Buffet.

James is peeing more. As in, when he goes to the bathroom, more liquid is coming out. This is exciting progress! The bad news is that he's peeing basically anywhere he damn well pleases right now. Not sure how to discourage this while encouraging the peeing. Quandry.
***
I finished a book today about schools for girls. Their history in this country, their benefits, their downfalls, etc. It makes me a bit sad that I didn't go to an all girls school at some point. I think middle school would have been the best time, because everything sort of goes downhill around then, am I right?
***
I worked a bunch on my list this weekend, but didn't necessarily complete a lot of things. However, I did make these cupcakes. I've discovered that I would like lime icing on pretty much all of my desserts.
***
Watched some NASCAR today. Sent me right back to some college memories. Tommy got me into NASCAR originally and while I never could (and still can't) watch a whole race, it's such an interesting world. I know many people disagree. I may write more about this later this week.
***
The Giants won their division today. I'm finding myself strangely excited about it, even though baseball really doesn't usually excite me. The 49ers lost today (not surprising), and I'm also a bit sad about that. This afternoon I realized that it seems I've adopted the San Francisco teams as my second favorites. I never felt this way about Washington/Baltimore teams, but maybe because I never felt like I had no access to Pittsburgh events in Reston. Here, it's a really big day when the Steelers are on regular cable.
***
We gave Lily a bath. She did not enjoy it.
***
Went to Target today for the first time since...July maybe?  I haven't been going since the whole kerfuffle over the summer. I had a gift card I needed to use up, and specific items we needed, so off we went. It was shocking how easy it was to only buy what we needed. I feel like I used to walk in, inhale that Target smell (you know what I'm talking about) and then...buy many many things.  I guess in these months we've been apart, I've built up some tolerance to Target. I can't decide if I'm excited or disappointed.
***
I'm thinking of renaming the blog's URL to 'onlykkwriteshere.blogspot.com'
***
Have a lovely Monday :)

Smorgasbord.

This week, we had to take James to the vet because he's having some urinary problems. Along with some other instructions, the vet sent me home to 'monitor' him peeing. I'm here to tell you that cats actually don't pee that often at all.
***
Today is my grandmother's birthday.
***
It's finally hitting summer temperatures here in the Bay Area. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 88 degrees in Berkeley. I'm pretty excited to bust out some sandals. It's almost beach time. The past couple of years, Dan and I have found ourselves on nearby beaches, in appropriate weather, the first weekend of October. It's rad.
***
This weekend, Dan and I had Cold Stone Cake Batter ice cream for the first time in a looooong time. While we were in grad school, that flavor (with chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles mixed in) completely served as our version of flowers in every way - 'I'm sorry,' 'Congratulations!' 'It's Wednesday' and everything in between. It brought back good memories and made me remember how damn tasty it is. Welcome back to my life Cold Stone. I've missed you.
***
I have no meetings scheduled for tomorrow at work.I opened my calendar and actually thought to myself, "Did people forget to invite me?" and then I quietly made a decision not to remind them if they did.
***
Maybe a month ago, I saw a woman wearing a pair of Tom's Shoes that I immediately, deeply coveted. (Tom's are the shoes that every time you buy a pair, the company donates a pair to someone in need) So I went to the website, and they weren't there. I tried to tell myself that there would be others. Two nights ago, I went to the website again, because I decided that it was high time I had a pair. These shoes are everywhere in Berkeley. All the cool kids have them. You have no street cred unless you have some Tom's. Get this - they had the shoes!! I clicked the link, and ran - literally - to get my wallet. Yes friends, they were out of my size. Heart. Broken.
***
Recently, I've been feeling like I haven't been reading very much. Usually I put a lot of my free time into reading. I like a Sunday where Dan and I make brunch, then I curl up with a cat, a book and a mug of tea (that I have to reheat over and over because once I get into the book, I forget it's there). Anyway, I checked my list of books I've read over the past two years, and this whole year seems to be a reading fail. Usually I've read about 40 books at this point in the year. This year, 20. Very strange. I'm chalking it up to either a) the fact that I was working so hard over the summer, which is when I usually get a lot of reading in, or b) too much time on the computer and watching TV. Either way, not cool.
***
I'm going to try to post some photos from our Seattle/Gorge trip this week. I know you're excited.
***
I'm not sure everyone has gotten the memo that Dan got a job as an RD (same position as mine) at a different university, about 30 minutes away. It's a live in position, so he'll/we'll be spending 2-3 nights a week up there. We spent some good time up there this weekend, and I've decided to call it our vacation home.

