Saturday, January 31, 2009

Snow Bunnies!!!

I got an A in ski school.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009

well that was fun!

jeremy called me aound noon and said hey tim and miranda are in town. wanna hang out with them tonight? of course they picked the one night of this week we didnt have anything already planned so it was perfect!!!

after work i came home and started watching last nights american idol - the tryouts from salt lake city. man those producers are SO emotionally manipulative. they already know who they want you to vote for. sheesh. so far no one has really struck my fancy. i havent started watching tonights episode yet.

so, after jeremy got home we drove down to universal citywalk and tried to eat at hard rock but it was loud and had poor service so we would up at buco di beppos which had great service and was delicious. and quiet enough so that we could have actual conversation. the last time we saw them miranda was still pregnant so it has been a while.

we had a great time catching up and i enjoyed just watching adessa, who, like me, missed her nap today, but she was SO well behaved. and funny. she can say "meaghan" and "jeremy" really well. it is pretty cute. i love kids. other peoples kids. for now. someday i hope i love my own kids.

the night ended too soon but they had to drive home and we had to pack or our ski trip so it couldnt be helped. for a random phone call on a thursday, our night was pretty fantastic. my only regret is that i forgot i had my camera in my purse. we could have taken some fun pictures.

i thought of more!

26. the #1 fashion crime, in my ever so humble opinion, is wearing a blue shirt with blue jeans. especially when they are both light or both dark. ick! #2 would be wearing a jean jacket with jeans. especially the same wash. suits made of demin are ugly. just remember that.

27. i got to help the vets at the vet school at k-state operate on an 8 foot long boa constrictor with a mouth tumor. it took about 15 of us to hold it down even though it was also drugged.

28. i am paralyzingly afraid of earthquakes. if the big one hits while we still live in california i will be dead because i wont remember to get under the table or into a doorway. however, if i live, kris has an earthquake kit.

29. my best friend lives exactly 2013 miles away. (good one anna!)

30. even though i am almost always the tallest woman in the room, and usually taller than most of the men (except when i am with the kocis - jeremy, shane, and ryan... i really love you guys) i LOVE wearing high heels. mostly stilettos, mostly 3 in high. if i am goig to be taller anyways might as well enjoy it!

31. i love magnetic poetry. my fridge at home and filing cabinets at work are covered with it.

32. i know every single word to every single dc talk song ever. including the raps. i used to play the tapes one word at a time (play! pause! play! pause!) to write down all the words to the raps so i could follow along until i learned them.

33. along the lines of memorization, no need to rent princess bride OR youve got mail. i can just recite them for you.

34. my favorite movies ever are star wars. we even exited the church on our wedding day to the star wars main title. john williams is a hero of mine. so is george lucas. and this might be a good time to re-mention that i have been in love with harrison ford since i was like 4.

35. i HATE checking voice mail at work but it drives me crazy when people call my cell phone and dont leave a message, especially when it is a number i dont recognize.

36. i have owned a car from each of the decades i have lived in. turbo the volvo was born in 1982 and cost $800 (and was older than me!), walter the achieva was born in 1996, and rex the yaris was born in 2007. i love my yaris!

37. i have lived in three states, five cities, and thirteen (possibly more) addresses.

38. the only thin hampering my dream of being a famous singer is that fact that while ive got rhythm, i dont got pitch.

39. i was born in the year of the rat. ive always hated that. i wanted to be the year of the horse. or dog. anything but a rat!

40. for the amount and volume of my talking, my mouth is really quite small. ask uncle mark. he was shocked.

41. my small mouth contributes to this: one food i cannot abide even touching is marshmallows. they slowly have gotten more and more disgusting to me. it all started with a tragic game of chubby bunny in 4th grade and slowly progressed from there. i think the last time i touched one was in college when mandy and i deocrated shane and jeremys dorm room and trucks with them. when we campi usually eat just graham crackers and chocolate. (or skip dessert altogether and just enjoy my mixie drink)

last night i was laying in bed trying to sleep and kep tthinking of more things to add. so if i think of more i will let you know.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

jessie, this one's for you

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

so everyone has been doing it, and enough people have tagged me that i guess it is time to fall victim to peer pressure and jump on the bandwagon and all that stuff. it is hard to think of 25 completely unique random things about myself so if you think hey i wrote that too dont hate.

1. i wouldnt go as far as saying i love it, but i really dont mind being poked with needles. a month of going to the doctor every day freshman year of high school will do that for a person i guess. so now i love giving blood (and make jeremy give too!) as you may have noticed from previous posts.

2. in high school (and growing up) i HATED running. now, i do it for fun. i pay to run. i get up an hour early to run. im still not fast and i dont run very far but im doing it dammit!

3. our marriage has gone through some reversals. when we started dating, jeremy loved country music and used to torture me by making me listen to it. now, the country station is on my set of presets in the car and not his at all. (anyone who knew me in high school and college is laughing pretty hard right now)

4. anna and i have made a pact that after we have kids if we get fat we are going on the biggest loser. we love that show!

