Checking something off the to-do list

For over a decade I've wanted to go river rafting. Tomorrow I'll be able to check it off my life's to-do list. We're leaving home in just over an hour for camping tonight, and I still have laundry in the machine, I haven't finished packing, and I need to take a shower. Bah.

Assuming Marc found the underwater housing for the camera, I'll have pics to post on Sunday.

One of the great mysteries of the world

Here's one for someone to explain: Why are cell phone stores busy no matter when you go into them? Seriously. It's a random Monday. I'm in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates. People shouldn't be out in masses buying new phones. But they are. We got sick of waiting and left before we could be helped. I was also starving after a 45-minute run, so food soon took a higher spot on the priority scale than getting a new phone.

Crashing a BBQ

Marc and I went over to Steve and Andrea's last night. Their neighborhood was having a BBQ; we crashed it. But we brought baked beans, which people liked, so we were okay. (Later on when Marc brought out the portable fire pit, they liked us even more.) The fire department came over with one of their brand new engines and let the kids climb around it. The firefighters were cool and it was neat seeing the engine up close. After the party split up, we went inside and did some karaoke for a bit. Good times.

Today we tried to go to Stanich's for a burger with Slimey. We have a thing going for hamburgers lately. I think we have an unofficial goal to try two new burger places a month. A couple weekends ago we had burgers at Annie's (not bad, but too much celery salt!) and Skyline (not new to me and Marc, but it was for Slimey). So Stanich's is closed on Sundays, which sucks because we drove all the way over to that side of town for their burger. We walked down the block to Alameda Brewhouse instead, where Marc and I got a decent burger and Slimey got a meatball sandwich. We'll have to make another visit over there (on a Saturday next time) so we can try Stanich's.

I've been keeping up with running. I got as high as 7th place after my run this morning, but the last time I looked, I'd been knocked back down to 9th. Gotta stay in the top 10...

Excuses, excuses

I keep not blogging because I keep thinking about all the things I need to write about, and it feels overwhelming. Enough of that. I'll start with today, and as I think about other things that have happened that are blog-worthy, you'll all get to enjoy a bit of a history-of-Mindie lesson.

The big news lately is that I started running--and in a much bigger way than I ever have before. I was spurred on by a challenge at work. There's only a handful of competitors (so far, anyway). The competition is to see who can run the most in August and September. I started the last week of July to warm up, since I haven't been running in months, and I got up early before work every day to run a mile or two. I took a break over the weekend and missed the first day of the competition while we were up in Washington for the big annual PNWX party. I got back into it Sunday, and I've been up early before work every day so far this week. Today was a double-run day--a little over a mile this morning and another three+ this afternoon. I'm going to try that for awhile. Right now I'm in 10th place out of just 19 people. I'd like to stay in the top 10. I have no chance of winning since there's more than one person averaging over 7 miles a day. I can't do that much. Yet.

The big excitement about this new running habit is that it was a reason to get a new iPod. I needed one that does the Nike+ deal, so I got a Nano. It's purple and really pretty. :) It seems a bit ridiculous that I have four iPods now, but they each have their place--except for the old classic one. It's just a brick. Anyone want to buy it?

Hair cut

I got most of my hair chopped off yesterday afternoon. It's pretty short now. This might mean that I'll spend the next few years growing it out again, but for the summer at least, I'm going to try out the short thing.

Some of my favorite things

We went camping last night for the first time in a long time. In honor of the event, a few of my favorite things:

• The smell of mountain air
• The coldness of mountain stream water (and how pink my feet turn after sticking them in there)
• Listening to the sound of the water while I fall asleep
• The campfire smell that's so hard to shampoo out of my hair

We were bummed that we couldn't get to our favorite rustic camping areas around Mt. Hood because there was still a little too much snow on parts of the road. We took a shot at Trillium Lake, but the snow outfoxed us there, too. We earned some karma points when we helped a guy who'd gotten his pickup stuck in the snow off the side of a road down near the lake though. A Jeep was trying to help, but one vehicle wasn't enough. Once we got the Xterra hooked up to him, he came out no problem. If we'd needed a third pull vehicle, some Hyundai SUV driver was ready and willing--with his own tow-strap even. That was strange.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next weekend's weather will be just as nice so that we can get outside and do it again.

I am alive

Wow. A whole month passed with not a single blog post written. Let's just say I was a little busy at work, and every night when I got home, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

I'll be back soon. Maybe tomorrow. I'm not promising anything though.

Ohmygod what a cutie!

If you know me at all, you know I love critters. This is about the cutest little critter I've seen in awhile.

Whip it

When I drove home for lunch today, I heard Whip It by Devo on the radio. It reminded me of a nickname I earned based on that song. Here goes a pointless story that exists now on this blog for no reason other than to reminisce. (I have to admit, as I was typing that word, reminisce, I thought to myself that I've never written it before. I wondered if I was spelling it correctly. Firefox didn't underline it, so I'm guessing that I guessed correctly. Woot!)

When I was 20 years old, I got a job at Victoria's Secret so that I could have more spending money during college. Oddly, I have no idea what I really intended to spend that money on. Reality is that most of that paycheck went right back to the store I worked at. I had a thing for cotton pajamas. And lots of other stuff. Anyway, the idea of wearing black suits and standing on my feet every day wasn't so appealing, so I ended up opting for a job in the stockroom. I loved it.

My supervisor, at least at first, was a woman named Danna. She was a true Kentuckian. Take that to mean whatever you like, but beyond your preconceptions, know that she was funny, straightforward, and hardworking. At first, most of my time "in the back" was spent with Danna and LeVonya (until a year or so later when Big Al--who really wasn't big--and Boy--whose real name I can't recall for the life of me--were hired, breaking up the female stronghold). We also had a radio with--wait for it!--a single CD player. High tech. When the radio reception didn't want to come in, we resorted to CDs. One day Danna was in charge of the radio station, and Whip It came on. I immediately broke out and sang along with every lyric. Danna and LeVonya were amazed. From that day forward, I was known as Whipit. I think Danna actually wrote it as Whippet though.

It wasn't long before Danna bought a Devo CD so that we could listen, dance, and sing along to Whip It whenever we pleased, or whenever the craziness of the day forced us into taking an insanity break. (You have no idea how crazy a stockroom can get! Okay, it's not that bad, especially compared to my current situation at work, but still... I was 20. It felt crazy sometimes.)

I miss those days. I don't miss getting paid $5.50/hour, but I miss the bizarro fun we always had. Nobody has ever called me Whipit since I left that job. Alex, if you're reading this, that is *not* an invitation to call me Whipit. Same goes for everyone else, too.

That's all.

Mr. Repo Man is at the wrong house

One night a couple weeks ago, someone knocked on our door, which was a little strange. Marc answered it to find a guy with a tow truck from a repossession company asking for someone named America Lamas. He got our address from a finance company. Marc assured the guy that nobody by that name lived here, and the guy had a flashlight which we're certain he was using to check the contents of our garage, so he knew the car he was looking for wasn't here.

We thought (hoped?) that would be it.

Then one day last week, I came home for lunch and found another tow truck parked on the street and a different guy at our door. He too had our address and was looking for someone named America Lamas. I let him know that we were the only people who've ever lived at this address and showed him my ID. He said he'd let the finance company know that they had bad contact information for this person. So far, we haven't had any more encounters.

I guess this is better than having our identities stolen, but it's still quite annoying. I wonder how someone goes about picking a random address like ours for this type of fraud?