Catch up

Hawaii was awesome. We did a whole lot of nothing but lay on the beach and snorkel, which was very relaxing but also leaves me with not much to talk about from that trip.

We came back and were greeted by some gnarly winter weather. Our office actually closed a few hours early today. It rained for a bit this afternoon, and now it's all supposed to freeze again overnight with a chance for more snow, so things could be really interesting tomorrow.

But the real reason I'm writing something today is this.

Notice anything weird about that? Anything? Hmmmm... "Bisons" is not a word. The plural of "bison" is "bison." I also think it's kind of weird that buffalo and bison are exactly the same thing, but they named the city of Buffalo's team the Bison(s). Whatever.

Be nice to me! I gave blood today!

I have an eventful history with donating blood. It all starts with a blood drive in high school. Needles have never really bothered me, so I figured it would be a piece of cake. I was fine through the whole process until it was done and I stood up to walk to my cookies. I didn't *faint* but I lost all function in my legs and fell smoothly to the floor. They wouldn't let me drive home after that, so it turned into a big hassle getting my mom to come pick me up. Now these were the days of eating too little (because I hated the "table politics" in the cafeteria) and taking too much No-Doz so that I could 1) stay awake all day and 2) have enough energy for swim practice after school.

I figured that's why it didn't work out so well.

Fast forward 6 years or so to my training period at work here in Oregon. There was a blood drive. I signed up. I figured I wouldn't have a repeat of my high school experience. (You can already guess that I was wrong.) To make a long story shorter, just about the same thing happened--I got all the way through and then just about fainted as I was heading toward the cookies and juice. Again, they kept me there until they were sufficiently convinced that I was feeling better, and then they sent me off with all the cookies that were left because I was the only person left by that time.

When asked over the past few years, I politely declined all opportunities to donate again. Until today. Third time's a charm, right?

No.

Same thing. Got all the way through it fine. Then, I felt sick. I nearly hyperventilated. They had cold, wet towels draped over my face and neck, and I was breathing in a paper bag trying *really hard* not to get sick. (I succeeded in that, at least.) I got lots of juice and some cookies and crackers, and now I'm drinking boatloads of water.

Oddly, I'll probably do it again sometime. Maybe not in three months... but sometime. It's such an important action and gift--I figure the discomfort I go through is worth it on the other end when someone who needs it can use that blood I gave. If you find yourself thinking or voicing any excuses, be sure to also check out some reasons why you should push those excuses aside.

Early Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving last night with Chris and Charles and his kids. Marc and I preordered and picked up a turkey torte from Pasta Pronto. Oh. My. Gosh.

I think this is how it went.
Layer 1: stuffing
Layer 2: turkey
Layer 3: cream cheese
Layer 4: cranberry
Layer 5: more turkey
Layer 6: mashed potatoes
And the whole thing was enclosed in a flaky pastry crust shaped like a giant round cake.

It was heavenly!

Because this thing is huge, we cut it in half and froze half. (We're planning to all get together again for Christmas to eat the other half.) I couldn't even finish the slice I had, and I was starving. Yummy! Then for dessert, we had homemade eggnog ice cream and caramel sauce and some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Just writing about it now makes me hungry.

This was a much better Thanksgiving celebration than last year--when we did nothing at all. :)

Today I started packing for our Maui trip. (Yes, I hear you gasping in disbelief at the idea of me *not* waiting until the very last minute.) The great thing about not having to pack any cold-weather clothes is that almost everything for the whole 10 days fits in my normal carry-on bag. Okay, everything except for the bulky things like our snorkel gear. I'm hoping this short week of work will fly by...

Mysterious sounds

So I'm sitting at work this afternoon with my headphones on listening to my iPod. I had tons of windows open, as usual. And I kept hearing this funny scratching noise. At first I thought it was part of a song. Then I thought it was something wrong with my iPod when it kept happening. Then I realized that one of my open windows also had the search frame open--along with that annoying Microsoft dog that pops up and "digs" through your files to find whatever you're searching for. Evidently, if you leave him alone for too long, he starts scratching his ears.

That's my pointless story for the day.

TGTF. (Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday)

We're going to see Mortified this weekend. It's something I've heard about from a few different people, and evidently it's a total hoot. I'm looking forward to it.

The best steak

Marc and I just ate a wonderful steak. It was quite possibly one of the best steaks I've ever eaten (though Roy's on Maui might be a close second). If you ever find yourself looking for dinner in Corona Del Mar, I highly recommend The Bungalow. We went with a high school friend of Marc's and her husband. It was fabulous. I'm full. Very full.

Our flight to the O.C. was uneventful. Of course I did have to enjoy a Mexican hot chocolate from Coffee People at PDX--I have to savor them when I can get them! I do have to say that it was a LOT more convenient to fly into Orange County compared to LAX. We rented a dopey little Chevy Cobalt. The tires squeal when making normal turns. Haha!

Tomorrow is election day. Thank goodness for Oregon's vote-by-mail system. If you haven't voted yet, please be sure to. My goal for tomorrow will be to avoid all televisions as much as possible--the last thing I want to watch for hours on end is the media freaks making predictions and giving updates every 5 minutes. Good thing we've got HBO here.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Last weekend's birthday celebration was a good time. Our friends Jo and Andy came down from Tacoma and stayed with us, and a couple dozen of us went out for dinner and shuffleboard. Then we tried to go karaoke, but the place had a live band instead of karaoke that night. Oh well.

I had a few days off of work earlier this week, so we took advantage of the most beautiful autumn day ever by going to a corn maze on Wednesday. It was my first time ever at a corn maze, and it was pretty fun. It was almost kind of freaky to be alone (except for three people we saw after about an hour) in the huge field of corn.

Last night we were supposed to go to a Halloween party. Marc wasn't feeling well earlier in the day, but after he took a nap, he felt better. So I got my costume on, put on makeup (gasp!), and did my hair... and then he wasn't feeling well again, so we aborted. Boo. Halloween parties are my absolute favorite kinds of parties. I just hope that something will come up next year so we have a chance to wear the costumes we bought this year.

Lotsa stuff

Time to play catch up.

Last weekend we went to Grandpa's house for a final goodbye--in more ways than one. Marc's mom and stepdad were on the verge of moving to Costa Rica, so we had a going-away party combined with Marc's mom's 60th birthday party at the house. Earlier this week the closing papers were signed to sell the house and property to THPRD. Friday morning, they left. Within the next month or so, the house will be demoed. Sad, but at least all the stress that's gone along with every family happening since grandpa passed away now has a chance to dissapate with this life chapter now closed.

After a mega house cleaning escapade at our house this week, our friends Lisa and Paul, with their bandmate Philly, came into town from Vancouver, BC on Saturday. We went to their show at Hawthorne Theater last night, where we all just about died from the smoke. (I can't wait for January when that won't be allowed anywhere anymore...) However the show was awesome. We liked acting like real groupies. I highly recommend that you check them out. Click here for Mojave. You can also find them on MySpace and Facebook. They're in the middle of a West Coast tour--so if you happen to stumble upon this and live anywhere in the West, see if they're playing near you and check them out.

Today we took the out-of-towners down to Saturday Market because... that's just what you have to do with people who've never been to Portland. We ate way too much. That always happens.

We have stuff planned this coming weekend (my shared birthday party with Nancy--let me know if you want an evite with our plans!), Halloween stuff planned for the next weekend, and anniversary and birthday parties the following two weekends. Then I think it's only two more weeks after that before we leave for Maui. Busy busy busy.

Today my dad scared the crap outta me. My parents had called and left messages on our home phone; I missed a call or two from them on my cell. I'm inept when it comes to remembering how to retrieve our voicemail messages on our home phone, so I didn't know what was going on. When we got back from Saturday Market, I called them back. My dad answered the phone, which is odd because 99% of the time, my mom answers. When I asked how he was doing, he said, "Things are not well here." My heart dropped and my brain started racing, imagining all the things that could be wrong. But he quickly put me at ease with a comment about how his computer had died. Ninety minutes later, my tech support session was over, we had located most of his backup files, and he had his e-mail password reset so he could get back into it. I used a nifty, free tool (which was simple enough for even my dad to find and install) to see and control his desktop. Yuuguu works with both Mac and PC.

Back to work tomorrow for me. Marc will be entertaining the band alone. And on that note, I should be thinking about getting to bed.

Planning ahead...

I've found the perfect Secret Santa gift.

Click me.

Absurdity in a commercial--imagine that!

There's a local mattress store that runs commercials all the time (which, on a side note, makes me think about how it's possible that so many mattress stores can stay in business... but that's probably a topic for a whole other post). One of the things they say about their price guarantee is something like this:

"If we can't beat someone else's price on a comparable mattress, we'll give it to you for free!"

