Thursday, April 29, 2010

Picture Day!

Today and tomorrow it's picture day at my work. They have paid a photographer to come in and set up a back drop and take professional photos for anyone in the office who is interested. Granted, they are often necessary here, but it's just funny to see everyone dressed in their Sunday/business best. Reminds me of being a kid again with Olan Mills.

Monday, April 19, 2010

For the Nugget

You know how you have that one work friend that pretty much knows all of the ins and outs of your life because you see them every day? That's Heather. She's my tell-all work friend. When Heather told me she was pregnant, I told her "I shall call it Nugget." She is due in June and having a little girl. I am very excited about this. Last Friday, we had a baby shower for Heather and Nugget at work. I decided that I wanted to make Nugget a quilt. I have only done this for one other friend, and it turned out great. I went a different route this time, but it turned out so cute. I got to spend some good quality time with mom, and make something wonderful for Heather and baby Nugget.

Heather loved all of her gifts and I can't wait to meet the new little one!

WTF of the Week

It happened on a Wednesday, and I almost actually posted it on a Wednesday, but again, I failed. I have just one this week, but it was a personal experience, so it's that much better.

Every other Wednesday, I work at our downtown office and take this opportunity to have lunch with friends I don't get to see very often otherwise. Callie and Sean are my two regulars, but sometimes I sprinkle in others. This week, I was able to have lunch with Sean. He swooped me up in his new whip and we headed to Buckhorn Grill for some tasty salads. I got my usual Roadhouse Salad with grilled chicken, which comes with a pile of fried onion strings on top. To me, this is overkill. I always take at least half of them off, if not more, and place them on a napkin on the table. Sean took this opportunity to snack on them, since his salad didn't come with any, but there was still quite a large pile of them on the napkin.

Over the next hour, we enjoyed our meals and shared stories from the past few weeks since we had last seen each other. During this time, other diners had come in and out of the patio area where we were sitting to enjoy their lunch. Two ladies sat at the table next to us. We had no interaction with them during our lunch. Just as we were nearing the end of our time there, an employee came out to bus our table. She had picked up the napkin containing the pile of onion strings and placed it on my plate. Right as she was about to take the plate away, one of the women at the table next to us got up and came over and asked if she could have the onions.

WTF?!?!?!?!?!??!

Who does that? I mean, I have joked about eating people's leftovers before, but seriously, you don't even know me. And you want to eat my discarded food after it was already piled on top of my plate as garbage to be taken away? So gross. But so awesome.

At the time, Sean and I couldn't really give the moment the attention it deserved because of how closely these women were sitting to us. This was the perfect moment to end a wonderful lunch hour. And made for a great WTF Wednesday.

Friday, April 9, 2010

WTF Wednesday

Maybe I should change the name to WTF of the Week, or Weekly WTFs. I obviously can't seem to get this posted on Wednesdays. So, I only have a few, but here they are:

The new thing that everyone is buzzing about in a bad way is ashleymadison.com. You are crazy if you think I am posting a link to the site. I am not promoting this madness (although I kind of am just by mentioning it). If you haven't heard anything about it yet, I will fill you in. Apparently it's a website where married people can go to meet someone to have an affair with.

WTF?

According to the CEO and founder, the sites users are about 70% male and 30% female. This really saddens/infuriates me that someone is capitalizing off of ruining people's marriages. To provide a venue for someone to find a mister/mistress when they may not have found one otherwise (okay, who are we kidding? They would find someone) should be illegal or something. Way to make even more of a mockery of the institution of marriage.

My next shocker may be even less familiar to everyone. While driving to work one morning, the radio show I happened to be listening to at the time was talking about Skittles Parties. Until this moment, I had never heard of them either. Apparently this is a party where kids go into their parents medicine cabinets or purses at home and sneak a bunch of their prescription meds and bring them to this party. They all dump them into a bowl and then each person grabs a handful and takes them.

WTF?

