Happy New Year

This sick chicky is turning in early for yet another New Year.  Happy New Year!!!

Dog picture of the day

This is what I woke up to this morning.



Red is like jello, there is always room for some. Even if she has to wedge her furry ass onto your pillow.

Sick!

Ugh, I'm so sick right now. I spent the night throwing up everything I ate that day. It takes a lot of strength to dig that deep into your stomach. It definitely wanted everything out. It was very disturbing to see lunch come up 10 hours later. The hubster was a true champ when taking care of me. It cant be easy to worry about your wife while her Chinese aunt and uncle are throwing ancient herbal remedies at her. I finally fell asleep, but woke up to some fun from the other hole. I guess my system had not been completely evacuated. There is no way I'm getting in a car for 8 hours in this condition. This is not how I pictured new years, but hey I'll be around family.

Snowboarding Pictures

At the beginning of the day

First attempt at the bunny slope

Me and the older bro in line for the last run of the day

Action shot 1

Action shot 2

Group shot at the end of the day

Front row (L to R): Dennis, Andrew

Back row (L to R): Calvin, Lauren, Steven, Amy, Kevin, Elaine, Brock

Brock and Amy catching some air

Action shot 3

Dog picture of the day

Milo and Baka

Redemption!

Fourth place finish in the annual Lui family Mario Kart championship! Definitely an improvement on last year's last place finish ( I lost to my then 12 year old cousin who had never played before). Next year, aiming for top two. Time to start training!

Snowboarding Aftermath

Hmmm, let's see.  Both my wrists, neck, tail bone, shoulder, calves, and quads are either sore or hurt.  I don't think there is anything that moves on my body that doesn't hurt.  My butt hurts so much that thought there was gonna be a big old bruise there, but there's not.  I was a little disappointed.

Argyle club

Momo and Brock rocking the argyle

Snowboarding ...

Victory! The green triangle trail owned my ass. I was pretty dejected, but I rallied at the bunny slope. By the end of the day, the bunny was my bitch.

Dog pictures of the day

Reunited and it feels so good.
First time we've seen the dogs in 4 days.

I think Egg is excited to see us.

I think Red was on her best behavior.

Snowboarding

We're going snowboarding tomorrow, and I think getting ready for snowboardings is almost as strenuous as snowboarding itself.  Getting lessons on putting on gear, making everything fits, making sure you have everything with 6 other people is super tiring.  Or maybe it was driving around and shopping all day.

I'd like to invest in some snowboarding gear, but living in Ohio makes it kinda pointless.  Oh well, maybe when/if we move back to California or somewhere with actual mountains.

Dog picture of the day

Dog picture of the day

After Christmas Shopping

We went to the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets today... of course, in the middle of a severe winter weather advisory.  Yep, anything for a deal.  We made out pretty good.  I got a black lace satin top and a sweatshirt material type top from Banana republic and a pair of jeans from True Religion.  The hubster also found his unicorn, a pair of "rainbow" Billies that he's been pining for since last Thanksgiving. 

Thanks Santa!

Dear Santa,

Thanks for all the great memories this Christmas. Spending time with the extended family was great.

Love,

Elaine

Ps. Thanks cousins for all the great loot!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to you.

Bad Dog Owner

So after spending the night at my aunt's house, we headed down to my cousin's place in Jersey where we'll be spending the next week.  We dropped off Egg and Red at my aunt's.  I feel so guilty for just leaving them there.  I know my aunt will spoil them, but Red gets anxious when she's away from us for long periods of time.  This will the longest at my aunt's.  I'll miss them and hope they forgive me.  I'm sure some spoonfuls of peanut butter are in the near future for them.

Kinect!

I played Kinect Sports tonight with my cousin and his wife.  It was a lot of fun.  I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow because pretending to play sports does that.  I think it's because of the lack of resistance.  At least the hubster didn't hurt himself like last year's Wii fiasco.  Time for a shower and some Zzzz's

Burger King, try Burger Peasant.

We finally got to my aunt's house, just a mere 8.5 hours after departing Columbus.  We would have gotten here sooner if the Burger King on the turnpike hadn't sucked.  All they had were whoppers and fish sandwiches!  How can you call yourself a Burger King with two menu selections.  What happened to the rest of it?  The hubster was the one who went inside while I walked the dogs in the freezing cold and windy night.  So I'm not sure if they carried the full menu, but everything he asked for was not offered.  We ended up not feasting like royalty, but stopping at the Wendy's right off the turnpike.

Road trip!