Fin.

Right Now...

...I am dreading reading the duty report for tomorrow morning because tonight it's 80 degrees and there are no classes tomorrow. Cue hundreds of first year women wandering up to the fraternities in too tall heels and too short skirts. *heavy sigh*

...I am playing four songs over and over.
'Dynamite' by Taio Cruz (which I've heard about 478 times since Saturday at various move in events...don't judge me)
'Fire and Rain' by Mat Kearny
'Breakeven' by the Script
'Rock and Roll' by Eric Hutchinson

...I'm looking over the setlists for recent Dave shows because I'm going to my first concert of the summer tomorrow (!) Am pretty excited.

...Dan and I are working up some motivation to pick a flight to Orlando. It is not going well.

Pixar fail?

Did you see Toy Story 3? Did you like it?

I saw it, and...not a fan. Even if I hadn't seen Despicable Me a few days before (which was awesome!) it still wasn't good.

I never expected to not like a Pixar movie. My world has shifted a bit.

-----

Well that was her point of view. I'm admittedly biased because my work had me pressing to get a meeting with the producer of Toy Story 3 before the movie came out, but I liked it! Sure, it wasn't as good as the first 2, but there were some good moments, maybe? Certainly not the over dramatic unnecessary forbidding doom. Ok... maybe just 2 good moments I can remember - Ken's fashion show and Andy with the little girl. And now I feel bad for the computer animation teams who spent so long on the movie. Great.

Captions provided by the letter S and Y, and the number 8

Dis mixin bowl is just my size.

Dude, you smell.



















James: Is that food?
Lily: You're all idiots.

Food? Food? I swear I heard food.

Sending you elsewhere

I've hit a bit of writer's block. I don't feel like I have anything interesting to talk about, even though we are doing a lot lately. So, I thought I'd just go ahead and entertain you by sending you elsewhere. Have fun!

13 year old rocking it OUT

Not so mindless entertainment

Because it's important to mind your manners

Maybe you've met her?

The Uniform Project's year in review

Why haven't I visited these places?

Hopefully, soon I'll be out my writing funk. Until then, I think I have enough kitty photos to hold you over.

Age Appropriate Humor

I got this from another blog, but thought it was worth reposting. Apparently, it's been going around as an email forward, as "Thoughts of a 25-35 Year Old," which normally I would think was stupid, except I agree with every single one of them. Good times.

 ·       More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

·       Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

·       Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

·       That’s enough, Nickelback.

·       Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

·       Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

·       Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the hell was going on when I first saw it.

·       I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

·       How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

·       I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

·       I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

·       The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

·       LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

·       I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

·       Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

·       How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

·       I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

·       While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks, Mario Kart.

·       I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

·       Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty.

·       Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

·       Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem…

·       You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

·       Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

·       There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

·       I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes when I could swear I didn’t make any.

·       “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

·       I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

·       I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

·       When I date someone new, I’m terrified of mentioning something they haven’t already told me but that I learned from some light internet stalking.

·       Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

·       As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

·       Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

·       I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

·       Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

·       I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

·       I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

·       The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Extreme archery!

Because it was 103 degrees. One hundred and three degrees. While we were outside. Shooting arrows at targets. And also, while we were packed inside a tiny NON air conditioned room taking the informational class beforehand. Ugh. But, learning archery has been one of Dan's "would most like to do" things for awhile now. Lately, my quest has been to begin enjoying the Bay Area on the cheap, or even on the free. Hence the free diamond scavenger hunt, outdoor movies, street festivals, more city walks, etc. I get much of this information from a website, cleverly named funcheapsf, and last week they added an event -- "Archery open house!" So clearly, it was quickly put on our list of things to do. It was about 45 minutes away at a private members-only archery club, that opens up twice a year to the public for lessons and a chance to shoot, and have lunch. Anyway, we got there after driving up into the hills - it's about as close as I've gotten to the boonies of California. Andd also 103 degrees. Anyhow, we got there, feasted on our corn dog/chips/fruit roll up lunch (yes, seriously. I felt like I was in 3rd grade) and then we got to sit and take a class about safety, shooting stance, and archery terminology. The guy talking was a BIT too detailed. All I really needed was how to stand, how to hit the target and not shoot anyone in the leg or anything. I got, though, a pretty thorough history lesson about the bow and arrow, it's development, all the different types, all the equipment, and on and on. (D: It was prety cool to learn that if you have a friend with the last name Fletcher, back in the day they likely made arrows for royalty.) 40 minutes later, we were free to go try it out. It was nice to try it out - they had a lot of their members available, and you basically got one on one coaching through your first quiver of arrows and then you get to shoot as long as you wanted. I'm happy to say that I was the first of the two of us to get a bullseye, and ended up with three actually, after about 30 minutes of shooting. Dan, of course, got 5. Ass. Enjoy some photos: I sort of felt like a badass while we were there. I feel like I mostly look the part...as long as you can't see my flip-flops. Dan, demonstrating excellent form. I think his aviator glasses helped out his badass archer look. The huge friggin bruise on my arm, caused by the bowstring snapping on it on my second try. Clearly, my form was not correct when this happened. Let me tell you that every shot after that, my form was perfect. Yes, it hurt. Yes, we wrote several posts this weekend, which are scheduled to post almost everyday this week. Come on back for more tomorrow!

