What's Next?!

So yesterday started off easy enough - went to lunch for a friend’s birthday and then in the afternoon, my IPOD decided it didn’t want to cooperate.  It wouldn’t turn off - so not remembering how to force quit it - I let the battery completely run down.  Was going to go to the gym right after work - but since my IPOD wasn’t charged now - I decided I would go a little later in the evening - which was just as well, since I had a larger lunch than I should have and really wasn’t ready to be working out right after work!

Got home - plugged the IPOD in to charge while I puttered and then took it to the gym - more on the gym in a moment.  Well - about 10 minutes into my workout - it decides to stop working altogether!  Crap!  Now I have to listen to the lousy music they play at the gym for the rest of my workout.  Good thing I like the alternating walking and running workout since it makes the time go by much faster!  When I got home I went online to see how to force quit it and after I did that, I plugged it back in to charge and used it all day today at work without a problem.  Go figure!

So after I went to the gym I decided to participate in my newest favorite hobby - laying on the couch and watching TV!  I think I mentioned at one point my newest favorite comedy - ‘The Office’ - well, I’m all up to date on that except the current season - so I got a tip on an hour long show - ‘Dexter’ - fascinating - will have to post more on that at a later time.  So I went to watch an episode on the DVD - and the DVD player didn’t want to work - just my luck!  I did eventually get it to play - but thought - what’s next?!

Apparently the toaster oven was next - I went to make toast and the thing starts to smoke up the kitchen!  Dang!  Maybe it’s time to replace the toaster oven - I’ve had it for 15 years - anyone know the life expectancy of a toaster oven?!

So the gym...  I went earlier in the evening than I usually go and it was just pretty packed - I was still able to get on a treadmill - but had not expected to see so many people there.  I walked in and the woman that usually scans my card in the evening was there - and I commented to her that it was definitely January and she said that they had been talking about that earlier in the evening.  The nice thing about that many people is the people watching.  I didn’t see a lot the regulars there since I wasn’t there at my normal evening time - but it was all still good!  God Bless those at the gym!

Something To Be Said About Creatures Of Habit

Made it back to the gym today - after many weeks away.  And it felt great!  If I'm going to run a 5K in a month - guess I should get my act in gear and start working out again.  Thanks, Kris, for the workout schedule - I was looking at it last night and then, of course, couldn't find it today in the nightmare that has become my house - but knew that it was intervals of walking and running - which worked quite nicely.  It was nice not be focusing on miles - but more on time of walking vs running - ended up covering a little over 2 miles.

So as I was exercising today - I started thinking about new year's resolutions...  I don't usually make them - don't need one more thing to be stressing about - but was thinking about advent and Christmas and the holidays and how hectic it has been.  I'm actually looking forward to life calming down a bit and getting back to the usual routine - there is something to be said about creatures of habit.  So this year - I'm trying to get back to regular exercise and prayer routine - a couple of things that have taken a bit of a hit this season.  That and drinking more water!  Let the routine begin...

Too Many Fun And Absurd Random Moments

Happy 2009!

Although it is the beginning of the new year and I almost feel like I should be all profound and reflective about what the new year will bring and what resolutions I will be trying to accomplish - I’m not - if that’s what you are looking for - good luck with it!  There have been too many fun and absurd random moments to not share those...

My mom and I used to have a tradition of going out on New Year’s Day to go shopping - well - knowing that New Year’s Day this year would be filled with lots of food and hopefully a nap - I did my shopping on New Year’s Eve after work - was looking for calendars - at 50% off - yippee!  And wanted to check the last of the after Christmas sales.  Found everything I was looking for and then some!  My best buy was 2 skirts and a pair of pants for $35!  Savings of $75!  Yeah for me!  So while I was looking for calendars I found this Calendar of Southern California Tides for my friend Steve.  He’s a beach guy and I thought he might enjoy it - especially since it was on sale - I’ll get back to the calendar in a moment - please hold...

While you are holding, let me tell you about the rest of the day.  Had dinner with my friend Terrie and then went to a New Year’s Eve Party - a party my friend’s have been holding since we graduated from college over 15 years ago.  They are all married with children now and when I got to the party and saw some of the kids - I thought - when did they get to be so big?!  So I had that old feeling again when we were watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest (is that like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?!) and the only person I recognized on the platform with Ryan Seacrest was Lionel Ritchie!

Thank you for holding... back to the calendar story - I had gone to the boys house for New Year’s morning breakfast - a bit of a tradition and they opened the calendars that I had gotten for them.  As Steve was reading through his Tide Calendar, he noticed a disclaimer - Use this calendar at your own risk.  We found that quite amusing - when was the last time you got a calendar that had a disclaimer on it?!

One last story of the absurd.  At work, we have a company wide employee newsletter that they try to distribute once a quarter.  They used to put the date on it - but we would get January’s in April!  Now they just put the issue number and the year.  Well, today, we got Issue 4, 2008.  And my favorite article was ‘Surviving the Holidays:  Tips for having a happier holiday.”  Hmmm...  little late!  Happy New Year, everyone and hope you were able to have a happier holiday!