5. speaking of tv, jeremy thought getting me a dvr would help us watch less tv. boy was he wrong!

6. i am about to do something i have never done this weekend (skiing) and next weekend (not telling, but it is RANDOM).

7. one time in high school we tp-ed matts house and he caught us and cleaned it up. we went back a couple hours later and dug the tp out of the trash bag and used it again on him. one of my shining moments.

8. in high school i was voted "most opinionated" for our academy awards themed prom. i guess if you know me, that fact isnt all that random.

9. speaking of the academy awards, i get to go again this year. (yeah again - i went last year too!)

10. my cat, cricket, thinks she is a dog. it is pretty adorable.

11. my degree is in business management and gerontology, but i work with kids. sort of.

12. if you add them all up, i have had 10 grandparents in my life. thats a lot. never all at the same time though.

13. i am taking a cake decorating class. it starts next weekend. two of my friends from work are taking it too. those poor people arent going to know what hit them!

14. i basically got my entire department at work to read the twilight series. we trade the books back and forth like they are crack. just cant get enough!

15. i have two tattoos and 6 piercings (if you add of each one in my ears separately). also my hair was blue for a while.

16. everyone that works at the valley plaza branch of the los angeles public library knows me by sight.

17. if i could go on a date with any celebrity, i would have a hard time choosing between stephen colbert, joel mchale and ewan mcgregor. that is if harrison was unavailable.

18. jeremy was my first kiss.

19. matthew perry goes to my gym. on chandler st. if thats not random i dont know what is.

20. everything i know about politics i learned from watching west wing. season 7 of that show is why/how obama got elected. i would vote for matt santos if i was given the option. or for jed bartlett for that matter.

21. i havent had any soda for two years now.

22. or pig or shellfish. or white bread.

23. things that make me crazy: people who double park, people with words written across the butts of their pants, women at the gym who arent wearing a sports bra or in some cases a bra at all, people who ask the same questions over and over, especially at work, the fact that the number of buns never matches the number of hotdogs, selfishness, excess, smoking, intolerance. among other things. dont you worry. i wont list them all here.

24. i am a rules person. if we are playing a game, or driving, or doing anything else, i like to follow the rules. i am also somewhat of a hallway monitor. i cant break the rules and neither can you! it follows that i understand gods justice a lot better than his mercy.

25. i used to play monopoly by myself for hours at a time. no one else would play with me. strange as it may seem coming on the heels of my last entry, but i made up my own rules so it became a single player game, me against the bank, playing until i had all the money and all the property. when i would land on a property that i owned, the bank would pay me rent. somehow, i never lost. please keep in mind i was about 9 at the time. dont judge me.

it is really hard to think of all these things right in a row. best of luck to those i tag.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

book challenge

i am venturing into the new territory of book challenges. basically, people all over host them and they all have different parameters and timelines.

the first one i am trying out is the banned book challenge 2009. i have challenged myself to read 15 books from the banned or challenged list between feb 22 and june 30. i have already picked the books i am interested in reading but a lot will depend on the library's availability during that time period. some are classics and some are newer. part of the challenge is to post book reviews on my blog so you all will get to hear which books i am reading and what i thought about them. i know you can barely control yourselves until feb 22. well me either (but mostly because thats oscar day!)

Monday, January 26, 2009

started bad, ended pretty good

when i got to work this morning the alarm (the one to tell kids when to change classes and start/end school; sounds like an old fashioned alarm clock) was going off. apparently it had been going off since at least sunday. it continued to go off for at least the first 45 minutes that i was trying to work. finally our maintenance guy fixed it. during this time i realized that the server was down and i couldnt check my emails or access the shared drives that i store all my important documents on. great. thats okay - the internet was working so i facebooked and yahooed the morning away.

shortly after the school alarm went off, the server room alarm went off. this one is more of a high pitched whine. that continued for about 2 hours. lovely. i was almost ready to quit when our (mostly worthless) it guy showed up and fixed both the alarm and the server. finally i could get some work done. oh yay.

my day took a turn for the better when ellen gave me a bottle of nail polish that she found at home and didnt want and thought i would like. it is named "skin tight denim" so of course i like it. dark blue - so hot right now. so i painted my nails at work this afternoon. layoffs? what layoffs?

i was able to go to my favorite class with my favorite teacher at the gyym tonight.

then, when i got home, i got a facebook message from my "son" russ, who informed me that i needed to drink some beer in honor of his home country. apparently, jan 26 is australia day. (in completely unrelated news, australia was the word that lost me the spelling bee in 3rd grade. i still get nervous and sweaty when i have to spell it. it was between me and another kid and i lost!) so jeremy ran right out and bought some fosters (australian for beer!) and boddingtons ( i know it is an english beer but it is the only kind of beer i will actually drink and arent australians all english criminals if you trace their roots back far enough anyways?) and we watched west wing and drank beer. so the crappy monday wound up alright after all.

this ones for you russell murphy! we miss you!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Chicken stuffed with goat cheese and basil

Looks gourmet. Was really easy and delicious. Jeremy eating goat cheese - can you imagine? And the basil was my first harvest from my aerogarden. I am amazing. :)
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Sex on Fire

Have you ever had the experience of hearing a song on the radio as you arrive home and then hearing the same song as you leave the house the next morning? We heard the kings of leon song "sex of fire" last night and this morning. Kinda makes me feel like I never left the car.