Okay. Let's say I find a mattress at their competitor for $500. I go into the store from the commercial, and they're selling the same mattress for $550.

[start dream sequence]
Me: "Hey, the store down the street is selling this mattress for $500! Can you beat that price?"
Sales guy: "Ooohhh, no, sorry, I can't sell it for $499. I guess we'll have to give it to you for free instead."
[end dream sequence]

What a pointless guarantee.

MMMmmmm

If you know much about me, you probably know that I love pizza. I think I could eat it every day. Recently, Marc has been on a kick to create pizza from scratch. We got a nifty pizza stone for the grill the other day, and he did some recipe research for making his own dough. Last night for our anniversary dinner, he made two pizzas (one margharita and one "ol' hickory" with tomato, potato slices, bacon, and sour cream--okay, so that's copied from one of Pizza Schmizza's pies, but Marc's was better) and a cheesy bread. He hand-tossed the dough and grilled the pizzas, and they were AWESOME. I'm quite excited about the possibility of eating pizza all the time. :)

Five years

Five years ago today, in Las Vegas, NV, Marc and I got married.

Happy anniversary to my best friend and the most wonderful man I know!

I hate politics

The subject of politics makes me angry. I don't like talking about them.

Here's something that really resonated with me...

"The more I learn, the less informed I feel, and the less qualified I feel to comment on it. I can write about my thoughts and predictions, but besides a college degree in political science, I don't have any guarantee to offer that my thoughts or predictions are accurate.

It's kind of like that Socratic quote: something about how the wisest man is the man who knows that he knows nothing."

That's a quote from Thank You Ma'am, one of my favorite blogs. Besides not having a political science degree, that's a good summary for how I feel about many things--politics especially. It seems like a lot of the time, people selectively read or listen to things about the candidates, hearing what they want to hear about them--both good (for the guy you like) and bad (for the guy you don't). Because I'm aware that I'm as guilty of this as anyone, it leaves me feeling less inclined to discuss things at all. Before I debate anyone about anything related to politics, I'd feel compelled to do a lot a research. And because it just makes me angry to see how the principles of our country have been slaughtered over the years, I don't want to subject myself to that torture.

That's not to say I won't do enough reading and research to select a candidate in November. You just better not expect me to get involved in any debates over candidates.

Garage Sales

I am now 100% positive that I never want to be involved in a garage sale again. I'd never done it before, and I'll be happy if I never have to again. The last 3 days were not fun. Okay, they weren't horrible, but they were not fun.

And I'm not going to get that Nano, as much as I want to.

I never dread going to work, but I am really looking forward to going back tomorrow.

iPod mania

I've had my eye on the iPod Nano ever since I got my Touch. I justified getting a Shuffle last year when we started running, but there are some nifty things that the Nano can do for runners. So, I've had my eye on them, but I've refused to seriously consider them until they offered more colors.

That day has arrived.

And in true Apple fashion, they've made them even niftier than the last version. That purple one looks very appealing. Is there something wrong with me for wanting yet another iPod? Shouldn't the three I have (though I only use two) be enough? I think I have an addiction.

In other exciting news, I had a consultation this morning for laser hair removal, and I set up my series of appointments. Not having to shave my legs will be a gift that keeps giving. Hooray!

Death of a Pet

It's never easy when pets die. Our poor little rat (okay, she wasn't little--she was quite fat) Raisin died yesterday in Marc's arms. She had a very large tumor between her front legs for several months, so we knew that she would eventually suffer the same fate as our first two rats. She'd been quite lethargic and had stopped eating for a few days, so we knew it was coming soon. As you probably know, I developed an allergy to rats after we had the first two for a few months, so I didn't spend much time with Raisin. Marc spent time with her every day though, and she was his favorite rat. She was a very sweet girl. Goodbye, Raisin. :(

A new blog

Since I suck at updating this blog, I've decided to "help" write another totally different one.

Our cat Max now has a blog.

Check it out at http://thecatwhoeatseverything.blogspot.com. You can also e-mail Max at thecatwhoeatseverything@gmail.com--but remember that he might be too busy eating or sleeping to check e-mail very often, so don't feel bad if he doesn't respond right away.

Contacts stuck in my eye

Man, I'm lazy. I blame it on summer. I don't have any specific reason for that blame, but anyway... here's a pointless story to share just because I haven't written anything lately.

I've worn contacts for about 20 years now. Never in my life have I encountered issues like I have in the past few months. Awhile back, I rubbed my eye at work and managed to get my contact stuck somewhere in the depths of my eyeball. It took about 10 minutes before I finally got the sucker out. It was crafty--felt like it was up high, but it was actually stuck down low.

Then, last night, I was taking my contacts out. They were pretty dry (probably from the nap I took in the sun after work), and as I was pulling the left one out, the top of it stuck to my eyeball and it ripped in half. I came downstairs, Marc blinded me with his flashlight looking for it, and I eventually pushed my lids together to make it bunch out to the point where I could get it out.

That sucked.

Better late than never

That's the motto for the day. I bought a couple of birthday cards today for our sisters-in-law, and they're both going to be late by the time they get to their recipients. I'm also late in giving my Denver recap. Let's see how much I can remember.

**We got in on a Tuesday and hung out with Laura and Ron (our ever so gracious hostess and host) and enjoyed yummy Mexican food for dinner.
**On Wednesday we met up with Jason and Jodie at the aquarium--an aquarium unlike any aquarium I've ever seen before because it had TIGERS! Four of them! That was cool. We ate lunch downtown and then headed up to Red Rocks Amphitheater. We were hoping to go see some dinosaur footprints while we were out there, but there was some messed up situation where the road to the footprints was closed and we would have had to pay to ride a bus out there. So we bailed. That night the four of us met up with Ian and Leslie for dinner at Jim and Nick's. OH MY GOSH. The Pig in the Potato Patch and the cheesy dinner biscuits are to DIE for.
**On Thursday, Marc and I ventured out in the morning for a run. It's quite different running in the heat with 0% humidity. Yuck! We only made it about 2 miles before I requested that we stop and head back. That afternoon we headed up to Breckenridge with Laura, Ron, and Bailey (their whippet). It was busier than I thought it would be! We wandered around and checked out the cool shops in town, then headed back to Denver for dinner at The Berkshire--great food!
**On Friday, Jason dropped by before heading off to the airport for his flight back to NY, and he went with us and Ron to breakfast at the Delectable Egg. That evening we went to Joe and Carrie Ann's house for a BBQ. More great food--and great company! We even talked Joe and Carrie Ann into going to Manitou Springs with us the next day.
**On Saturday, we got up early and swung by Joe and Carrie Ann's, then headed off to Manitou Springs. Neat little touristy town! It really reminded me of Gatlinburg, TN. We started at the Cliff Dwelling museum and then headed into town. We played some Skee Ball and old arcade games, wandered around town, and ate ice cream. We also visited the Miramont Castle. The woman working at the entrance that day had two memorable qualities: she absolutely cannot multi-task, and she's a nut for orbs in photographs. Crazy lady. The historic house was cool except for the creepy dolls on the top floor. We had dinner at the Cliff House, where everything was exceptional besides the last bite of Joe's dinner.
**Sunday morning, we had an awesome breakfast at Adam's Mountain Cafe, then we headed to Garden of the Gods. Talk about beautiful--and very similar to parts of Moab. We headed back to Denver after that, and Laura's massage therapist came over to give me, Laura, and Marc massages--so relaxing! That night, Ron made homemade pizza, which was incredibly yummy.
**On Monday, we came home. It was an awesome week!

Oh, I almost forgot the most amazing thing that happened! A few years ago when my parents were visiting in Portland, my dad bought a bear puzzle and left it with us. I brought it out at Laura and Ron's and we all tried solving it to no avail. Then one morning, I just stumbled upon the solution! I was dumbfounded. When we were wandering around the cliff dwelling gift shop, I spotted other varieties of the puzzle, and Laura got the bird one--and she put it together, too! Woo hoo!

A tribute to Marilyn

Marilyn taught me a lot about our software when I first started at work. She was a spicy lady--always speaking her mind, entertaining with her unique brand of humor, and passing along her nearly infinite wisdom. She beat cancer several years ago, but shortly after her retirement last year, she was diagnosed again. This time she didn't make it.

Marc and I (along with tons of current and former coworkers) attended a gathering in her honor this afternoon. It was good to see so many familiar faces, and I know Marilyn would be happy to see us all together.

Cheers, Marilyn. We'll miss you.

Home from Denver

We got back from Denver this afternoon. We had a great time! Now I have to try to remember all the things we did so that I can write about them here... more later.

What? I have a blog?