Christmas Was Over

So many stories I’ve promised - guess I’ll get my behind in gear and catch up a bit.  Let’s start with Thanksmas... Some friends had Thanksgiving dinner during the middle of November since they would be out of town for the holiday.  I promised pictures of their house - all decked out for Christmas - all the garland and all of the trees...  click here to enjoy the pictures.

Then on Thanksgiving itself - I  was at my dad’s in Big Bear.  My brother and his family came up for dinner and as my 5 year old nephew, Luke, explored the house - he found the place he wanted to sleep for the night.  On the bottom floor of my dad’s house, he has a cedar closet under the stairs - so Luke decided he wanted to be just like Harry Potter (he actually was wearing his Harry Potter costume on Thanksgiving) and sleep in the closet under the stairs.  He was devastated when they didn’t spend the night - yeah - like we would really let him sleep in a cedar closet!

Let me add a mom story for the road...

So back in the beginning of December, the place my lives in had a Holiday dinner for the residents and their families.  So my brother and I went - it was really nice - my mom was so happy to have us both there - introducing us to everyone.  Well at the end of dinner, we went back to her room and she looked at her Christmas Tree (which I had set up earlier in the week) and said that she could put it away since Christmas was over.  We tried to convince her that Christmas wasn’t for another couple of weeks - but the following week when I went by - sure enough - the tree was put back in the closet!  God Bless Her!

Finally - Happy New Year!  Blessings and love to you all!

Magazine Madness

So a friend of mine brought in some magazines to work today for our enjoyment - during our breaks, of course!  I was perusing through the Woman’s World - and I found this little blurb about carrying a big bag - and as I read the article, I realized that the nugget we heard in Weight Watchers a month or so ago has now been confirmed.  I don’t remember if I blogged about it - I remember thinking that I should - but that stuff doesn’t always make it into the written word.  So at WW one of the women said that if you carry a bigger purse - it makes your butt look smaller.  And here in the Woman’s World magazine - it said the same thing... one way to trim down instantly - carry a big bag!  Does two sources make it a truth?!

In that same magazine, they were listing off movies that you should watch to make you feel happier and less stressed.  So to live longer, they suggested ‘Legally Blonde’ and in the article they commented ‘Laughter also triggers endorphins’ - well, from the movie we also know that... 'Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands.'  I know I’ve used that quote before - but it’s one of my favorites from the movie!

And finally, I was looking at People magazine - which I should know better than to do - especially since I didn’t recognize any of the teeny boppers that they showcased in the different articles.  Maybe a friend’s daughter is right - I am old!  Hmmm... Nah!

Random Thoughts From Work...

So I’ve been in class the last couple of weeks, so it was nice this morning to be able to come in and just leisurely tear down and clean up the classroom.  I went into the classroom and sat down at the instructor computer that faces the students - looked at the posters in the back of the room and saw this picture - notice what type of Expectations we are listing - they are actually Class Expectations - but I had put a geography poster that one of the students made partially over the list - and this morning - this just really made me laugh - it was like that for almost the entire class - oops! :)

So as I’m cleaning up the classroom, I realize that one of the computers was locked out so I need to call the help desk to get the password reset.  We have an automated system to unlock passwords and thought I would try it - it turned out to be automated system hell!  I spoke the user name - and it didn’t recognize it - so I tried it again and it still didn’t understand - I tried a third time and it interrupted me mid speaking and started giving me the information that it had - which was wrong - in frustration I pressed 0 hoping I could speak to an operator.  It told me that it would be a less than 3 minute wait - after 5 minutes I decided that I was probably being punished and would have to wait longer since I zeroed out.  At least I got to enjoy my favorite part of calling the help desk - ‘Please Hold.’

As I was sitting waiting for the help desk to answer - I was looking out the windows of the classroom that open up to a covered walk on the side of the building.  It seemed odd to me that there was a woman walking with her umbrella up along the covered walkway - it made me laugh - which is always a good thing.

And last but not least - a friend of mine was talking about going on some dates from an online dating service and first started talking about how this guy reminded her of some kind of stalker and then she started referring to him as a serial killer - yeah - sounds like fun!

Six Second Sadie

So I feed Sadie in two installments in the morning and in the evening - check out this blog entry for a reminder of why!  This morning I picked up her bowl and set it on the counter for the second installment of breakfast.  Usually once she hears me drop food in the bowl - she is in the kitchen within seconds - this morning was a little different.  She was nowhere to be found - so before I put the bowl back down - I went on a bit of a search.  She was sitting in the window - between the pane and the blinds - very intently staring out the window at something that must have been going on outside.  She must have really been interested in it because I was able to put the bowl back down on the floor - and she never rushed over.  So she must have sensed at some point that I was getting ready to leave - so she wandered over to where the bowl is and sat there - as if to remind me that I needed to feed her.  So I just stood and watched her for a few moments - knowing that the bowl was full.  It took her a few seconds - but she started sniffing a bit near the bowl and then peeked over the edge - and I swear - when she noticed the food - she had this Oouu Shrimp look on her face!  I know it sounds crazy - but it was like Six Second Sadie (instead of Ten Second Tom - get it?! hee hee hee)!  Anyway - it made me laugh - God Bless Her!