Hello? (echo, echo)

Well, I realize that it's been about a month and a half since we've written here, so who knows if anyone will actually read this. I'm not entirely sure why we haven't been updating, but we do feel pretty bad about it, and the stern talking to we've gotten from some folks has just heaped on the guilt. I doubt we're going to be able to catch up on individual posts from what has been happening in the past 5 or 6 weeks, which totally sucks because I was all ambitious with the East Coast trip series (Follow through needs work me thinks) but I think we'll just start looking forward.

However, here's a short list of what we've been doing since we last wrote:

~Finishing up the school year (Kristin)

~Meeting with potential clients (Dan)

~Traveling to Mendocino, CA and horseback riding on the beach

~Listening to Dave Matthews Band's new album (and loving it)

~Planning our trips this summer

~Going to the Farmer's Market every week and cooking locally based meals (Goal accomplished!)

~Seeing native African animal species in wine country, CA

~Backing up my computer

~Not hating Angels and Demons, surprisingly

~Pretty much avoiding the telephone (you may have noticed?)

~Spending a lot of time in our local sports bar watching the Penguins in the playoffs

~Anxiously awaiting Dana and Larry's visit

~Eating all vegetarian on Wednesdays

~Reading, although not as much as I'd like

~Switching to compostable cat litter (another goal from this post)

~Finishing the Six Feet Under series

~Paying off a loan, woot!

~Wishing we could get another cat

~Building a website (more on that later)

~Heavily sighing over the fact that it is never warm enough in the Bay Area

~Laying around in the park, people watching and drinking wine

And here's a photo from the time a student group from Hong Kong stacked all their luggage on our porch. They had arrived from the airport two hours before they could check into their rooms, so they put their luggage on our porch and just LEFT IT there for anyone to steal.

What have you been doing lately?

5 x 5

5 things you've made recently. 1. Quiche lorraine 2. Sauteed mushrooms (um, easiest dish ever) 3. Many a "To Do" list 4. A working BSpace site for my class 5. A monthly budget 5 things you've discovered recently. 1. It really irritates me when students I supervise tell me things that I feel like they should be asking. For example "I can't come to the meeting" vs. "Can I be excused from our staff meeting?" 2. I really don't bite my nails if they're painted. 3. I'm not that much of a movie person 4. I care quite a lot about doing my part to waste less, use less energy, etc. 5. When I really like something (books, wine, cats) I want as much and as many of those things as possible. Seriously. Books and bottles of wine are the things we have the most of in the house. Cats, not as much, but only because I'm not allowed to have more than two. 5 things on your "bucket list" 1. Travel! Esp: Greece, Ireland, the Galapagos Islands and Egypt 2. Be an EMT 3. Learn sign language 4. Live by the ocean 5. Do my job, but to be defined by the other things that I do 5 sounds you hear right now 1. Me typing 2. The vent over the stove 3. The front door of the next residence hall over slamming shut 4. Water from the cat fountain 5. Toilet flushing upstairs 5 things you did this morning. 1. Got up too early to let Lily out 2. Had trouble getting back to sleep 3. Forgot to make enough time for breakfast 4. Missed a meeting 5. Congratulated myself on remembering to schedule a haircut

Take five Wednesday.