I keep thinking about this blog, and I keep not writing anything. Don't know why exactly. A short recap of the last couple weeks:
- July 5 party: fireworks + lots of food + Rock Band = fun
- A busy week at work = hectic
- Deschutes' new restaurant last Friday with Adam and Shelly = yummy
- Dinner and games with the Roses last Saturday = long time, no see
- Another really busy week at work = thank goodness for vacation

We did happy hour with Rey and Greg on Friday then came back to our house and played Rock Band. Saturday was a failure of a day. Let's just say there are some crazy people in this world. Today we'll probably be doing laundry and some last-minute clean-up around the house in preparation for our trip to Denver on Tuesday.

That's all for now.

Indy

After a very lazy morning and afternoon (with Marc being the sweetest guy ever by making me breakfast), we took advantage of some free tickets to finally see the new Indiana Jones movie today. It was entertaining, but it wasn't the same as the first ones.

A couple nights ago, we had an AWESOME thunder and lightning storm, which is quite unusual for Portland. Even though it woke me up in the middle of the night, I loved it!

Let's see... now we're home again and Marc's making dinner--bacon-wrapped sausages! Yummy! Everything really is better with bacon. Tomorrow we're going to a 5th of July party which should also turn into a Rock Band party, so that'll be fun. Hope everyone reading this has or had a safe and happy 4th!

The Cat's Out of the Bag

Okay, okay... so here's the very exciting to me and probably not so exciting to anyone else news: I got a promotion! I'm now a supervisor (of only one person, but hey--that's a good way to get my feet wet in management, right?)! I'm still on the same team, and I'm still working with our knowledgebases, so all the things I love about my job shouldn't be changing much. I'll just get to experience some new challenges along with all that normal stuff.

Speaking of work, this short holiday week has been way busier than I expected. It's made the week fly by, and I can't believe that tomorrow is already Thursday. I don't think we have any plans for Friday, but we have a party to go to on Saturday and I'm going to a book club get-together on Sunday. Next week is really busy after work. We start tennis lessons on Monday, I have a hair appointment (bye bye for now red highlights) on Tuesday, more tennis on Wednesday, and the food bank on Thursday. I'm expecting the next couple weeks at work to continue being busy, so I have a feeling I'll be quite frazzled and ready for our Denver vacation later this month!

On the Road Again

Marc came over to work this afternoon and we went running--outside on the pavement--with Kristin and Chris. It's the first time I've been out on real surfaces since our 5K, and let me tell you how tired it made me. Haha! That might become at least a weekly occurrence, but I have a feeling it'll really suck when it starts to get hotter.

Speaking of hot weather... it's supposed to be quite warm in the northwest this weekend. 90s, the last I heard. We're headed up to Cliffdell, WA, for the big annual PNWX campout. It should be a fun time!

Oh, and I have some exciting news, but I can't share it publicly yet. NO I'm not pregnant... it's not *that* kind of exciting. You'll just have to wait.

One Week with the Civic

I love my little car. Again, it's certainly no G35, but it's actually very cool and an enjoyable car to drive. It now has just over 100 miles on it, and it's used about a third of a tank of gas (it was filled up at 20 miles).

Today I took Greg out for a driving lesson. I don't think he's driven since he was a teenager, so I figured the Civic was a perfect car to start learning on again. We spent an hour this afternoon driving around the parking lot at work, practicing a bit of parking, and driving the loop on the main street. He did an awesome job!

Next week is our big PNWX campout, which I'm totally psyched about. We haven't been camping at all yet this season, so it'll be fun to spend a weekend outside.

(sigh)

After a long afternoon and evening of driving different models of Civics and comparing colors, we brought one home. It's a 2008 Galaxy Gray sedan. It's nothing like the Infiniti--or any of our most recent cars--but I like it. Pictures to come...

Caving to the Cost of Gas

Not even a year ago, we got the car that I love more than any car I've had before. The G35. However, after driving it fewer than 6,000 miles in the past 10 months and considering the price of gas and our hefty lease payment, we've decided to try to sell it. We will be replacing it with something more fuel efficient (and that doesn't take premium gas) like a Civic. We've got an appointment to go check them out on Friday. We're also looking to add a "fun car" back to the lineup--if not immediately, then sometime soon. Something like a 350Z or S2000... either way, it works out that having two cars like that, including insurance, will cost us less than having the Infiniti.

Yeah, we're car whores.

Anyway, if you're interested or know anyone who's interested in buying our beloved G35, let me know.

I should have known

I used to help plan our company's annual Art Show, where employees got to showcase their various artwork and performance talents. It took a considerable amount of time and planning, but nothing was too difficult. When I was asked a couple of months ago to help plan our campus's events centered around social responsibility, I accepted, not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into. However, after hours of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, and other various planning, our "Sage Day" on Friday went off with only a few minor hitches.

Employees from around the company donated food for the Oregon Food Bank and pet supplies for the Oregon Humane Society. Five groups of employees completed community service projects in the afternoon for the Oregon Humane Society, Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec District, and Schoolhouse Supplies. We all got reusable shopping bags and water bottles. We had a great BBQ supplemented with bangers and mash, bread pudding, and strawberry trifle.

Our support department sponsored a separate contest to see which team could donate the most stuff for OFB and OHS. I gave them through the end of the day Friday to make their donations, so yesterday I went back to the office (with Marc as my helper) to tally everything. We loaded about 1,300 pounds of stuff into the Xterra and dropped it off at the Humane Society! I am totally impressed with how great of a response we got from the teams in their donations.

After that excursion in the morning, we came home and took what was supposed to be a 20-minute nap. It turned into 2 hours and we overslept the Indiana Jones movie we had free tickets for. Oops.

For dinner we tried a new pizza place--Extreme Pizza! We hung out at Slimey's house with him and the boys for awhile since it'd been awhile since we've seen them.

Anyway, I'm glad everything for Sage Day is done. I have slept a LOT this weekend--it had me exhausted!

An Atheist Named Christian

We succeeded! We survived our first 5K! Marc got a horrible night of sleep before the race, and we were up earlier on Sunday than I usually get up for work. It was cold and rainy. The day had the makings to be completely awful. But it wasn't. We got out to Sherwood and checked in by 7:45. The race didn't start until 8:30, so we sat in the car (and I changed from shorts to pants) until it was time to get out and stretch. All the runners gathered on the track, and then we were off! The course went through a neighborhood and then back along a nice path behind some houses.

A few observations:
- It was cool having neighbors sitting outside cheering us on and playing music.
- The high school band and cheerleaders provided encouragement, too.
- It's really hard to drink water from a dixie cup while you're running.
- The 50 degree cool weather ended up being a blessing. I don't know how comfortable I would have been if it had been 10 or 20 degrees warmer.

Anyway, I made it the whole way without walking a single step. That was my goal. Marc held back from his usual faster pace to stay with me. We crossed the finish line together a few seconds under 34 minutes.

So you might be wondering about the odd title on this post. Last Thursday we got massages, and the lady doing Marc's was talking about her son, named Christian, and how it was funny that he was an atheist. That got me thinking about contradictions, and while I was running yesterday morning, another one struck me.

I've always been impressed by the power of nature--I love things like thunderstorms, the surge of the ocean, and erupting volcanoes. I don't like the human suffering that often accompanies natural phenomena like hurricanes and earthquakes, but I love the reminder that no matter how smart or technologically advanced we are, there's always an element of luck to our very existence. I like how nature puts us in our place.

During my run, I was thinking about how much power we have over our bodies. Last August, I could barely run for 30 seconds. The thought of me running for 30 minutes was completely laughable. Since then, I've proven that even I, the self-proclaimed non-runner, can run distances. There's so much power in our minds to help us accomplish things. That power on a small scale seems completely opposite the power that nature can exert over us, but I love recognizing how both play a part in my life.

First 5K

We're running our first 5K tomorrow morning--The Run for the Roses.

I'll report back the results, but I'll tell you right now that I'm merely going for completion and don't care at all how long it takes me.

Weekend at the Coast

Saturday morning was a challenge for me. The weather in Portland had been scorching, and I assumed that the weather on the coast would be similar, When I realized Saturday morning that it was going to be much cooler, it completely changed my packing plans and forced me to do some hasty loads of laundry. I ended up missing a friend's baby shower due to my poor planning and time management, which was a bummer. Anyway, Marc and I stopped by at Pete and Court's to tend to their cats while they're out of town, then we headed west.

We checked into our suite a little after 3:00. We stayed at the same place as last time, when we witnessed the absurd wedding pictures. This time we stayed in one of the guesthouses down the block from the main building. Not quite oceanfront, but with a bit of a view of the water, our suite had a king bed, full kitchenette, and fireplace in the main room and a separate room with a queen bed. Very spacious, very nice.

