Rainy Sunday

It was supposed to be nice all this weekend, but it's rainy and overcast today. Good day to study for my midterm on Wednesday.

Yesterday was nice though, and we had a pretty full day. Kelsey and a friend went to the movies - Saw 3 - on Friday afternoon, then a sleepover at our house Friday night. Yesterday we planned to see The Prestige, but thanks to me we went to the wrong theater in Lynnwood, and we couldn't find the one it was actually playing at. So we went to Barnes and Noble and got some books, then we went to JoAnn's and got some quilting thread. We came home and walked the dogs, then Jason took us to his new office since we haven't been there yet. Then we dropped Kelsey and Ayla off at Ayla's boat so Kelsey could spend the night there.

Since Jason and I had a free evening, we decided to do something grown up. We decided to go out for drinks and tapas, and I knew just where I wanted to go. I kept passing this lounge place when driving around the U-district, so we headed there. Except we didn't know exactly where it was. We parked on the Ave, then walked south, then north, then south again, then north again. We could not freakin' find this place. We probably walked for a good 45 minutes, and then we got in the car and drove to where we thought it might be, and lo and behold there it was...we had been less than 50 yards from it on one of our side street excursions, but we just didn't go far enough!

The place was really cool, and we had some drinks (mojitos and buttery nipples :-), and some tapas (spinach and artichoke dip, and a plate with cheese, nuts, and crackers with a variety of spreads). I thought it was called the University Lounge, but turns out it's actually called The District Lounge, so no wonder nobody knew where it was when we asked. We decided that the next time we get a visitor from out of town we'll take them there. Then we came home and watched The Wire on HBO and went to bed.

Today is just a study/work day since it's so icky out. The Halloween Beaglefest is today, but I don't think we're going to go. Although as I'm writing this, the sun is coming out, so who knows....maybe we will. As ever, I'll keep you all posted :-)

Work issues

My computer died at work. It actually died yesterday, when it wouldn't let me on the network at all, and since I do most of my work on network programs, I went home early while they worked on fixing it. Which was good, because it let me study for Anthropology....oh, and make another bag :-)



I won't bore everyone (like there's a lot of readers) with all the pictures, but for anyone that's interested, they're here if you want to see all the angles. I posted them for Meg so she could decide which one she wanted. She went with the red one, which means I get the pink one.

So anyway, today I go back in to work, and my computer has supposed to have been fixed, but I still get the same error, and can't connect to the network. Luckily for me, there's an unused laptop in the server room that they decide to set up. I say luckily because this one is smokin' fast compared to the one I've been using, and I don't feel like bashing my head against the window of my cubicle quite as often. But now I can't get on Internet Explorer. I can use Firefox, which is fine, but I can't use Messenger either which I think is tied in with the IE error, so I'm out of touch with the rest of the office. You'd be laughing right now if you knew how small our office is :-). But I'm also out of touch IM-wise with Jason. No big deal, I can still text message him, but I'm much faster on a keyboard than a cell phone.

All of my recent crafting has injured me. I have lost most of my right thumbnail. Ouch, yes it hurts. And it's damn inconvenient.

Boo-tay

The weekend weather here was beautiful, so we took advantage yesterday and went to Fright Fest at the Six Flags Enchanted Forest. It's about 25 miles south of Seattle, and we went with Kelsey and her friend. The girls had a great time, and so did we - but Jason and I couldn't help but feel the park was a little lacking in the ride department. They had two roller coasters, and the rest of the rides were the kind you might find in a carnival somewhere. We didn't make it to the haunted house because the line was sooooo long. And by 10:30 we were soooo cold. It was fun though, and I'm glad we went.

Today was craft day for me. I finally got all the pieces together to make the Bootie Bag. So this is my first attempt, and since it's not perfect, I'll keep it for myself and make a better one for Meg :-)



I picked the jeans up at the Goodwill in Harrisburg...girls size 5



The handles were the most expensive part, because I bought most of the nice beads from the bead store. The rest of the beads I took off a thrift store necklace.



The inside fabric was stuff I had left over after making bibs for Ripken



I bought the belt at a thrift store here in Seattle

I must say, I love the way it turned out. I can't wait to start another one. But not today, I have to study for a quiz in Anthropology tomorrow.

Sore

Whoa. It's amazing how much your body can hurt when it starts moving. My legs are hurtin' baby. But not as much as they did over the weekend. We had our second session with Mark on Monday. I seriously thought I might puke at the end of it, but only because I was really pushing for the last part of the workout. You know, end strong, give it 110 percent, yada yada.....blaaaaggghh. We found a bunch of workout videos on On Demand which is awesome considering that the Fall is definitely starting here in Seattle, and I hate to walk in the rain.

Sticking to the calorie limit isn't too difficult right now. The hardest thing is not having Pho. I think I might be able to have it for lunch if I have it on the days we workout with Mark, and I don't have breakfast and then I just have something light like Subway for dinner. But I think my favorite lunch, Banh Xeo, is completely out for now. Which might not be a bad thing, because it gives me a little bit of a headache after I eat it. But it's oh so good, and I'll miss it.

