Dog picture of the day

It's a bird, it's a plane, ... It's a fan blade spinning around. Oh Red, you're so silly.

Office baker bandit strikes again

This time in the form of a delicious decadent chocolate peanut butter mousse thing with oreo cookie crust. It's sooo good. I only scooped a little bit, but it's so rich that I am having a hard time finishing it.

Am I getting old?

So today the hubster and I went to watch The Raid: Redemption which is a foreign action/martial arts film about an elite police squad (that turned out to not be so elite) taking down a gang lord who lives atop a 20 story apartment building filled with all sorts of bad guys.  The hubster really wanted to see it and apparently it got lie 97% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Anyway, I walked out of the movie 45 minutes into it.  Not because of shaky camera a la Hunger Games, but because of how gruesome the movie was.  I can't handle a lot of gory death scenes and this one had constant death scenes.  I think I spent 35 of the 45 minutes with my hands over my ears and my head down.  I think towards the end of the 45 minutes I was actually jumping in my seat just from the noises I was hearing.

The hubster says I'm getting old.  I just think I have better taste in movies and can't stomach trash like this.  On the bright side, I got to try on a lot of clothes at Target and Old Navy while I was waiting for him to finish the movie. I got a white bikini for $20.

It's Official

I'm breaking up with my half marathon.  I've decided after weeks of putting it off not to run my half marathon.  I completely overbooked myself this lacrosse season and left me with no time to train and sensible recovery period between long runs.  The final test was today.  I would run the race if I could run 9 miles today.  I got to 5.  My legs felt tired.  My knees felt funny and the last thing I want to do is injure myself in the race like I did last time.

I think I've finally accepted that I don't really like running as much as I thought I did because it sucks and I dread doing it and I have to give myself a pep talk to actually do it.  Running is a means to allow myself to eat what I want.  So no more races for me, at least none that are longer than 5 miles.

I still plan on picking up my free shirt since I did pay for it, but no finisher medal for me.

Worst movie ever

I don't think my brother will appreciate this blog entry. I woke up this morning at 7am because I always wake up early after drinking. Anyway, to waste some time before I leave for brunch and the airport, I decided to watch some TV. First it was sports center then it was this awful awful movie on TNT. It was callled Chaos. It starred Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, and Ryan Phillipe. I know Kevin will disagree because Jason Statham can't make a bad movie, but this was pretty bad. I can't even describe how bad a movie it was. Just trust me. Almost ruined my morning. Almost, my delicious pho bring saved the morning for me.

The hubster in bed

Someone does not believe in personal space.  The hubster is her new pillow.

Pillow hog!  I woke up Sunday morning with no pillow.  Looks like someone got pillow happy in the middle of the night.  He says that the pillow was there when he got into bed.  Likely story.

A different kind of Twilight

So on the way back from dinner, we walk by this store. They have all these movie posters in the window. One happens to catch my attention. It's a twilight move poster, but not quite.

The women in the poster is not Kristen Stewart. Its someone else. She is wearing a plaid button up shirt like bella. I'm confused, then look up. Yeah it was one of those stores. Porn just infiltrates everything.

We had a good laugh about it because we all thought the exact same thing.

Public toilets

Since moving from Philadelphia, 15 years ago I forget that public restrooms are a luxury in metropolitan areas. There are always signs signally that bathrooms are for paying customers only. During today's tour of the city with my coworkers, we found a public pay toilet. $0.25 gets you access to the toilet. I snapped up this picture.



It looks like they are trying to figure out how to use it, but they are really looking at a map. I wonder if it's gross inside the public restroom.

Hello Great Lakes

So I flew to Boston today for work. I've never been to Boston so I was a little excited. The flight was uneventful, but there was a moment of confusion on my part. I happen to look out the window and saw a large body of water. I think to myself this doesn't seem right. We shouldn't be flying by the ocean and if we did we are definitely flying in the wrong direction. I did a mental check on my us geography and deduce that it is not the ocean, but the great lakes. Phew, glad I wasn't on the wrong plane.

I had never seen the great lakes before so I snapped up a picture. You can even see Canada from the plane.

Best $70 I've spent in a while

I finally bit the bullet and bought a black rain jacket for refing. I has been using a black north face shell which was sufficient, but was a bit too baggy and would soak up water. I knew it was forecasted to rain this past weekend and I did not want a big jacket impeding me in my rating game, so I got a black Columbia jacket. I know you're not supposed to change anything, but I did and I'm glad I had it.