We were pretty hungry shortly after we checked in, so we headed down to Mo's for dinner. Mo's has quite a reputation as a coastal institution. However, our last couple trips (this one and one on the central coast a couple years ago) have pretty much ruined it for us. Marc's salad had the wateriest bleu cheese dressing we've ever seen, and our fish and chips entrees were overpriced and greasy. Our lemonades went without refills. It was just a subpar experience.

Back at our room that night, we watched Juno—finally—and really enjoyed it.

Sunday morning we slept in. Thank goodness for those drapes that block out all the light! The morning and early afternoon were foggy. We got dressed and tried to go to the Pig'N'Pancake for breakfast. Bad timing—it seemed the whole town was there. Then we went to a little bistro around the corner from our building. The food on the menu looked fabulous, but the cramped dining room was full of screaming children that Marc couldn't handle, so we finally landed at Dooger's where breakfast, though nothing fancy, was fast, hot, and tasty.

Sunday afternoon, we put on our running gear and hit the beach. It was my first time running 3 miles straight, and I ran it at a faster pace than I've ever maintained. It was nice running outside in the cool air. I wish I could run on the beach everyday!

Since it was still cool and foggy, we decided to hit the sauna, hot tub, and pool up at the main resort for a bit. I LOVE saunas. There's something very refreshing to me about them. We headed back to our room for a bit, and then the sun came out!

We headed down to the beach with a kite, Frisbee, and towels. After lounging around for a bit, we started throwing the Frisbee. I was throwing into the wind, and it kept flying way far from where I was aiming. Once it flew into the middle of a family and plowed a little kid in the face. We moved closer to the water and away from all the other people, but we still didn't have good luck with it. When we got sick of running all over creation to retrieve the disc, we gave up and I flew my kite for a little while.

We headed into town for dinner and had a great burger. Then we stopped at a candy store for some fudge and ice cream. Thoroughly stuffed, we went back to the room and watched Dan in Real Life. Cute movie, but not nearly as funny as I was expecting.

Then, the great mystery of the trip: What happened to Marc's running shirt? He realized it was missing when we started doing some preliminary packing. We tore that room apart looking for it. We unpacked everything. We practically stripped the beds. He moved every piece of furniture. We walked back down to the beach to see if it was dropped (and not yet picked up by someone else). No luck. Marc's paranoid side thinks that someone from the hotel came into our room while we were out and stole just his shirt. That makes me laugh.

Sunday night we went to bed a little before midnight, but I couldn't sleep. I just laid there for HOURS, tossing and turning, before I finally switched pillows and fell asleep sometime after 3 a.m. We had planned to get up early and run on the beach again, but that just didn't happen. We rolled out of bed at 10 and finished packing our stuff.

We checked out at 10:45 and arrived at the Pig'N'Pancake no more than 10 minutes later. We were seated right away, and we ordered pretty quickly. Then we sat and waited nearly 40 minutes for our food. Tables that came in after us got their food first. So that was annoying, but the food was fine.

Overall, it was an awesome weekend away. We agreed that it was really nice to have 2 nights there so that we had one full day to do stuff. Now if we could just figure out what happened to Marc's shirt, the weekend would be a total success.

New Shoes

Marc signed us up for tennis lessons yesterday, so today we went shopping for true "tennis" shoes. A new Sports Authority got built a couple miles up the road, and we had a coupon for $25 off a $100 purchase, so we decided to check the place out.

We parked in an almost-empty parking lot. There were hardly any customers there.

We walked into the store and were greeted by the girl at the register.

We spent about 30 minutes in the store without a single other employee--including 5 that I made eye contact with--saying a word to us. It was amazing in a bad way.

We were successful in our hunt for tennis shoes, though, so I guess it all works out.

Tomorrow is Friday, which I'm happy about. On Saturday, I'm going to a baby shower, and then we're heading off to the coast for a couple nights. I have Monday off of work, so it'll be a nice long weekend. Considering that it's supposed to be in the mid- to high-90s the next couple days, we're seeking some relief at the beach.

Employee stores are bad but oohhhh so good

I know I wrote before about the bad effect our visit to the Columbia employee store had on our wallet. The Nike employee store was just about as bad today. Marc picked me up from work, and we headed over to Nike, where Courtney had put us "on the list." We shopped for 2 hours--no joke!--and we both got lots of new running gear. I picked up a couple of "regular" clothing items, too. Awesome deals!

After that shopping excursion, we swung by the parks and rec center to renew our membership cards. Marc's signing us up for tennis lessons there now. Then, we were supposed to go back by work to get the truck, but we forgot... after picking up some Chinese take-out, we got home and realized we were missing a vehicle. We ate and then went back to work to get it.

In other (exciting to me) news, we're signing up for our first 5k. It'll be a cake walk for Marc. I'll need to do some additional training over the next month. But I'll get to do it in new clothes! Yay!

Quick Random Updates

Busy week at work--over. Yay!

We did happy hour at Chili's yesterday for the first time in a long time. Our waitress seemed pretty disappointed when only 4 of us showed up and 2 of us weren't ordering alcohol. I did enjoy my molten chocolate cake, though.

Today I got back on the treadmill for the first time since I was in L.A. last month. Then we ran errands. I was completely dumbfounded by how cheap our lunch at Costco was! Two polish sausages, two sodas, and a churro for a grand total of $4. $4!! There were LOTS of yummy samples being given away around the store, too. The most exciting thing we got was some new sheets for our new bed.

Then we went to the Portland Running Company to get Marc some new shoes since he's worn through a second pair already. I'm still on my first pair. I'm the running slacker, I guess. He also got the Nike iPod running thingamajigger. Lucky. While he was trying things on, I picked up a couple of brochures for 5k races in the PDX and Seattle areas. There's one here in town on June 1 that I'm trying to talk Marc into. I think I need something like that to kick me into gear.

Finally, tonight we went out to dinner with Pete and Court at Outback. We were afraid we'd have to wait forever for a table, especially after a limo full of teenaged prom-goers showed up, but we snagged a table in the bar section after waiting just a few minutes. Now we're home so that we can lay around on the couches with our full bellies for the rest of the night.

Pictures from the Party

It has been a week of constant meetings at work. By the time I get home, all I wanna do is lounge around on the couch and do brainless things like play games. However, I was reminded that I haven't posted pictures from last Saturday's party... so here they are. (If you're on Facebook or if you play detective well on YouTube, you'll also find a couple of videos from the evening.)

Tres de Mayo - Greg's 30th

Derby Day

In another part of the country, the big thing today is the Kentucky Derby. When we were out at lunch today after seeing the 10 a.m. showing of Ironman (which was a pretty good movie), they had some pre-race stuff on t.v. Now we're home for a couple hours before the trifecta party, and I'm watching more Derby coverage. It kinda makes me homesick. It looks like they have nice weather, and the infield appears to be packed. Next year, I want to have a Derby party... of course I've been thinking that ever since I moved out here and never done it. We'll see.

This evening's trifecta should prove to be fun. Greg's 30th. Cinco de Mayo. Jello and pudding shot contest. Pictures to follow...

Is it weird?

When our cats sneeze, I say, "Bless you."

Is that strange?

Charleston Recap and the Tulip Festival

Charleston is a really neat city. The conference hotel was downtown within walking distance of tons of stuff. The weather was fabulous except for a little bit of rain on the last day after the conference ended. That didn't stop us from walking around for 3 hours though! One night we went out for dinner with a bunch of the conference participants at Muse. The food was WONDERFUL. After that, a few of us went to a rooftop bar for a drink. Then I went back to my room because I was pooped. Overall, it was a great time. More pictures are posted here.

Yesterday, Marc and I went to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn. I have never in my life seen so many tulips. It was really amazing! You can check out some more pictures here.

Home Again

I got up at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time today--after my alarm went off for 6 minutes without me hearing it--to get back to the Charleston airport and come home. Yeah, that's 1:00 a.m. Pacific time. Which means I'm tired. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight!

Packing up again

After a couple days at home, I'm preparing to take off again--this time for Charleston, SC. I did laundry yesterday and started making a mental list of all the things I need to do and pack. This morning, Marc is making me breakfast (he's so sweet!). I'm going to attempt to go to bed early tonight since I need to get up around 3 a.m. but considering that I slept in this morning, it'll probably be hard. The drive to the airport could end up being quite interesting if we get the snow and freezing temps that they're predicting. Yuck.

At least I'll get another Mexican Hot Chocolate. :)

L.A.