Project go vegetarian for a week is complete. I stuck to it (although on Sunday, I got a soup with a base of chicken broth, which I felt bad about later) and had some brisket for lunch. Not really that exciting. I do think I'm going to be eating less meat for awhile. Wow, that is a completely uninteresting topic. 5 of your favorite blogs. 1. Amalah (yeah, I stalk them. she has beautiful kids.) 2. What I'm Seeing (daily photo blog in SF) 3. DC365 4. Line Cook 5. Laura Anne Benson's blog 5 things you bought recently. 1. Ski goggles. 2. McDonalds fries (this kind of grosses me out but we were in the middle of a 6 hour car trip. you do what you have to do) 3. Helium tanks (just two small ones) 4. 1000 cotton candy cones (#3 and #4 were for an event that we held in my unit this past weekend. i am now a master of making cotton candy) 5. Pita chips (so addictive!) 5 of your favorite words. 1. Waffle 2. Gymnastics (i like to write it in cursive) 3. Farfetched 4. Naptime (just becuase of what it implies) 5. Muffin (i've taken to calling my cats this) 5 of your favorite quotes (#4 and #5 are from the West Wing. I don't have 5 favorite quotes) 1. Your silence will not protect you - Audre Lorde 2. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. - Obama 3. When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly. - Patrick Overton 4. "Anyway, Helena Hodworth Hooter-Tooter of Braintree wants to organize a boycott of the reception, and... Well, there it is. Yes, Mrs. Bartlet descends from quite the murderous band of ruffians, and her membership in the DAR is suspect on those grounds, or so believes the Boston Globe." - CJ 5."A little thing called team morale, Josh, you gotta make people feel good about themselves. All right, shut the hell up, everybody, I've fired more people than you before breakfast." - Leo **You get SO MANY bonus points if you can tell me what's going on in the episodes I quoted from** 5 things you like about blogging, (or the internet in general) 1. I get to write ridiculous things like this and people actually read it 2. For curious folk like myself, endless opportunities to learn false information 3. The stay connected with other people you love piece 4. It feels SO MUCH EASIER than writing a letter for some reason 5. It has the same mind numbing effect as TV, which you need sometimes

I heart grocery stores.

So, this eating vegetarian thing is going fine, although the first two nights totally reduced us to eating like college students. One night, pasta and sauce from a jar. The next night, pancakes and eggs for dinner! Tonight, I think we finally got our act together and made sweet potato and black bean burritos. Feeling more my age again. Anyway, we had to go out shopping for some of the ingredients before we made dinner tonight, and I'm just going to come out and say that I love grocery shopping. I really do. There is something about wandering around slowly and picking out whatever I want that really makes me happy. I don't do as much aimless meandering as I used to, because that's when I come home having spent a lot of money, but not being able to make anything from the stuff I've bought. Now, I try to make a list and just buy a few things extra, but it's hard for me. For example, there were fresh tulips at the store tonight for the first time this "spring" and now they are home with us in Dan's pretty vase. For another example, pita chips. Am newly addicted. My friend Dana kindly reminded me a couple of days ago how much I am NOT keeping up with my new year's goals. Kind of her, I know. But, she's right. I have revisited and am recommitting rather than giving up. Yes, working out. Yes, calling people more. Yes, stop buying less (ahem, previous paragraph). Will definitely need to focus. Although, would rather do myriad of other things than focus. *sigh* Dave Matthews released their summer tourdates. You know I'm excited. *does dance of joy* Yes, I know you all think I'm nuts for continuing to see them in concert. And, I'm ok with it.

Take Five Tuesday

This week I'm trying to go vegetarian for a week, starting today. We shall see how it goes. So far, so good (considering I skipped breakfast so have only had two meals). There are a bunch of reasons why - none of which are super important to me, I'm just kind of trying it out. 5 snacks that you have stashed in your desk drawer. 1. Hershey Kisses 2. Smarties 3. Granola Bar 4. Fruit leather 5. Lollipops 5 things that people are always surprised to find out about you. 1. I've never broken a bone 2. I was born in the same hospital as my mom 3. I was named after a nun 4. I want to complete a triathalon by the time I'm 30 5. At one point I was in both orchestra AND band, and at another time, in choir and band. I'm a huge nerd. 5 new inventions you would like to see in the future 1. Planes that don't crash...and travel faster 2. Comfortable bras, for realz. 3. Something that makes people want to get back to reading newspapers, magazines and books again 4. A cure for cancer 5. An invisibility cloak 5 of your earliest memories 1. Thanksgiving with my mom's family at my grandparent's house in Johnstown, PA 2. Baseball games with my dad in Pittsburgh 3. Montessori school playground during preschool 4. My favorite teacher in preschool (Mrs. Ahmad) 5. Another student in my class puking under his desk in first grade (nice, right?) 5 things you would never do 1. Botox 2. Tell someone that they aren't good enough 3. Move back to the Midwest 4. Give up cheese 5. Stop reading

