm thinking about it I'm mad all over again, actually. I do my job well, dammit! I hate having to take the blame when I know I'm not wrong.

I'm not sure what's worse, writing about nothing but food or nothing but work. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

we be jammin, mon

We were all cultured and shit this weekend. There was a Caribbean Festival by our house, so when Ilya and Mercedes came to hang out we went to check it out. It was fun. There was lots of loud music, including the inevitable Bob Marley and a live steel drum band. There were a lot of dreadlocks and not many white people, as might be expected. We ate a bunch of good food.

We also got to try some authentic Jamaican Kola Champagne. Alfred freaking loved it. It was like a cross between a tutti frutti-flavor and cream soda.

For dessert we had this coconut-sugar concoction. It was surprisingly delicious, considering I'm not much of a fan of coconut. I guess all the sugary buttery goodness it was coated in helped. I'm just realizing that all of our "culture" revolved around food. Sounds about right.

Once we got back home we hit the booze, as usual.

Between all the Caribbean food and the alcohol, we weren't even hungry for dinner. We ended up having a bonfire so we just had some smores instead. Obviously a very healthy day. We made up for it yesterday when we went on our 8 mile walk. We haven't been able to walk for awhile, so we took it sort of easy (easier than our regular 11 miles, anyway). I was a little sore today but not as bad as I thought I would be. It kind of sucked because even though it was low tide, the tide was still higher than usual, so we had to walk higher up on the beach where the sand is softer and harder to walk in. Friggin mother nature.

Also, Mike texted me today to inform me that today is his one year anniversary of getting shot. So, happy anniversary, Mike!

so, how's the new/old job?

First off, the obligatory weekend recap. We went for our long walk on a different beach this weekend, and check out what I found!

It totally looks like I just found this picture on line and posted it, but I swear I really found it on the beach. There were tons of starfish too, but I decided not to take any home because I didn't want it to smell or anything. Also, I meant to mention it last week, but for the last couple of weeks Alfred has gone for a walk by himself on the days I didn't go. He walked a total of about 45 miles over the course of 9 days. The man's insane. Well, we all suspected it, I mean he did marry me, right? :)

We also made a super fancy dinner for Sunday night: roast leg of lamb, cucumber salad, Mexican avocado salad, and wine from one of the wineries we visited in Napa (we get an order of 3 bottles from them every year, it's great wine). It was delicious.

Onto the new/old job report. It's been going ok so far. Lots of people have mentioned how happy they are that I'm back, so that's nice to hear. It's been a little tough to remember all the little details of what I'm supposed to be doing, and I've had to hunt for some supplies and things. Hopefully it will all come back to me.

I even have a cute kid story already. A boy maybe 9 years old came in to buy a couple of whips, because the one he had bought several months ago was frayed from being used so much. He was all decked out, with an Indiana Jones hat and everything. When he first held the whips he was like "wow, these are really nice whips!" I said that he must be getting pretty good with the whip, and he said "yeah, and I have all the clothes too, see? My hat, my belt, and this clip to attach the whip to my belt." Then, all serious, he said "can I ask you a question? Why is there this loop on the handle?" I explained that he could put it around his wrist, or hang the whip up when he was done with it. He nodded very seriously and thanked me. He was just so darn cute.

So that's that. Hopefully it will get easier, and hopefully I can figure out enough stuff to do to keep me busy. I'm sure there's stuff I can be doing, I'm just not entirely sure what. I could always ask my boss, I guess...

order completed

It hasn't rained in months. When does it start to rain? Just as our shipment was being delivered. Of course.

It went pretty smoothly, all things considered. I've had to make way too many phones calls because of people bitching at me and other people screwing things up, but (almost) everything has been delivered, and part of it has even been paid for. And we got to spend a good chunk of the day out of the office! We didn't get here until about 3! Awesome!

So it was kind of funny, the house these were being delivered to is literally next door to a country club. Across the street is the golf course. You can actually see a golf cart in the background of this picture. So this huge flat bed truck has to back in, through the country club's parking lot, and then park on the 1 lane road that leads to the 15 or so houses that are back there. I swear, every single person who lived back there drove in or out in the 2 1/2 hours or so that he was there. There was also a lawn service, a bug service, and UPS. Alfred was directing traffic for awhile, he got bitched at a couple times, but what do you really expect from Republicans?

In completely unrelated news, Robyn made blondies (brownies without the chocolate, kind of like cookies in bar form) for dessert last night. They were slightly undercooked, so the insides were all gooey and warm and delicious. I didn't even want to know how many sticks of butter the recipe called for. Oh dear Lord they were delicious. (Disclaimer: this picture is not of Robyn's blondies. But they look good, eh?) We were there for lunch today too, let's just say that I single handedly ate about a third of the 9x13 pan between the two meals. I could have kept going. I may not have much willpower, but I at least scraped up a little. But I didn't eat breakfast today, so that makes up for it, right? And we went to the gym this morning. (Speaking of which, the main trainer there has been wearing jeans the last couple of Fridays. He's in his 40s maybe, really short, but dang he looks good in those jeans. Sorry Alfred.)

I was running!