L.A..... ahhhh... I'm at LAX now, waiting to leave. It ended up being an interesting trip. The class we went to was really good. Fabulous instructor. After Tuesday's unadventurous dinner at the hotel restaurant, we decided on Wednesday to cab it to Hermosa Beach for dinner. We walked out on the pier, then ate at a Mexican joint. Then... back at the hotel that night, I got sick. And I woke up in the middle of the night to get sick again. Boooo! Thursday morning, when I stood up, I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the day. Achy all over. The thought of food make me feel ill. But I struggled through it and managed to pay attention during class. By the afternoon I was able to stomach a slice of watermelon, some Ritz crackers, and Excedrin. I'm better today, but I still don't have an appetite.

So I'm standing at a little power station kiosk thingy where you can plug in your electronics. There's a girl sitting in a chair by the thing with her laptop plugged in and sitting on the little shelf. Another lady came up a few minutes ago and plugged in her laptop and then went and sat down about 30 feet away. About 5 mintues later, some random couple approached her laptop, opened it, and started trying to use it. I looked at the people, then looked down the row of seats to the lady, and then asked if that was theirs (knowing full well that it wasn't). The lady comes up, and the guy says something like, "Oh, I just thought those were here for anyone to use." Uhhhh, really? Because it makes sense for random laptops to just be sitting around LAX for anyone to use? Okay. Weird people.

P.S.

It's really smoggy here. When we were flying south and I was looking out to the east, I couldn't see a thing past the end of the wing. Seriously--completely smoggy. My eyes are already burning. Bah!

Made it to L.A.

I wrote this on the plane this afternoon:

I have a love-hate relationship with traveling. On one hand, I love going places and experiencing different things. I also love the hustle and bustle of airports with so many people going so many different places for so many different reasons. The excitement of simply breaking my everyday routine and going someplace different is palpable enough to give me chills when I think about it.

On the other hand, I hate the hassle that goes with traveling. I hate figuring out what to pack and trying not to overpack. I hate the drive to the airport, the parking, the shuttles, and the waiting for flights to board and then take off.

The plane I'm on right now, headed to Los Angeles, is close to being full. There are a few babies crying, but I can't hear them now that I have my headphones on and iPod playing. There's a mom with her two kids sitting in the row behind me. From what I gathered listening to their conversation before and as we took off, the kids may have only been on a plane once before, and it sounds like it was a small one nothing like the 737 we're on now. Their excitement over tiny things like getting pushed back from the gate grew to an almost overwhelming exhilaration as we turned onto the runway and sped up to take off. Their entire conversation was littered with "Oh my gosh!" and "Holy crud!" Ah, the simple life of children. Sometimes I think we all need to take a lesson from kids about how not to take things for granted—things that used to be so full of wonder for us.

Like flying on a plane. It really is pretty amazing when you think about it. Our ability to fly anywhere in the world in a matter of hours (sometimes very long hours… but still…) is pretty incredible. I'm grateful for any opportunity to travel anywhere, regardless of the hassle that comes with it.

Plus, my belly is full of a Mexican hot chocolate right now. I can't complain about anything.

Travels

I'm off to L.A. tomorrow with my boss for a training course. I'll be there through Friday night.

The best part: Getting a Mexican Hot Chocolate from Coffee People at the airport! Woot!

Yes, I am the big big slacker

Last Friday we went back to the Jester Comedy Club. I think the consensus was that it wasn't as funny as the first show we went to a couple months ago, but it was still a good time. Possibly the best part was watching Kristin turn nearly purple when one of the comedians picked on her a bit.

Last Saturday was a big lounge around the house all day and night kinda day. We played a bit of Rock Band. Good times.

Work was pretty busy this past week, and it really hit home that I'm about to be out of the office for quite a while. Last Tuesday I took a sick day for the first time in almost exactly a year. I just felt icky, dizzy, and sick to my stomach. After a lot of sleep, I felt better.

Last night we did happy hour at Bugatti's, then Rey and Greg and later Amber came over to play Rock Band. More good times!

Today we went to Mactarnahan's Tap Room for lunch with Chris and Slimey. We ran a bunch of errands. Steve agreed to buy our old TV, and he and Andrea invited us over for dinner, so Marc and I loaded the TV into the truck--which was interesting in a bad way when we both just about crushed our fingers off. But we survived. Dinner was great, but we pooped out pretty quickly and headed home around 10:00.

I'm working most of the day on Monday until I have to cheat on my hairdresser and get my cut, color, and highlight done by someone else. Then I have a meeting I have to go in for on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon my boss and I fly out for L.A. I'll be back from there late Friday night. Then at 6:00 a.m. the following Monday, I'll be back on a plane on my way to Charleston, South Carolina, for a conference. It should be a good networking opportunity. I was supposed to come back late Wednesday, but now I'm staying another night and flying back into town around noon on Thursday.

I dread having to pack for these trips, but I'm looking forward to the travel.

I'm a cheater

I'm cheating.... on my hairdresser. Brooke's been doing my hair every 4 weeks for the past year and a half. But with my trips to L.A. and Charleston coming up right when my next appointment should happen and Brooke being booked up on the days I am in town, I had to schedule with someone else. Boooooooooo. Is it weird that I feel guilty about this?

Charlie the Unicorn

Yes, I've been neglectful of my blog. I have no excuse. I also can't think of anything that I could have written about for the past week. But just so I can say I posted something, here's an absolutely insane, nonsensical video that I was introduced to earlier this week. I want to know what possessed the person or people behind it to make it.

Amelia is 1!

Yesterday afternoon we went to Laura and Aaron's house to help celebrate Amelia's first birthday. It's really hard to believe that it's been over a year since I shared my office with Laura, and it's amazing how much Amelia has grown!

Later, after dinner out at Stanford's, we played some Rock Band with Pete and Court and watched Hitman until everyone pooped out.

Today I finished clearing all the stuff I want to save from my old laptop so that we can get it reformatted and sent off to its new owner. We're going to swing by a furniture store that's going out of business and check out their King beds. We've been thinking that our Queen is in need of an upgrade... I already use King size sheets, but I'm not sure we're going to want to get a whole new bed and mattress... so, we'll see.

Let's get ready to ROCK

Yesterday we bought a PS3. And Rock Band. Today we bought a new TV (it's huge!!). We are SOOOOO ready to rock.

An outline of our weekend

Friday
After work. No happy hour. Boo.
Jo and Andy came to town. Yay!
I got to take a 20 minute nap before we picked them up for dinner. Yay!
Dinner at the Rogue. Yay!
Boiler Room too crowded. Boo.
Driving around downtown like idiots (boo) before stopping at Blitz. Yay!
Adam and Shelly joining us there. Yay!
Playing shuffleboard. Yay!
Going back to Adam's place to play Rock Band. Yay!
Not leaving there until 2:30. Hmm.
Not going to bed until 3:30. Boo.
Marc sleeping on the couch because I couldn't get him upstairs. Boo.

Saturday
Waking up in an empty bed about five hours later. Hmm.
Finding Marc asleep on the family room floor. Funny!
Marc missing out on good grub at Russell Street BBQ. Boo for him.
Doing next to nothing the rest of the weekend. Recovery.

An exciting Thursday

Yesterday was an eventful day. They fed us tons of food at work, which is always cool. Fruit, juice, and granola bars for breakfast... pizza for lunch... and then dessert during our team meeting time. Except this wasn't your usual team meeting. First we competed in teams to build the tallest tower out of toothpicks and mini marshmallows. My team didn't win. But then we had a pie-eating contest. I basically volunteered Peder to be the pie eater, and I was the blindfolded feeder standing behind him. He ate the whole freakin' thing--or at least as much as I was able to scoop up with my spoon. I spilled some of it onto the table. Regardless, we won. Yay!

Then, at the food bank yesterday afternoon, we found a tiny little mouse in one of the boxes, which startled a few of the people. A little later, one of the boxes fell apart and a huge container of teriyaki sauce exploded on the floor. That was our cue to start cleaning up.

Tonight Andy and Jo are coming down from Washington, and we get to hang out with them and grab some dinner. Woot!

GUMBY!

I was up at our neat local toy store this afternoon picking up a gift for our nephew. As I waited for them to giftwrap the box, I noticed a display of a bunch of small little toys--tiny pigs (like from that Pass the Pigs), elephants, frogs, and so forth. That's when I spied the bin full of mini Gumby and Pokey figures! YES! I remember being totally obsessed with Gumby and Pokey for a period of time when I was a kid. My brother Tom had a huge inflatable Gumby--I'm talkin' 4 or 5 feet tall--that I always wanted to steal but never did. Somewhere in this house, I'm pretty sure I still have a little Pokey like I saw today, but Gumby is long gone. When I have some cash, I'll be marching back into that store to reclaim Gumby and Pokey for myself.

A Spring Resolution

I've slacked off on my running lately. While Marc's over here running a marathon's worth of miles every week, I've been lucky to run even once a week.

Today, that changes.

I'm back on the treadmill or (as weather permits) back on the pavement. I'll likely stick with the treadmill at least until I finish watching the last season of 24.