Take 5 Tuesday

5 things that have made you laugh lately 1. My cats being ridiculous 2. A student tonight at our Hall Association meeting - he wanted to be appointed a position and stood up and read a prepared speech and passed out his resume to everyone. It was adorable/awkward. Don't worry, I only laughed on the inside. 3. Many of the outfits I saw in Vegas 4. Cirque du Soleil clowns at "O" 5. Myself - I do stupid things 5 things you would do if you were fearless 1. Buy a house 2. Not wear a seatbelt 3. Go right up to the edge of a balcony/cliff/tall building 4. Snorkel in open water 5. Tornado chase 5 things you can’t replace 1. The feeling that my job is valuable 2. Memories 3. Family and friends (awwwwwwwwww) 4. The planet 5. My body. Guess I'm just going to have to love it how it is. 5 things you don’t like, that most people do. 1. Chocolate ice cream 2. Big, cuddly dogs (the drool is disgusting) 3. Las Vegas for more than 24 hours at a time 4. Cilantro 5. Guacamole 5 things you like, that most people don’t. 1. The idea of universal health care 2. Composting 3. Stinky cheese 4. Anything in miniature size (I don't think people DISlike these things, but I doubt that people have a great affection for them like I do) (4a. Dan says pickles, but I think most people actually do like pickles) 5. My job

NOT a let down

So I went to the doctor today (nothing to be concerned about) and in the interest of full disclosure, it was the "lady doctor". I was recommended to my new doctor by a co-worker and this may sound stupid, but I haven't ever had such a positive experience with a doctor. So I got there, and didn't have to fill out forms because they mailed all the forms to me ahead of time, nice touch, no? Anyway, I was in the room with the infamous stirrups and got my weight/blood pressure taken (my BP is excellent apparently - good job self!) and then she says "the doctor will be right in, but you don't have to undress yet" Confusion. So, the doctor comes in, introduces herself as Amy and then proceeds to TALK to me for almost 20 minutes about my medical history, any concerns or questions, etc. Talking to GYN while still wearing pants. It was crazy. And great. So then eventually, she left, I get undressed and she completed the exam in probably 7 minutes. I was just really impressed - I haven't ever had such a comfortable conversation with a doctor. Maybe everyone else (female) has had really great care, but yeah, I was blown away.

Why, thank you.

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Healthy Organized Tree Hugger

**Please don't feel pressured to actually buy the book, I just liked the quiz**

Christmas is only two weeks away. WTF?

So, I apologize for never posting about the tour and the goodness and the chocolate fudge made with Jack that we bought and the decanter that we also bought and came home and put our Jack in and it looks YUMMY. Yes, I'm sorry. My eyes hurt a little too much to really delve into all that now, but I have put big stars and underlines and circles around the item "Blog Entry" on my to do list, so it should get done sooner rather than later. I do want to tell you that Dan and I actually have been cooking fresh seasonal foods as of late, and I'm pretty proud of us. We have a Christmas tree (fake) that is decorated and Hanukkah candles all ready to light. Also, Hancock was a horrendously bad movie. I expected better of...well, all the main actors. I finished my 54th book of the year. And Laura, thanks for the comment about my hair looking good! I actually just got it cut really short again. I HEART my stylist out here. It looks good when she cuts it, when I style it myself at home, even a couple of months later. She rocks it out. I'm headed to bed. Full day of work and Christmas cookie baking tomorrow. And blog entry! Right.

Insomnia.