The difference between my two dogs:

Red and me singing Christmas carols in the car.

Egg Roll having none of that.

Christmas FAIL!

This year the hubster and I started a little too late on buying each other Christmas presents.  Sure, we both had something to open last night (did our own gift opening before we leave), but we both have gifts to be ordered or on the way.


So last night, I'm opening my gift and it's in a pretty big box.  Just by feeling the box, I knew it was a shoe box.  I love shoes.  So I'm pretty excited, and then as I tear open the paper to reveal the box brand, the hubster says "Now we can go hiking together!".  I'm thinking sweet, that's awesome.  I was thinking about how I might want to get some, and now I have them.  But it turns out, the hubster is also a trickster.  There were no shoes.  Instead, I got a Powermat which is still awesome too, but I got my hopes up for hiking shoes.  We both got big chuckles out of it.

So ready for vacation

2 more hours until Christmas vacation.  Can.Not.Wait.

Socks

I  know there are a few ways to fold socks, but I fold them one of two ways and it depends on the sock.  Short ankle socks get put inside of each other and longer socks get folded in half and the tube gets flipped and folded around the rest of the sock leaving you with a sock snowball.

The hubster has been super helpful this week finishing off some errands and house work in preparation for our trip to PA.  I had asked him to fold some a load of laundry from the other day which he obliged (except he told me he wouldn't fold two of my shirts - these were regular shirts so I'm not sure why they got left out).  Anyway, this morning as I dressed for work, I went to grab a pair of socks from my sock drawer, and lo and behold, my short socks were folded like long socks.

I then proceeded to wake the hubster up (he had just gotten into bed) and tell him he folded my socks wrong.   Any other normal and sane person would just put the damn socks on and get on with their life.  Not me.  And the fact that I'm still thinking about those damn socks makes me even crazier.  There were two sets of offending socks.  Poor hubster, the things he puts up with.

Dog Pictures

I was looking through the pictures on my phone and I noticed that Red is a bit more photogenic than Egg Roll is. I think the hubster agrees too because all the pictures he sends me are of Red. And on top of that, the pictures are always of Red sleeping!

See the evidence below:

Kids and Mani/Pedis?

I got a manicure and pedicure tonight in preparation for my upcoming trip. This is what I saw at the nail salon:



I'm not sure if I find it appalling or cute. I swayed toward the negative when I found out that kids come in as young as age 5. I'm pretty sure I didn't even know the word manicure at that age. Kids sure are growing up fast.

The Caterpillars at Work

During the warmer months, I walk along the path with my friend David. This year we found a lot of different caterpillars.

*sigh* The drawbacks of losing weight

Before I decided to lose weight, I would just eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  That's probably how I ended having to decide to lose to weight.  Back in February, I signed up for the gym and gave up soda (I was at two a day).  I paid a lot of attention and consciously made choices to eat healthier and to cut back portions and slowly and surely, it just became second nature.


Now that the holidays are in full swing, potlucks and parties are around every corner.  It's getting harder and harder to make the right decisions.  Here at work, I just had a colleague give me a plate full of chex mex and a piece of real gingerbread (I had no idea gingerbread was actually a bread, I thought it was that hard gross stuff you make houses out of).  And I want to eat it and I am eating it, but my brain is yelling at me for every bite.  "Do you know how much you'll weigh tomorrow morning?"  "You'll gain back all that weight you lost from that one spoonful of whipped cream"  "Do you know how many miles you'll need to run to burn that off?"  And eventually, my chewing will drown it out.


I miss the old days, but not the extra 18 lbs I was carrying around.  *sigh*  Everything in moderation, I suppose.

Early Christmas present

So the special pick up was one of the hubster's Christmas presents. I made him stay in the office while I brought them in. I let him see it after the relentless questioning. What was it?

I had our sketches from our first anniversary trip to Disney World framed.

Pooh

Eeyore

Mine are the sketches on the bottom.  I think they turned out pretty awesome. Now we have to clear out the entertainment center in the office to hang them up.

WTF!

Just finished Season 6 of Lost and that's all I have to say.

Stressed!

So stressed out right now.  So much to do before we leave on Thursday.  I had errands to run last night and didn't get home until 7:00 pm.  Sitting in traffic for hour to get from Easton to Gahanna.  Today, I've got to make a special pick-up this afternoon.  So excited, so a break from the stress I get, but once I get home, there's laundry to do, house to clean, clothes to pack, presents to wrap, and a bunch of other crap I can't even remember.