And speaking of weather, WOW at the snow that's fallen back in KY and OH. I'm totally jealous.

A Nice Day on the Slopes

Our initial plan for the day was to go to Ski Bowl. As we were heading down 26, we drove past Chris and recognized her car and license plate. She and Ashby were heading up to Mt. Hood, too, for some snowshoeing. Turns out she had a buy one get one free voucher for Timberline, so we pulled off at an exit to pick that up from her. Ski Bowl wasn't open anyway, so Timberline it was! The sun didn't come out as much as we expected, but it was warm, dry, and uncrowded. Except for one good fall that I'm sure is going to leave a huge bruise on my hip, it was an awesome day.

We stopped at the Huckleberry Inn for our traditional omelet and huckleberry pancake, and then made it back to town before rush hour traffic got too bad. I might have to see if there's another day I can take off work in the middle of the week so that we can do this again.

Friday on Wednesday

I decided to take tomorrow and Friday off work. It feels good to know that I have a long 4-day weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow we're going up to Mt. Hood to ski (Marc) and board (me). YAY YAY YAY! I can't believe that we haven't been once this season. And, to top it off, it's supposed to be warm--45 or 50 degrees--tomorrow, so it'll be interesting figuring out what to wear so we won't burn up.

Now let me take a moment to rant about how idiotic the "contestants" on the newest inane game show, The Moment of Truth, are. In case you've missed this gem of a show (please pick up on my sarcasm), the basic premise is that these people have gone through a lie detector test ahead of time and then they answer the questions during the show while gambling for money. They have to answer a series of questions at each level to win money. Each level is worth more. They can stop when they achieve a level but not in the middle of one. If at any point they are caught in a lie, they lose all the money they've amassed to that point. All of it. Gone. So here are these people who are well aware of the questions they had to answer, whether or not they lied, and how damaging the answers could be to their personal relationships--and they're ruining everything for a shot at some money. It's the ultimate in disgusting guilty pleasures. It boggles my mind that these people are so desperate to win money (or maybe they're sure they can beat the polygraph) that they'll answer questions like, "Since you've been married, have you have sexual relations with another person?" while their closest family and friends sit a few feet away watching. Sheesh.

Leap Day

If my grandpa were still alive, he'd officially celebrate his 22nd birthday today. He was born on leap day in 1920. I wish I'd been born on leap day.

Showered in Soda

We had a team lunch today at PF Chang's. All eight of us--my boss and everyone who works for her--were actually able to make it. I get quite excited about going out to eat, and because it's usually an hour later than I normally eat lunch, I'm always starving. So I did my regular thing and made reservations and got our orders ready ahead of time. We arrived, sat down, ordered immediately, and enjoyed our food. As we were finishing up, the waiter brought me a refill. As he set it down in front of me, the tray he was holding over my back tipped, and a cola of some type spilled all the way down my back.

I immediately recognized what had happened, but for a few seconds I was frozen.

Then I started laughing as he was apologizing profusely.

Seriously, I couldn't stop laughing. All the while, I was thinking that other people would probably be pretty mad, but it's not like the guy did it on purpose. And what could I do about it now? Nothing. Might as well not make a scene. They brought out some extra napkins so I could try to dry off a little. Then the manager came out. He also apologized and said that they would comp our drinks and appetizers. He offered to dry clean my jacket. He also offered to send one of his employees down the block to Macy's to buy me a new shirt. In between laughs, I declined and let him know that I lived just 2 miles away, so I could just go home, shower, and change.

But wait. I'm really curious about this. Who would he have sent? What would they have asked me before they left? Would I have gotten to request a certain style, color, or fabric? Could I have requested that they get something from The Gap or Banana Republic instead? Hmmm... I wonder if anyone has ever taken them up on an offer like that.

Anyway, he recognized that we were out at a business lunch (so anything free he was going to give us really didn't help me out). When he came back with our bill sans drinks and apps, he also had an envelope for me with free appetizer coupons and gift certificates. Sweet!

Home Show news

My two days at the Home Show were long. I swear, I don't know how people with jobs that require standing all day can do it every day. Today's the last day of the show; locks have been selling, and Marc's making some good contacts which will hopefully pan out with more sales over time. Pretty exciting!

Tonight we're going out to dinner with the guys from BioAxxis. Either Gustav's or Rogue... Mmmmmmm either way.

Not much else going on around here, besides realizing that we have a bunch of busy weekends lined up! Birthday parties seem to be abundant this time of year.

Vacation from work to work somewhere else

I'm taking tomorrow and Thursday off of work to help Marc work the Portland Home and Garden show at the Expo Center. The show actually runs through Sunday, but a couple of guys from one of his suppliers are flying out from New York to help out on the busier days Friday through Sunday. Needless to say, this is not my preferred way to spend vacation from work. Fortunately I get to sleep in until 7:30 tomorrow.

I got an AWESOME gift from Laura today. Stuff On My Cat notecards and envelopes! Sweet!

You can fix anything with duct tape!

Every once in awhile I think of random, bizarre, and/or funny stories from my past. Since I have no better place to share them, you, my fellow readers, are going to get to enjoy them.

I was on Facebook this afternoon and noticed that one of my friends had joined a group called "Duck Tape Users Anonymous" (sic). This reminded me of a fabulous duct tape story.

I was 16 years old and working my first real job--lifeguard at a neighborhood pool. We had four pools--the Big L (7-lane lap pool with an extra jut on one end that made the "L" shape), the diving well (home to 2 low and 1 high board), the baby pool, and the adult pool. The pump room for the Big L was pretty impressive. There was a lot of water in that pool. Anyway, there were tons of pieces of PVC pipe in the pump room routing water to and from the pools. Some were straight; others were linked together at 90 degree angles. One day, one of the angle connector pieces broke, and water started spewing forcefully from the pipe. We shut off the water and headed up to the office manager's office. His name was Donny. He was an idiot.

We explained the situation to Donny and asked for a few bucks so we could run over to Home Depot and buy a new PVC connector piece. Donny was also a cheapskate. He threw us a roll of duct tape and stated, "Just use some of this! You can fix anything with duct tape!" Thinking he was joking, and then quickly realizing he wasn't, we tried to politely argue that duct tape would not hold together two PVC pipes with who knows how much water pressure pumping through them. We continued to balk, and he finally accompanied us to the pump room to demonstrate how well duct tape works.

He wound that roll of duct tape around the two pipes... over and over. We stood back and tried to stifle giggles. Then he told us to flip the switch to turn the water back on. I stepped outside of the pump room. The switch was flipped. The duct tape immediately tore apart as the two pipes burst apart again. Water flooded out of the pipes.

At that point, Donny handed us a $10 bill and told us to hurry back.

Donny is the same man responsible for the serious electric shock I received from the pizza oven while working at the pool's snack bar, but I'll save that story for another day.

Sun!

It's been sunny this weekend, which is a nice change of pace during February in Portland. Nothing too newsworthy has happened since my last post. No news is good news, right? We went out for Rey's 34th birthday on Friday. Yesterday Marc and I rocked 3-hour naps and then went to dinner with Slimey, Chris, and the boys. Afterwards, we went back to their house and Marc and I played Rock Band with the kids. We were the old, uncool people, but it was fun for us. :)

Today we're going over to Steve and Andrea's for a barbecue. I just found out that they now have a trampoline... this could be fun....

In other news

Kristin and I were sitting at our desks in our office about an hour ago when we started to hear sirens. Lots of them. We watched several emergency vehicles go by on 26 and noticed that the traffic had all but come to a halt. After a few more sirens, I pulled up a traffic cam and we could tell there was a massive accident at Bethany. I left at 4:00, but couldn't take my normal route home because of all the traffic abandoning 26 for a detour. I saw a helicopter, which I assumed was a news chopper along the way. Then, as I turned onto the street that parallels 26 (and is pretty much right next to where the accident occurred), I noticed that the helicopter was getting really close to the ground--landing on 26, actually. There were several "spectators" pulled over on the side of the road and kids running around everywhere (this isn't safe--it's a 45 MPH zone). I watched as the helicopter set down, and then I noticed that it was a Life Flight helicopter. Bad news. Now, either the news stations aren't talking about the accident or else we just keep missing it as Marc flips around. Scary stuff, though. Be careful out there, people!