It kept me dry and was the perfect fit. The pockets weren't too high and I love it. I'm even wearing it now at work. I should have bought one sooner. So new shoes and new jacket, my ref purchases are done for the year!

Off to Boston

I found out today at work that I'm headed to Boston next week.  Short notice much?  It's ok though.  I always jump at the opportunity to travel for work.  It keeps my miles from expiring.  It makes me feel good that my company will invest that kind of money to travel and that they think I'm a good representative of the company.  I also like going to new places and leaving the office behind for a few days takes the drudgery out of work.

This trip is a short one, but I'll take it.  I've never been to Boston, so it'll be an adventure.  I also get to meet my boss's girlfriend who I was very instrumental in making his relationship a success.  I give great advice!

I hope this contract pans out for us because I just spent a boatload on my plane ticket and hotel.

I love it when coworkers feed me

I have a coworker that I am friends with and we talk about all sorts of things, but it usually centers on food.  He likes to garden and cook and I just like to cook.  We have this long standing agreement that we bring each other food when we make something good.  I bring him a dozen meatballs whenever I make a batch.  I bring him dumplings when I come back from PA.  Stuff like that.  He'll bring me in soups whenever he makes them.

Since spring is upon us, he's made me three salads so far from his garden.  Man, they are good!  Anyway, today I brought in a some Progresso soup for lunch and when I went into the break room, I realized that my bowl had a huge crack down the side.  The paper bowls provided by the company are not big enough for a can.  So I exclaimed that I couldn't eat my soup.  He was already in the break room making my salad and he commented that he had chili he brought in for me to eat yesterday.  I was like yes, I'll eat that since it's a small mason jar.

He warns me though if I don't finish it, not to through it away.  It's spicy and I am not that spicy food tolerant though I am getting better.  Lunch was delicious and I didn't make any of it.  The salad was superb with garlic vinaigrette  feta cheese, red onion, and olives.  The chili was super spicy, but I liked it.

I'm full and satisfied!  Yay for David!

I am sad about the bowl though.  It was one of the hubster's cereal bowls that he loves because they are the perfect size for him.  I don't know how I cracked it, but now we only have 3 and that's just such an odd number (literally) of bowls to have.

Nerves

I'm getting re-rated for lacrosse this Saturday and I was not too worried about it.  I think I've been having a great season so far and have really stepped up in my college games.  However, I really want to get a D3 and I just looked at the new rating sheet.  I'm nervous now.  There are a total of 89 skills to master and in order to get a D3, I would need to meet a minimum of the 55 required skills and 15 of the other skills.  I feel like that's a lot to demonstrate in 60 minutes of play.

Time to study the sheet.

I'm Struggling

I'm really struggling today.  Tuesdays are always the hardest for me.  So I've been constantly snacking today to stay awake.  It's terrible.  So far today I have eaten:

• half a bagel with peanut butter
• snack size bag of Reese's Pieces
• One can of Progresso soup
• Tortilla chips
• Handful of almonds
• Fruit leather snack thingy
• A bunch of pineapple
• Nutrigrain bar
• A hunk of garlic cheddar cheese with Triscuits

I don't think I'm done snacking yet either.  I have a white chocolate Reese's egg on my other desk, just waiting for me.

I'm so mad because I finally got back down to my pre-California weight from August!  Yes, it's taken me 8 months to lose 3 lbs and I honestly don't think I've really lost it.  It's just probably normal fluctuation, but it's been holding for two days.  *sigh*  Where the hell did my willpower go?

Dog picture of the day

This is comfortable?

Dentist

I'm wary of dentists.  I really think my dentist looks for things to be wrong.  When I first went, I wasn't flossing enough.  Even though this was true and I hadn't been to a dentist in over two years.  I felt that they would always say that.  And you know what?  They did.

Also every visit I went in after that, I had to have one of my old silver cavities re-filled with a white one.  Were they actually cracking and needing to be replaced?  Who knows?  So that covered the next 3 years of dentist visits (I had a lot of cavities).  Only recently have my dentist visits been stellar.  My teeth are in fantastic shape and they tell me all the time except "Oh, your right front tooth is slightly discolored", "Oh, do you want to whiten your teeth?", "Oh, we'll want to watch this" and so on and so forth.  Ugh.