The biggest shocker is that kids as early as 6th grade are doing this. Obviously this came to light because some of these kids are ending up in the hospital. America is severely overmedicated and the last thing we need is kids combining lethal doses of meds. Just like guns, anything that is potentially life threatening should be locked away in a safe place where your kids can't get to it.

My last item is not as serious as these other two, but still pretty annoying. While at the grocery store on my lunch break the other day, I was looking at the magazines at the checkstand while waiting in line. Instead of perusing the gossip mags, The TIME magazine caught my eye. It had a summary of the health care reform, which is somewhat related to my line of work, so I thought I would buy it and take a look. Maybe I'll even learn something. The checker rings it up and it's $4.95!!!

WTF???

I understand it's TIME magazine, but I guess you have to see it to really get it. This issue is only 56 pages cover to cover. How can you really charge me $5 for 56 pages??? Ridiculous! the best part is, I still haven't read it. LOL!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Adventure Boot Camp

Summer is almost here and we know what that means....BATHING SUITS!!!

After my last experience with boot camp, I can definitely say I was in the best shape I have been in since high school, probably better. So what better way to get my a$$ back in gear than to do another one? I had to wait for my tax return and for the weather to get a little better, but after months of being a slacker, I think this will do the trick.

My friend Tiffany (aka GF) and I were at the bridal expo in February and these guys had a booth there. I kept receiving emails from them and finally got one that offered to let me come try a class during their week between sessions. I rounded up a couple of friends and tried it out. Keep in mind I have only really been doing cardio. I tried the P90X thing for a while, but with the time commitment and my commute, it didn't really work out for me. The last boot camp required bringing three different size hand weights, but this one didn't say anything about that, so I was a little skeptical at first.

Boy was I wrong!

We started out with some light stretching and then a couple of laps around the school yard (it's held at an elementary school downtown) and then we got right to work. We did some stuff in the plank position that also worked our upper body somewhat, but most of the exercises are targeting the upper and lower body at the same time. We did a circuit of three excercises with the hand weights and squats three times, but then moved on to these Turkish sand bag things. Imagine kettle bells, but it's a intertube cut in half, filled with sand and duct taped at both ends for closure and handles. We did a circuit of three different exercises with this, using upper and lower body three times, finishing the class with an ab circuit. Once again, three different exercises, three times. I was a little wobbly after class, so I knew I was in for a real treat in the coming days.

I was already tight and starting to get sore that night before bed. The next day, my legs got tighter as the day progressed. All of the muscles in my back and rib cage were sore, so I couldn't take deep breaths very easily, and my triceps were tight. Boot camp was on Wednesday and by Friday, I was practically immobile. Not only were my legs and glutes so tight and sore that I could barely get up and down in my chair (going to the bathroom was a real treat), but my triceps were so wrecked that I couldn't use my arms for support.

I immediately went online and signed up for the month of April. :)

Some/all of you may think I am crazy, but I know this is exactly what I need to get where I hope to be. Even though JB is a trainer, I don't let him push me as hard as he should. In the release, we had to initial that we would not drink alcohol for the month of boot camp and stay away from sweets. I am not a big sweets person, but the drinking might be a little tough. Especially since I have some friends coming to visit and a camping trip planned. I know how to cut it out for the most part, and make wiser choices when I do drink, so that is the route I will go. Our overall eating has been pretty good, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep that up. And after I finish the camp, I can get back to working out the way I was last year before I started the first camp and keep myself in shape that way.

I will try to update with specific workouts that we did so those of you that want to can try it at home :)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Wine & Books...and WW Bean Dip!

I have been wanting to be part of a book club for a long time. Although I do love great stories of struggle and books I can learn something from, I really enjoy "colored" books. You probably gasped when you read that, but let me explain:

I dated a guy once that had such low self esteem that he had to act like he was so much smarter and better than everyone else. He read political books and books about changing the world, one vegetarian at a time. Gag! I always liked the books about the single, successful, 20-something girl in a big city looking for love and purpose. Those books just happen to have colorful covers; pastel pink, blue, yellow, green. You get the picture. Anyway, he never understood what I got out of those "colored" books. It's called ENTERTAINMENT! And validation, and hopes that someday I would meet someone who was way better than him. LOL!