Hickin' it up

Marc's amazed that I haven't blogged about Sunday, so here goes. The monster truck show was pretty amusing. The first highlight of the day was realizing that we had tickets that allowed us to enter on the club level instead of the main level like most of the people there. So we skipped the lines and walked right in. Our seats were good. The trucks were loud. The mullets were not as plentiful as we expected. I think I only saw one on a spectator. Most of the people there were dads with little boys. The guys working the show and the announcer were exactly what we expected. I'm honestly pretty amazed that they're able to get 8 big monster trucks in a relatively small space like the Rose Garden, but it worked. We left after about an hour--the fumes were bothering everyone. When we left our seats and then looked back into the arena, it was quite obvious that the air was gray (and nasty). It was an experience--one that I'm glad was free and one that I won't likely repeat unless we go to one outside. Overall, it was fun.

The Jester

Last night we went to a comedy club in Beaverton called The Jester. It was their 3 month anniversary, so it's pretty new. Kristin had the hook-up and got everyone in for half price, and we had a good-sized group of work and other friends show up. Both comics were funny in very different ways. First was Louie Foxx, whose show was a mixture of comedy and magic. He pulled in participants from the audience to help with his magic tricks. He was good. The headliner was Larry Reeb--Uncle Lar--from Chicago. He was pretty crass, and he had us laughing the entire hour! Even after we left the club and ended up at Oak Hills, we kept referencing bits from his routine. Good times!

Tomorrow something very special is going to happen. It's something I've dreamed about (okay, maybe not dreamed about, but at least really wanted to do) for as long as I can remember. When I lived in Kentucky, we always joked about going to tractor pulls and figure 8 rallies and crap like that. We never actually did it. But there's one thing along those lines that I've had on my life to-do list: Attend a monster truck show. If for no other reason than just to say that I have, I've always wanted to see a monster truck show. For one thing, I think it will be interesting to examine the population demographic at an event like this. I have a feeling it will make the crowd at state fairs seem "normal." Secondly, I really believe that the event itself will be entertaining. A few weeks ago we started seeing the commercials for the monster trucks coming to the Rose Garden. They always show up around Valentine's Day, which I think is humorous. Anyway, I whined to Marc about really wanting to go, and then the lightbulb clicked. We have a friend who works for the Blazers and can often get tickets to other Rose Garden events for free. So we asked, and we received! Sunday Sunday Sunday! Yeah. Tomorrow. 2:00. Me and Marc and Pete and Courtney are going to watch the monster truck show. Awesome! Is it sad that that's the highlight of my weekend?

And though I know Marc is anxiously awaiting what I'm going to say on the political front (as promised in my last post), I still haven't written it. Maybe this weekend I'll sit down and give it some though. Maybe I'll wait until after the monster trucks. That experience might give me some perspective about the state of our country. Haha!

Exhausted

I ended up staying an extra 2 hours at work this afternoon to help take care of some urgent stuff with my boss and a whole bunch of other people. Marc was awesome enough to have dinner ready by the time I finally got home. Love him!

I've been formulating a post in my mind about politics, but I haven't written anything for it yet. Be on the lookout... it could be interesting.

Oh, and JUST as I expected: Since I took the plunge and bought my iPod Touch, they made one with more storage. Figures. That was the reason I wasn't going to buy it--it's smaller than my old old old iPod!!--but I did it anyway. Mere weeks later, they double the size of mine for just $100 more. Oh well.

Two things I like about watching sports

I used to be a hardcore UK basketball fan. It's not so easy to do now that I'm on the West Coast--the games aren't televised too often. Other than that, I've never been huge on watching sports on television, though I don't really mind it either. However, I've always been anti-pro sports.

But I have to admit that watching the Super Bowl today was fun for two reasons:

1. I didn't care about either of the teams, so there was no real stress about the outcome. This made even pro football bearable--and surprisingly fun.

2. I like rooting for the underdog. Although it wouldn't have changed my mood at all if the Patriots had won, it was cool watching the Giants win in the last seconds of the game.

Super Bowl Sunday

Yesterday I finished ripping CDs. Thank goodness for that. Last night we picked up a couple pizzas from Papa Murphy's, hung out with Jess and Craig, and watched Mr. Woodcock. If you live in the PDX area, I'm telling you that you absolutely MUST try the artichoke/chicken/bacon Delite pizza. I don't think it's on their official menu because it's a special promotion or something, but I'll be amazed (and heartbroken) if they don't keep it around forever. It's yummy!

Today we're actually going to a Super Bowl party. I know... weird. A friend of Marc's that he hasn't seen in 15 years or so is in town from SoCal. We're heading up to the 'Couve to catch up with him and watch the game.

Ripping CDs has become my life

I haven't written because I've been spending every spare minute reripping every CD we own. Somehow, most of them were ripped into .wma format way back when instead of .mp3. So I'm redoing it. And it takes forever.

I'm so ready for Lost to start up again tomorrow! Yay!

Oh, and if you're on Facebook, be sure to stop by and see the amazingly hilarious and embarrassing pictures that I posted in one of my albums. They're awesome.

Karaoke!

Last night was awesome fun! We started out at the Brazen Bean where they served very yummy martinis. However, they had no beer. Marc wasn't happy about that. It was taking some other folks from work longer than we expected to make it downtown, so the group at BB made an executive decision to head to the Rogue for some grub. (Yes, we just went there last week, but we went back because it was so good!) We hung out there for quite awhile; Kristin, Jocelyn, Neil, Justin, and Courtney joined me, Marc, Greg, and Pete there. Then Adam and Shelly showed up for a bit. After A&S took off, the rest of the group headed out to the Boiler Room. (Yes, we went there last week, too, but it was fun, so we went back!) There was hardly anyone there when we first arrived, and there was no line for karaoke, so I signed up to sing Dirty Little Secret (see, that practice on Rock Band paid off!). It wasn't good. I know I sounded awful. But it was fun. The computer froze up on my lyrics, so I had to wing the second half of the song. A little later, I sung Only Happy When It Rains. Then it got crowded and I stopped. Good times! Phil and Agnes showed up just as we were heading out, so we didn't get to hang with them for long. We drove a bunch of people home, picked up some Taco Bell, and then crashed.

Tonight we're supposed to go to a keg party benefit (long story...), but it's raining and below freezing outside, which means that the roads will likely be really yucky later tonight. We'll see what happens...

Yeah, now I'm the Dork

First, I'm switching to a larger font for this blog. I don't know why I've been using something so small all these months, but I'm sick of squinting, so I'm done with that.

I came home yesterday to find a MacBook of my own waiting for me. Marc claims that his MacBook was lonely and wanted a sister. Bizarre, but okay. The last time I used a Mac was my senior year of high school for a graphic design class. It's interesting to use a computer when I don't really know how to use it. As I said to Marc yesterday, I feel like I'm having to relearn logic. I'd forgotten what a pain it is to switch to a new computer, and that hassle is compounded by the inability to just copy My Docs from the old one to My Docs on the new one. This is a whole new ballgame. I think I (will) like it though.

Marc is a Dork

He's sitting on the couch with his new MacBook, and he's video chatting with our buddy Claus who lives up in B.C.

Dork dork dork. If you could see me, you'd see me rolling my eyes.

Another new restaurant experience

Another of my resolutions this year is to go to new restaurants. I feel like there are so many places to go eat in this city, but we haven't historically made a good practice of leaving the "Beaverton bubble." I've said in the past that we should seek out new places more often, but this year we're following through. Eating at the Rogue Brewery on Friday was new. And as I mentioned in my last post, they made, quite possibly, the best burger we've ever eaten here in town.

Last night, we tried to go to Fire on the Mountain with Slimey, Chris, and the kids. It was packed, so we went down the street to Pause. Great food! I had a chicken sandwich; Marc had another burger. I can see this turning into a problem as we discover more places we like to eat at and have to carefully choose where to eat out from an increasing number of options on the weekends.

Mark it down in the history books

It's 1:30 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning. I got up at my regular 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, but somehow I wasn't asleep at 9:00 p.m. like i usually am on Friday nights. Amazing.

Today was pretty eventful! Laura came to visit at work with Amelia, then they went out to lunch with me and Kristin. Since we ate right by the Mac Store, I decided to take the plunge and buy an iPod Touch. It ROCKS. And I still don't quite know exactly how it all works. I'm excited to dig into it more tomorrow (or later today, I guess).

We skipped happy hour because we met up at Adam's place (which I love because it's on the hill with an awesome view of the entire city) after work. We had a couple of drinks and then headed out to dinner at Rogue with him, Shelly, his roommate, and his roomie's girlfriend. I'd never eaten there, and I must say that their Kobe burger with bacon and bleu cheese was pretty much the best burger I've had in a long time.

Then we went to the Boiler Room for some karaoke action. It took forever (and sitting through some awful songs--except for the awesome rendition of Wonderboy) before Shelly finally got called. She rocked No Rain and just about everybody in the place was singing along. Then we left. No, I didn't partake.