I almost want to stop going, but I can't.  I'm a conformist.

Also, my teeth are super sensitive to cold now after I got my teeth cleaned...

Oops

Lucky for me that it did not rain last night because I had parked my car in the driveway due to all the saw dust in our garage and I left the sunroof open all night.  Phew.  Also nothing was stolen.

Max capacity

After clearing out our office for phase two of the flooring installation, I am officially declaring my house as filled to max capacity. We have so much shit and clutter it makes me sick. I just want to throw it all away. I've been able to pare down old textbooks to stuff I would still use in my job, but the hubster is not there yet. He's going to be an actuary. Does he really need to keep a chemistry book? Did I say that he has one quarter left on school? When we finish the office and move stuff back in, I have a feeling that a lot clutter is going to end up in the trash.

What does one do with old textbooks? Donate to good will? Do they even take them? I would feel bad if I just threw them away.

At least the office is cleared, must need the baseboard and carpet tacks out and I can start laying more boards.

Owwwww

I'm such a baby.  I just had my first lacrosse related injury in over 6 years.  My left hand pinky is swollen and scraped up.  I keep looking at it making sure it's actually swollen.  It hurts, but not a lot.  I'm just a big old baby in my old age.

I also have to say that I love lacrosse and I love that the post collegiate team is prospering.  So stoked, it's totally worth all the time and effort to organize these games.

Totally screwed

I've lost all motivation to train for my upcoming half marathon in 24 days. I also screwed myself by overbooking myself for lacrosse. Looking at my schedule, I have only 5 days scheduled for a run. I'm doing lacrosse every other day between now and may 5. I don't even know if I can even do long runs on any of those days either. My legs get so tired recently and I don't want my reffing to suffer because of my running. My longest run to date is 7.5 miles :(

I've already accepted that I'll be walking some of the race, but I'm not sure how much. I don't want a repeat of the last race either. Maybe I should just drop out. So disappointing :(

I think if I can get one 10 mile run in before the race, I'll be ok. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Easter candy overload

I need this like I need another hole in my head. I spent $15 on Easter candy at Kroger yesterday. It was 50% off! I couldn't help myself. In my defense, I bought 2 bags of Reese's minis and 2 bags of Rolos for baking purposes only. It was way cheaper to buy these now than when I would plan to make these cookies. I also bought the hubster some other Reese's candies which I know he loves.

On a side note, I saw an Asian women toting around a giant cardboard peeps box with like 20 boxes of Ferrero Rocher or whatever they are called. So Asian!

Dog picture of the day

Peekaboo

Pigging out

I've had two truffles, a Cadbury caramel egg, and a handful of skittles today and I still want more. Stupid Easter Bunny!

Long Island here I come

It's official. I'm headed to National tournament at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York. I just booked my ticket last night. It was expensive and painful. There went two of my lacrosse pay checks. Well at least I know I'm not wasting my lacrosse income. So far, they have paid for my floors and my NT trip. My savings plan for Europe have been slightly detailed, but we'll recover throughout the year.

Day 2, 3, and 4: floor installation

Holy crap, am I in some pain? Laying down floors is tough. We didn't even push ourselves this weekend, but my back, arms, and butt hurt. Don't ask why my butt hurts, but it does.

So the goal this weekend was to complete our great/living room. Well we did that and 90% of the hallway. It looks really good. We only had to make three trips to Home Depot during the whole process.




First row laid down on Friday afternoon.



Hard at work



Progress before going to bed Friday night



Red



Done! Saturday night



With furniture



Another view

We still need to take the blue tape off, prepare the baseboard to be reinstalled, and touch up the wall paint. Lots and lots to do before the room is officially done, but it's livable. There are a few mistakes, but that's just how it is for DIY. The hubster and I are extremely pleased with everything.

Of course, we've already made some boo boos with the floor. The hubster has dropped a plank on the floor and there is a large dent in the floor, I've installed a few imperfect chipped pieces, the dogs have already scratched some of the boards, but we should get used to it. It's going to be lived on and it's not going to stay perfect. I definitely need to find a vacuum cleaner for hardwood floors. Omg so much dog hair!