I don't get the whole flap about Madonna adopting an African boy. Isn't it better that the boy is going to have a good home and lots of opportunities rather than face a bleak future in an orphanage? If I was an African boy, I'd sure rather be adopted and have a house and clothing and food and college and all that jazz, even if the adoptive parents are a white couple. Maybe I don't see the whole picture because I'm white myself, but I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

The Property

Kelsey's friend called her yesterday and asked if she wanted to spend the weekend at "The Property". Apparently, they have a cabin or small house or something like that on a piece of land in Hoodsport, WA. It was just the friend and her mom going, so they invited Kelsey to join them. I'm so glad she's doing more stuff with her friends here. I talked to her this morning and it sounds like they're having a nice relaxing weekend.

I, on the other hand, woke up with a raging headache this morning. Jason woke up with a neck pain so bad he can barely move his head...although his has been getting progressively worse the past few days. So we made an appointment for him to have a massage - he's going to take off in about 45 minutes for that. I remember when Mom tried to find a place for a massage in Harrisburg and all she could find was erotic massage places...Seattle is loaded with massage therapists. So many it seems a miracle that you could go a day without being massaged by someone. Which is fortunate, seeing that we could get Jason a last minute appointment for one.

Oh yeah..the personal trainer. It was great. He made it pretty fun and interesting, and he says he'll switch up the workout everytime so we don't get bored. And we definitely worked...it felt really good to do something besides sit on my butt :-). We're going for a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, with brisk 30 minute walks on the off days for now. He'll increase our off day stuff as we go, but right now he wants us to get on a daily exercise schedule. Kelsey said she'd walk while she's at The Property. Jason is going to walk with me when he gets back from his massage. It was a great start, and I'm excited to keep going. He also put us each on a 1400 calorie a day diet, and we have to journal every day what we eat. That's the one thing I hate, counting calories. It's such a pain in the ass. But perhaps with diligence, it will be a relatively smaller ass eventually.

Time to get in shape

Stephan said yes to the beagle sitting! What a relief. We're going to give him $20 a day - of course, his mother said that wasn't necessary but I insisted. It is a pretty big obligation after all, especially our December trip.

Speaking of the December trip, I made the reservations at the Sheraton today so we'll have a place to stay, and won't be crowding anyone. Right down the street from Mom, which is excellent, and a gym so Kelsey and I can keep up with our program, which is also excellent.

Today we have our first home visit from our new personal trainer. Kelsey and I will be working with him 3 days a week. He comes to the house and brings everything with him....how cool is that? We're both very excited to start, even though today won't be fun because it's weigh and measure day. He's going to take all of our measurements and work up a plan for us, and he says he does this every 3 - 4 weeks. It's kind of like The Biggest Loser without the embarrassing fact of doing it in front of millions of people on TV. I shall keep everyone informed of our progress, but our goal is to be down 8 - 15 pounds each by Christmas. So now I must go put on my sexy workout outfit (HA!)

Random

Tonight is pot luck night at Kelsey's school. She has a block class the last three classes of the day, where the same students go between Science, Language Arts, and World History. Pot luck will be dinner, dessert, and listening to some student work. We only have to bring drinks - one of the benefits of being towards the end of the alphabet.

Currently waiting for the boy next door to come home from school so I can ask him if he will beagle-sit for us while we're away at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I contacted a "kennel-free" boarding facility, but it's awfully expensive ($55 per day) and will cost us a small fortune at Christmas since we're gone from 12/19 thru 1/1. Everyone cross your fingers that Stephan will say yes.

Started a new quilt this week. Once I start quilting, it's very difficult for me to get used to sitting down without a needle in my hand. This one is a scrappy pinwheel and so far I think it's really nice. Kelsey, as usual, hates it.

Jason has been leaving for work before 7:30 since his office move....yes, folks, that's s-e-v-en-t-h-i-r-t-y. As in, gets up at 6:30. In the morning. His desire for good parking outweighs his desire to sleep until 9. I'm not sure how to take this new pattern of behavior - I'm very confused.

Lost

I'm lost all right - WTF?? A whole new mind game this season.

The Nine - Scott Wolf is the new Dick Clark. He never ages - he's the debil.

Jay has the day off tomorrow while they build his new cube cage. We're going to have Pho for lunch when I get back from the Eastside. Love that vietnamese cuisine.

Stephen Colbert used to be funnier. I think he's had the funny beat out of him by angry Republicans.

Anthropology sucks

Did you ever have a dream where you go to take a test, and when you get there, the test is full of questions on stuff you never heard of before? Yeah...that just happened to me in real life. We had our first quiz in Anthropology today, and I swear that 80 percent of the questions were stuff we had never talked about in class. I'm supposing they were all based on the textbook, but I did read the chapters and I still didn't recall any of the stuff she asked. Not boding well for the grade this quarter.

We went to the RAM for dinner tonight. Celebrating our return to the West Coast, and helping Jason overcome his problem with his new parking assignment at the new building. He's not happy, but it could be worse. At least he got a space, even if it's not covered, or secure, or guaranteed.

Lost starts tonight, in 45 minutes. Can't wait. I think I'll have to go to the spoiler sites to find out what happened.

I'm full, and the coffeepot is beeping, so this update is O-V-E-R. Later!

P.S. Get well Carrie, we're thinking about you