And I have to leave time to watch Lost tonight (on season 6 with two episodes left).  *sigh*

Shape Ups

I noticed a colleague of mine was wearing Shape Ups today. He's an older gentleman. I mentally LOLed the entire meeting. It's the little things that will help me get through this week.

After 2+ years ...

I'm done reading Weddingbee. Yep, I deleted it from my Google Reader. It's not the same anymore. Oh well. Now I need something else to occupy my time.

One of my favorite shopping days of the year

The day after Christmas!!!  I love Christmas! Love, love, love.  So because I'm too cheap to buy Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, tags, etc at full price, I always go shopping the day after Christmas (75% off, yo!)  But I think I'll have to start restraining myself.  At first, it was great.  I had just moved to Columbus, so it was starting fresh and I could buy to my heart's content.  Fast forward, 3 years and I don't need quite so much anymore.


Case in point, last year I bought 5 packages of self stick gift tags.  Yes, F-I-V-E.  That's 100+ tags. I don't even know if I know 100 people.  *goes to check Facebook*  I guess I do know 100 people.  Either way, I think it would take me at least 5 years to use all those gift tags.  I need more control.


And ornaments are another thing.  I love ornaments.  I have too many as is, but that doesn't stop me from stopping and looking at ornaments anytime a shiny, glittery ball passes my line of vision.
The solution: buy another tree for more ornaments!


Good thing I'll be in PA/NJ for the day after Christmas.  There is only so much room in Heidi (Brock's name for my Audi A4) and I think Brock would be very upset if I left him or one of the dogs behind for more Christmas stuff.

Red's favorite activity

If you've had the privilege of meeting Red, then you'd probably think her favorite activity was receiving belly rubs or being chased by her sister, Egg Roll. But you'd be wrong. I think Red's favorite activity is being the biggest pain in the ass while I change the sheets. Without fail, she is on the bed every single time I change the sheets. She'll sit on the bed, get shooed away, and then triumphantly get back onto the bed to repeat the cycle at least 5 more times. Here she is supervising me buttoning the duvet cover (just ignore how wrinkly they are):

This week's craft project

Gift card holders



Gift card holder boxes



A little overboard, but I usually don't like giving gift cards and since I'm spending this Christmas in PA/NJ I didn't want to travel with a bunch of gifts. At least they'll be unable to wrap these gift cards.

At the gym

So I decided to hit up the gym tonight since I hadn't been since Monday's awesome 6 mile run (first time at that distance!).  Well, it doesn't start off well since I unknowingly got there 30 minutes before they closed (since when do they close at 7:00 pm on a Saturday).  Anyway, start off with a quick run.

I found out today that not only can Asian women not drive, they also cannot run on a track.  There is this tiny, tiny Asian woman on the track doing her power walk/jog combo.  She's in the middle lane. No big deal.  I can pass her on either side, right?  Ha!  Silly me.  Right when I come up on her, she starts weaving in her lane, just enough to deter someone from passing.  Such a tiny woman can cause such trouble for me.  And to add insult to injury, she had bathed in some cheap perfume that lagged behind her for a good 65% of the track.

At least I got enough of a workout to have some cider beers tonight (Woodchuck...yum!)

Brains...

I had another zombie dream last night.  Yes, that's right another, meaning I've had them before.  This is the third zombie dream in the past month.  What's up with that?  This is not the first string of zombie dreams either.  The first involved Egg Roll (see below) as a time traveling, ghost phasing zombie hunter.  Yes, I'm weird.  These zombie dreams need to stop.

Egg Roll the time traveling, ghost phasing zombie hunter.

I know she's pretty fierce.

Christmas card

I usually make my Christmas cards, but didn't come up with a good idea in time. I do love this card from Snapfish. I underestimated the number I would need though :(. I had to keep one for myself!

Red the red nosed rein-dog

Red + raw hide + sofa with sofa cover = bad for Red's nose. She quite tenacious when trying to hide her bone.

Stinger who I mistook for the Philly Phanatic

At the Blue Jackets game last week

Blogpress test

I bought this app as an investment to keep me blogging instead of stopping when I get bored. We'll see how it goes.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mid-week Getaway

Just got back from a 2 day getaway to Hocking Hills.  Got some hiking in

, failed to build a fire (EPIC FAIL, we even had something that helps starts fires, hence no smores, WTF!),

 got some crafting in (gift card holders done!)  Overall, a successful mini vacation before the holiday rush next week.

Yes!

Ha!  I finally did it!  A blog of my own for my random ramblings.  Interwebs, are you ready?  Too bad, here I come.