But I digress...

So, Kristen decided to make this book club just that, chick lit. But more of the 'I don't have to think about anything when I read these books' kind of chick lit. Not the kind about heroic women who do all these great things. So, without knowing better, she picked our first book:


Had this book been about Lauren Conrad's actual experience during the filming of Laguna Beach or The Hills, it would probably have been great. This was more along the lines of Sweet Valley High level writing meets a huge cover up of the taping of The Hills as to not violate any contractual stipulations. It was NOT GOOD. I think I lost brain cells reading it. But, you live and you learn.

Our book club met at Kristen's house, and she offered to provide the beverages if everyone brought an appetizer. Given every girl's weight loss goals, I figured I would bring something that is yummy, but also not high in fat and calories. That way we could drink more of them :) I brought a Weight Watchers bean dip that I got the recipe for years ago from a high school friend. It was a big hit, so I thought I would post it here for anyone else who would like to try it:

16 oz. can of fat free refried beans (I get the zesty ones for an extra kick)
8 oz. of fat free cream cheese
1 cup of light sour cream
2 Tbsp taco seasoning (lower sodium is a good choice)
1/2 cup low fat shredded cheese
1/2 cup chopped olives
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 tomatoes, chopped

Heat oven to 350 and spread the beans over the bottom of an 8x8 dish
Combine cream cheese, sour cream and taco seasoning - spread over beans and sprinkle with cheeese
Cook 15-18 minutes
Remove from oven and top with the remaining ingredients
Serve with your favorite tortilla chips

Our next book is:


We all weighed in on this one, so let's hope it doesn't suck. Happy reading and eating!

New Segment - WTF Wednesday

I initially thought I might do this as a daily entry, but then realized that was a bit overzealous, and figured weekly would be a good start. I have started keeping notes on my iphone to document in my weekly WTF Wednesday entries.

The idea came to me the other day, which was a Wednesday, while driving home from boot camp. You know that recorded voice that often plays before a song on the radio that tells you who the artist is? Imagine my surprise when it said "Bare Naked Ladies"...

WTF?

The last song I remember from them was the "chickity-China, Chinese chicken" song. I know there were others, but that's the only one that survives in anyone's memory bank. This song was nothing like that. It was slow and boring and I immediately changed the channel.

Now you know how the name came to be for this new little gem. It was funny because just the day before the BNL incident, I was perusing my friend Perez Hilton's blog and came across this interesting post about Justin Bieber. I love that he is on Chelsea Lately AGAIN, but the thing that caught my eye is that he is Canadian!!! WTF??? This changes everything.

Yesterday, which was Thursday, I was driving to work and I heard a station FINALLY play a new Lady Kaka song. I am so sick of all of the others they have played out, but I liked them once, so I figured I can be optimistic about this one. Then I started noticing some interesting similarities between the sound of this new song, and every Ace of Base song. WTF? Get your own shiz, Kaka!

My final WTF moment for the week is quite a doozy. I am a fan of Sac PD on Facebook, for many reasons, and yesterday I came across this juicy morsel of WTF goodness:

DUI CHECKPOINT REVEALS TRUE FRIENDSHIP: On 3/26/10, we conducted a DUI/driver’s license checkpoint. One subject was being evaluated for DUI and announced that his friend, who was driving in a separate vehicle behind him and anxiously waiting for his turn in line, had 'JUST AS MANY DRINKS AS I DID'. Thus, both individuals were arrested for DUI. With friends like him who needs enemies?

Murder. If I were the guy, aka "friend", in the car behind him that he narked out, a DUI would be the least of my worries, because I would have killed that guy for ratting me out to the cops. What a jerk!

So, that's my first installment of WTF Wednesday, even though it's Friday evening. Now that my friendy has taught me how to blog via cell phone, I will be more accurate with the WTF Wednesday postings. I hope you liked it!

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