I went jogging last night after work. 3 miles, it sucked. Actually the first half sucked, the second half was fine, and I felt great when I was done. I wasn't even sore this morning. Considering I haven't jogged in about a month, I thought I did pretty good. Also, I got heckled! A guy a few houses down from us started running next to me, telling me to pick up the pace. I told him I was fine, thanks, and he actually said "sorry, I'm just messing with you," and left me alone. Then I got honked at. Awesome. I was going to post a picture of Forrest Gump running and photoshop my head onto his body, but I don't have any good pictures of my head on this computer. Sorry. I know you're disappointed.

We leave for MN tomorrow! I'm super excited. I hope my liver is prepared for all the drinking we're going to be doing. A couple pictures of last year: the first one is of the boys doing a power hour. For some reason I was super nice and volunteered to be DD. Cathy missed this because she was home sick, I believe. The second picture is Mike and Tony diving in an aquarium, they got to go for free because they're military, so Alfred and I watched. It was fun watching, all the kids who were around got all excited to see the divers in the tank. They found a bunch of shark teeth. Oh yeah, they were in a tank with sharks. We'll miss Mike this year (stupid army), but Katie's coming along, which is nice - built in DD!

Our flight is at 12:30 tomorrow, we get back really late Monday night, and then my parents arrive for a week long visit on Friday. Action packed excitement up in these parts. So I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the next several days, at least until next Tuesday, but I'll have my laptop with me. Try not to miss me too much! :)

rock stars and other random information

We go to the gym twice a week now. It's the gym Alfred started going to for physical therapy for his back, and it was cheaper for both of us to get a membership than for him to pay for each therapy session, so now we both go. Usually it's pretty empty in the morning, maybe 3-5 people other than us and the staff, and it's usually older people who aren't in very good shape. It's all people there for therapy, after all. So we feel pretty good when we're able to lift weights and do squats and stuff because we're the youngest and most fit people there. Well, this morning there was a police officer in there, and he put us to shame. He was there when we got there, and still there when we left an hour and 15 minutes later. He was just lifting weights like crazy, doing machines, making us all look ridiculous. He spent the entire time we warmed up on one leg machine, using all the weight. I was kind of in awe. When he walked past me into the weight room, he smiled and said hi - I felt like I had just met a rock star! Alfred said I should have flashed him. I should have asked him to sign my ass or something. The one girl who works there kept flirting with him. As exciting as it was to have such a celebrity in our midst, I prefer when we're alone with the old folks. If I wanted to see people in great shape, I'd go to a regular gym.

In other news, I'm all alone in the office today. Everyone else is out of town or out looking at lots. So I'm listening to music and blogging. And, since Alfred complained about the lack of pictures yesterday, using my camera! So, here's what I look at all day:

Notice the important looking spreadsheet on my computer. Yes, I put that up on purpose just for the picture. And that's my family calendar in the wall, the one where my name is misspelled for our anniversary. Now for a view of my office from the door:

Kind of boring, huh? At least my flowers still look nice! I want to get a plant but I'd probably just kill it. There's also 2 chairs next to the door that I couldn't get into the picture. I need them for all the important meetings I have.

This is my old desk, before I moved up in the world:

It used to be covered with a bunch of my crap. I didn't have any drawers or anything so all my stuff was all over the table. Now I'm marginally more organized. But lonely. Alfred and I used to share an office, we used to make paper airplanes and throw them over the divider at each other. Good times. But in my current office my computer screen doesn't face the door, so if someone comes in I have time to hide whatever I've been doing and make it look like I'm working. So it's not all bad in here. Anyway, here's what Alfred's desk looks like on the other side of that divider:

Now he's got a lot of crap. He's also got a gift basket that we got for Christmas in there. We already ate all the good stuff out of it (and drank the wine).

I also just ran out to the car to get the protein bar I brought for my post workout breakfast. It's kind of cold and rainy out. Weather.com says it's 61. Yes, when you live in Florida 61 is kind of cold.

P.S. The song that just came up on pandora is called "gigolos get lonely too." Who knew?

stupid sun

I think I have a sunburn on my scalp. We went for a quick 8 mile walk on Sunday (quick compared to the 11 mile walk we took last weekend) and I had my hair in 2 braids. I think I got a sunburn where my hair was parted. Even worse, my brush has metal bristles and some of the little plastic ends have come off, so every time I brush my hair little metal needles are digging into my head. It hurts.

I was in a funky mood last night. I had my book club meeting and it didn't go like I was hoping. For one thing, I was sitting all the way at one end, so I couldn't hear a lot of the conversation. I was also surrounded by moms and kids, which was fine because they were all super cute, but lots of mom talk. It's tough to join in when you're not a mom. Then on the other side of me was a girl who brought a friend from work, so they spent a lot of the night talking to each other, which meant I couldn't hear or really participate in the conversation on the other side of them. I was just kind of frustrated from not really having a good time, plus I was kind of tired and sore from our long walk, and we were spending the night at my in laws house, (which is nice, we have our own space, but it's not quite as nice as sleeping in my own bed), and I just got a little cranky. Poor Alfred. He might say I was more than a little cranky.

But then two of my friends and my sister told me they read my blog, so that made me happier :)