Well, here I am, a product of a mismanaged sleep schedule, awake at 2 am, Nashville time. Dan and I are here visiting his family for Thanksgiving again - we both got in on Saturday after surprisingly not late or horrendous flights, and I can not sleep. I haven't been falling asleep much before 3 am at all, which is not exciting, as then I don't wake up until around 11 am. So, I get up and have breakfast while everyone else has lunch. Today, we got out of the house and went to a really nice art museum in downtown Nashville and by the time we got back, had dinner, played with Dan's nephews and settled down, I was actually tired. And fell asleep for about an hour. You know when you fall asleep with all your clothes on and the lights on and you wake up and go back to sleep feeling kind of bashful? That is not what happened here. I got an hour of sleep and have now been awake for the past two hours, being all pissed off that my body took a nap. Dan, of course, is fast asleep next to me. *shakes fist* Tomorrow Dan and I are going on a pilgrimage of sorts - I don't want to ruin the surprise for tomorrow's post - but we're getting up early, so hopefully that will reset this ridiculousness. I'm sure you're asking, "Why aren't you reading? You wanted to read an ungodly amount of books this year?" Well, the answer is that I finished my 50 books for the year, which is cool. (I have a list on 43 Things - and I was really excited to check "Done" on that goal) I'm still reading though, my current book is about nuns. It's actually super interesting, but there's only so much you can read about nuns in one night. I hit my limit about 20 minutes ago....so here I am, rambling late at night to the interwebs. *43 Things is a place where you keep lists of things you want to accomplish. Yes, it is an online website for crazy listmakers like myself. The next goal I want to work on is cooking all the recipes in a cookbook. Dan's brother and sister-in-law actually just gave us a seasonal cookbook - the recipes using fruits and veggies that are in season (working on some of the tree-hugging goals from last night's post) so I think that may be the book to work from. Just in case this problem happens again tomorrow, can you all let me know what blogs/links you've been into lately? I don't have my computer so all of my bookmarks are currently unavailable...and I may need something to entertain me while all of this Nashville suburb sleeps...

Holy legwarmers Batman!

So, I just watched Flashdance for the very first time ever. And....I'm kind of underwhelmed. I think if I hadn't been distracted by the copious amounts of body glitter and the big hair, I would have enjoyed it more. I do think I honestly maybe would have identified more if I had seen it when I was younger, in the 80s, when I was doing some bad hair/clothes/jelly shoes things. But, I do appreciate the message and going after your dreams and so on. My staff, in an effort to help me with the cultural norms and such, has made a list on my office door of all the movies that I "have" to see to be "normal." So far, we've gotten through Back to the Future (1 &2), Batman (with Jack Nicholson) and now Flashdance. Soon to be crossed off the list: The Breakfast Club Say Anything

It's a very sophisticated rating system.

How things are going... ~Weather. Huge thumbs up. It's been really really really warm out here all week, to the point of people laying out. Shorts, t shirts, sandals. In almost November? Yes please. ~Cats. Thumbs up. They are still adorable. And they smell much better since their bath on Saturday night. ~Trying to brush cats' teeth. Big thumbs down. You can probably imagine why. ~My friends. As always, as many thumbs up as possible. I mean, they're always awesome - but I mean come on - a set of beautiful twins, a wedding and a pregnancy announcement all in the past week?!? How lucky am I to know these people? ~Evening spent cooking with my staff. Thumbs way up. We made pumpking pie, stuffing, gravy and caramel apples. I am clearly the coolest RD ever. ~My bookshelves. Thumbs down, maybe even way down. I went and bought books again. Am addicted! Can't stop! ~Recent reads. Thumbs up. I only have 5 more to meet my goal of 50 for the year and the last two books I read are both classics I've been meaning to read for awhile and they were great. (The Good Earth, Pearl Buck and The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan) ~The upcoming week. Thumbs down for chaos level, thumbs up for opportunities! I'm going to be out of the office Monday through Wednesday at a RAD training. RAD stands for Rape Aggression Defense. It's a program for women that is in place at many college campuses - after this three day training, I'll be a certified instructor! However, that means that I'll only be in the office for two days this week and my life will be crazy!! ~College football. Thumbs...even? VT not doing so hot, but as was expected this year. Cal is doing OK, but Penn State is doing great! Way to beat OSU! ~Election 2008. Thumbs down. I just want it to be over already! There is so much at stake to be nervous about. And the things that I really care about are not faring well in the polls. Boo. ~Family news. Thumbs down. Cancer is a bitch. ~Cancer prognosis. Thumbs up (as up as it can be in this situation). Seriously though, my grandmother's doctors are optimistic and my mom says she looks great. Clearly not the best of situations, but also not the worst. ~Overall? Thumbs up.