So we went back to Adam's place and played Rock Band--I still love that game!!!--for awhile. I was THRILLED that he got a couple of songs by All-American Rejects. I sung them both and got a 99% on one and 100% on the other! Rock on! Later I sang Vasoline by STP and got 100% on it, too! That made my night. Now my throat is sore, and now I know what songs I'll look for the next time we go to a karaoke bar. :)

There were lots of good quotes tonight. I wish I could remember them--and I wasn't even drinking! Here's one good one though.
Marc: I wanna climb that tower! Let's climb the tower!
Me: The crane? (There's a huge crane outside Adam's place to aid in the construction of a new residential building down the street.)
Adam: We're not drunk enough yet.

Yeah, like we'd ever climb a crane. The thought of it is funny.

Idiocy

Deal or No Deal. I think it's on every night of the week these days because of the writers' strike. I find it simultaneously hilarious and sad that, night after night, the contestants exclaim their positivity that the case they've chosen contains $1,000,000. It's a game of CHANCE, people. No matter how much you want for it to be true, it's absolutely stupid to proclaim that you're POSITIVE that the case you chose contains $1,000,000. Ultimately, these people pass up $200,000 or $300,000 deals because they're sure their case holds more, just to walk out at the end of the show with $30,000 or so. Lame.

We went to the Mac Store tonight to look for a replacement laptop for Marc since his has been in the crapper lately. I also wanted to check out the iPod touch in person. Since we bought new laptops at the same time last summer, we agreed that from this point forward, we'd buy new laptops at the same time every time. We get way jealous when one of us gets a new gadget that the other doesn't. Anyway, we walked out with only one laptop, and Marc's not even sure that he'll keep it. I'm majorly tempted by the 16GB Touch, but it's hard to spend $400 on an iPod that doesn't even have as much storage as my big, old, clunky iPod. I just know that as soon as I buy it, they'll come out with something better or cheaper. Such is the way of electronic life. I passed on the laptop for now because I just couldn't justify spending the money on something I really want but don't really need. My computer's fine. I'll survive. For now. But if you see me pouting, you'll know why.

Jewelry

If you know me, you know I'm not a huge jewelry-wearing kinda girl. But I was invited by a friend of Kristin's to a jewelry party tonight. Hey, it was advertised in the Evite as a jewelry and dessert party, so how could I resist? Anyway, it was cool, and I did find a ring to buy. Someone made the most fabulous lemon bars I think I've ever had. I'll have to figure out who and get the recipe. The highlight of the night was Kristin's concoction of champagne and pomegranate juice. Yummy! And the cherry on top of the sundae was that it started snowing on my way home! I love snow. Remember we got some snow on Christmas, but I'm still waiting for a nice, real blanket of it. A snow day from work would be nice, too. :)

Winter Party Recap

Good food? Check.
Nice music? Check.
Fun with friends? Check.
Catching up with coworkers who I rarely see? Check.
Marc entertained at a Hold 'Em table most of the night? Check.
Not wearing shoes a majority of the time because they hurt? Check.

From what I remember, we had a good time at the party last night. We didn't end up going out afterwards, but that was probably for the better...

Preparing for the Party

I was wide awake at 6:30 this morning and told myself, "F that!" and went back to sleep until 8:30. I took a shower. I went down the street to get a pedicure. Amazingly, even though I haven't been there in a couple of months, they greeted me by name when I walked through the door. I may have said this before, but I think it would be fun to learn Vietnamese so that I could understand what those ladies say about people. Every time someone came in, they would all gab with each other for a minute or two. It reeks of "we're talking about you"--I'm just dying of curiosity about what they actually say.

Now I'm home for a few minutes before I head off to my 3+ hour long hair appointment. Cut, color, curls. I LOVE getting my hair done. Then, I'll come back home, get dressed, do my makeup, maybe do some pre-funking, and we'll head out. Some people are already planning on hitting some bars or clubs afterward; we may just tag along. I'm excited!!

I promise to post some pictures of the madness tomorrow.

Army of Ducks

This is flippin' hilarious.

Army Of Ducks

Love it.

I'm pooped. I'm exhausted. I just got back from my monthly volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank, where we processed over 10,000 pounds of food, and I'm dreading how much my back and shoulders are going to ache tomorrow. I don't know how to choose which of three pairs of shoes to wear this weekend. I also don't know what color eyeshadow I'm supposed to wear with a red dress. I'm hopeless.

Does anyone know what language this is and what it means? Please don't tell me it's an insult. "A demain, mon petit chou."

Eyebrows waxed

My eyebrow wax was quick and nearly painless--at least compared to the waxing experiences I've had in the past. I really like how they look, too!

That's all I've got. Nothing else is going on. Another day in the life...

Shopping for high heels

As I've mentioned, my company winter party is this Saturday. I went shopping for shoes this afternoon after work. I hate shoe shopping (unless I'm shopping for Danskos...). I especially hate shopping for shoes to wear with a dress when I don't have the dress with me to see how the shoes look with it. I found a pair that I liked enough to buy, but I'm going to continue looking just in case... tomorrow I'll stop at Nordstrom Rack.

I also made an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed tomorrow. I've never done anything to my eyebrows, so this is a bit scary. As Marc commented, "Just don't have it so they look like they're drawn on with a pencil." Heh.

It's only a matter of time

Oh, the world we live in. It's only a matter of time until EVERYthing in our lives is somehow connected to a computer or network of some sort. It doesn't seem like that long ago, I was amazed at the Walkman-ish portable AM/FM radio and headphones that my mom got for free after sending in some proofs of purchase from cereal boxes. Of course, I was 5 years old and promptly left it out in the backyard during a rain storm, after which the cheap-o thing never worked again.

Anyway.

I logged on to Blockbuster.com to update my queue today, and I got a pop-up message that blew my mind--even though it's really not that big of a deal. The Web site is now smart enough to know what we rented in the store and point out when those items are also in my queue. Flippin' awesome! Now I don't have to remember every time we rent something in the store to come back to my queue and take it out.

That rocks.

Marginal success

I think all the vitamins along with mass amounts of liquids I've been consuming over the past few days actually helped prevent me from getting all-out sick. Knock on wood. I'm not getting any worse... but then I'm not feeling a whole lot better either.

Next Saturday is our work "winter party"--since, for whatever reason, we don't have a holiday party in December. Last year I bought three dresses to choose from for the party. One ended up being too small. This year it fits, but I'm still not going to wear it. Maybe next year. I just need to find a new pair of shoes... and get a pedicure... I do have an appointment scheduled at my salon that day to get my hair cut, colored, and styled. Hey--I don't get many opportunities to get all gussied up! I have to take advantage of them when they come along! Marc suggested that I get some fake eyelashes to wear. Uh... no, I don't think that'll be happening any time in the near future. Everyone always tells me that my eyelashes are already really long, so I don't know what the big deal is. I just need some mascara. Marc likes eye makeup though. On ME, not himself. I'll see what I can cook up.

ODing on Vitamin C

It's been a long time since I was sick. I remember being sick around exactly this time of year for the past 3 years, but since last January, I don't think I've come down with anything nasty. Maybe in the spring there was a sore throat kind of thing, but that was a still a long time ago. Today I woke up with bad sinus pain and a reasonably snotty nose. Boooo. So I've been drinking orange juice and vitamin water, eating vitamin-fortified foods, and popping vitamins most of the day in hopes of nipping this in the bud. The last thing I need right now is something to distract me from the hundreds of call notes I have to read every day at work this month--not to mention the planning I still need to do for the statistical analysis of those call notes. Blah.

Happy New Year!

I already like 2008 better than 2007--mostly because I prefer even numbers to odd ones. Actually, if all the numbers are odd (like 1997, though 1991 is even better because it's a palindrome), that's okay, too. I'm very tuned in to numbers. Don't know why. Enough of that.

We went to a Hawaiian-themed party last night at Steve and Andrea's. Andrea cooked lots of awesome food (which I ate way too much of), and Steve made some interesting drinks (Kahlua-colada, anyone?). It was an evening of great conversations and lots of laughs... and Dance Dance Revolution. Yes, that's right. I have now experienced DDR first-hand. I think Marc's the only one who didn't play. In the fog of my memory from last night, I think Marc mentioned having video of me doing DDR. That's scary. We also played Wii games for awhile, and Marc managed not to injure any more fingers while playing tennis.

ETA: Video of me and Steve playing DDR...


On to my resolution for the year. It's a simple one. I'm going to ask more questions. Not the nosy ones, but the "I'm interested in you" ones. I can't tell you how many times I engage in conversations with other people that start with them asking me a question (about my day, the weekend, a hobby--whatever) and later end or move on to other subjects without me asking them about something. I *always* realize this when it's too late. The other way this occurs is that I feel like I'm invading someone's privacy when I ask questions, but I need to realize that I'm not. Let's see how I do over the next year.