On a side note, I'm hell bent on coming back to my Asian roots and requiring shoes to be taken off in our house. With the carpet, I was much more relaxed and guilty of walking with my shoes on in the house. Not with these new floors, I just don't want unnecessary scratches and debris getting tracked into the house.

Next up, finish hallway and start on the office!

Snob

That's what I felt like last night. After my game at Wooster, I stopped at Wendy's to get dinner before my 1.5 hour trip back to Columbus. I finished my fish sandwich which was all right and decided to order a vanilla frosty for the ride back which turned out to be a mistake because I spilled it in my car.

Anyway, as I was paying the cashier asked me how do you get and Amex. I was a little taken back by the question and responded in a little too snarky tone, you apply for it like any other card as shrugged. She then asked her boss why she always get denied when she applies for cards. He then asks about her credit score which was in the 500's and asks how to get a good score.

I felt like an ass. I guess she was really asking about what you needed to get an Amex. I've never been denied a credit card or anything. I have great credit and i forget that people aren't as fortunate as I was and had parents who helped build my credit score.

Sorry Wendy's cashier.

Floor installation: day 1

Today we cleared out the great room in preparation of laying down some hardwood flooring. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, but boy do we have a lot shit.




With all but the tv gone.

I vacuumed the rugs and carpet too. When I got back from my game, the hubster had cleared out the rest of the room and we started on removing the baseboard. We had to make a second stop to Home Depot to pick up a putty knife and some nippers. Here's a picture of the first two pieces of baseboard removal.




Our carpets are filthy. Those damn dogs. We only got about halfway through the room, but we're ahead of schedule and we might be able to lay down floors tomorrow instead of Saturday. It looks like we'll be able yo reuse the baseboard, so that is good and will save us some money! Here's what Red was doing while we were working.




She's laying on some fresh laundry and our new bedroom rug. She was being a grumpy bitch, mumbling and groaning while we worked.

I'm pretty excited about the floors. I hope we dont run into a lot of obstacles. Ready for tomorrow and day 2!

iPad > iPhone

when it comes to Draw Something.  My pictures get 1000% better when I draw on the iPad.  That larger screen does wonders and my pictures need all the help they can get.

Must Resist

I took the day off work to go to the doctor's office with the hubster.  He was supposed to get a biopsy and wanted me there.  I was also scheduled for a game today so I was going to leave work early anyway.  It just wasn't worth it to go into work late  and stay for two hours.  So I'm sitting here waiting for noon to roll around so I can wake up the hubster and get lunch.

I'm so hungry.  I don't think I can wait. =(  But he needs to get some sleep.  He'd been staying up late the past few nights to work on my car.  29 more minutes...

Yay!

My car is finally functioning again after numerous delays. The hubster had told me that my timing belt was due for a change and we had originally planned to get it done during his spring break. Stuff came up and parts and tools didn't arrive in time, so it got pushed back two weeks. A weekend plus wasn't enough and finally after five days my car is mine again. Relief!

I thought I was going to have to rent another car for this weekend before my trip back up to Wooster. Hubster gets mad props for doing such a huge job by himself. He saved us much $$$$! Even though it wasn't done "on time", he's still amazing.

Heidi has spoiled me

I had to rent another car this weekend because the hubster is changing the timing belt on Heidi and I didn't want to drive the Tibby to Cleveland. I swear I have hated every rental car we've rented except for the Civic. They just suck and I don't like how they drive. It doesnt really come as a surprise when you compare rental car fleets to an Audi.

I got a Chevy Cruze this time and while it has a few bells and whistles, I still hate it. The steering is not responsive and it's got no power. I shouldn't complain because I got a great rate on it. Friday through Monday for $40!

Hopefully my car will be done tomorrow night. *fingers crossed*

Grandpa's Cheese Barn

Grandpa's Cheese Barn is an institution. It's this small little group of buildings which houses delicious cheese, home made fudge, ice cream, jams, and other goodies. I've been wanting to go for awhile, but I've never had a reason to head in that direction. It's a good hour north of Columbus.

Well I got a last minute game in Cleveland on saturday and I stopped in. It was amazing and every bit as good as I thought it would be. I got wasabi peanuts, garlic cheddar, garden veggie crackers, and another soft white cheese. The hubster and I feasted on same cheese last night. We ate a lot of it. I'm due back up next week and I'm tempted to stop in again. The hubster wants some bacon cheddar cheese that I mentioned to him.

I love cheese!