Also, I am firmly convinced that the kings of leon are a reincarnation of kenny loggins (and I'm pretty sure he isn't even dead yet). Also, the lyric "whoa your sex is on fire" confuses me. Is he talking about some kind of std? Or is someone's special place actually on fire? That's even more disturbing.

Yet catchy.

Hmm. This requires more pondering.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Running the day away

Kris and I braved the "rain" and drove out to pasadena to run our triathlon route around the rose bowl. I'm gonna need more training. Good thing there is still more than a month to go!
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Thursday, January 22, 2009

american idol what?

yesterday afternoon after i go thome from work i turned on the tv to watch the dvr-ed episode of american idol from tuesday night. as it is still audition time, there was the usual mix of freaks, earnestly bad singers, and pretty good singers, psychos, and sad stories. the very last contestnat they showed was kai, who is a devoted son to his ailing mother blah blah good tv blah blah. he was a pretty good singer and made it to hollywood. yay for him. call your mom and tell her. wait! first, let the producers cue "i can only imagine" to play in the background. wait... what???

weirdest outro music on american idol ever. didnt even really fit his story, especially since they played the entire song and all the lyrics.

81st annual academy award nominees announced

1. Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

2. Actor: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

3. Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

4. Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"; Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

5. Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

6. Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

7. Foreign Film: "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; "Waltz With Bashir," Israel.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"; Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"; David Hare, "The Reader"; Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

9. Original Screenplay: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"; Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"; Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Bolt"; "Kung Fu Panda"; "WALL-E."

11. Art Direction: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Duchess," "Revolutionary Road."

12. Cinematography: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

13. Sound Mixing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

14. Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

15. Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat; "Defiance," James Newton Howard; "Milk," Danny Elfman; "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman.

16. Original Song: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

17. Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road."

18. Documentary Feature: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Encounters at the End of the World," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," "Trouble the Water."

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Conscience of Nhem En," "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306."

20. Film Editing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire."

21. Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

22. Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory — Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

24. Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man."


i think the only thing that would make this list more exciting for me would be if the following names somehow magically appeared on it: john williams, george lucas, ewan mcgregor.

but it is still pretty amazing that i will get to see all these people from about 3 feet away. yep.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

the best part of my day

stealing an idea from beka... she often posts about the best part of her day. the best part of my yesterday was getting a competely unexpected package at work from american eagle containing a pair of man pants and this sweater. i really love my honey bunny. he has good taste in clothes. also he is going to look good in his new pinstripe pants that he picked out.

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i got up an hour early, ate breakfast, and went running with a friend from work and her roommate. it felt really good and it was cool enough to not be sweating like a pig but not cold. we were super safe (safety in numbers AND i was armed with pepper spray AND no one else is awake and out at 6:30am). ny adreneline is fading and around lunchtime i am going to crash. the good news is now i dont have to anything when i get home except cook dinner and drink. :) no driving to the gym and fighting for a treadmill, no getting there early so i can get my spot for a class. so yay for that. we are running again in the morning. hopefully this is something that becomes a part of my regular routine.

i have another new years resolution that i didnt think of right at the beginning of the year but that i have been keeping so far. i want to cook something new at least once a week. i am bored with the same old food (seriously my cart at tjs was the exact same every week - all healthy and tasty stuff but cmon.) so we have been trying new stuff. tonight i am making tabbouleh with roast beef. super excited. i get to use some herbs from my garden for it. yay! last night we had lemon garlic chicken and cauiflower, both new recipes. and i found this great recipe for a vegetable soup that makes a giant batch then i froze it in four parts and thaw, add a few new ingredients, reheat, bam dinners ready and healthy and easy. love it!!!!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Day 20

The mint and parsley still have some catching up to do. The basil gets "pruned" on thursday. My garden is awesome.
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television advertising at its finest

on the way home from the gym tonight i was channel surfing and landed on the easy listening station (hey i love michael bolton and celine dion just as much as the next girl). the song that was playing was "baby come back (you can blame it all on me)" and i wanted to go buy a swiffer even though i already have one.

hey advertising guys... its working.

huntington library


you may find it strange that our martin luther king day adventure was to a library (especially since the actual library, which was a gorgeous and more importantly HUGE building was actually closed) but it is just called that. we really visited the botanical gardens at the huntington library. over 120 acres of awesomeness. there was a whole desert scape, and since cacti are my favorite plant maybe, it was great. we saw all kinds of cacti that i had never heard of or seen before. there was also a huge japanese and chinese garden, including a whole outdoor room of bonsai, another plant that fascinates me. anyone reading this who lives in the los angeles area and has never been, you HAVE to go to these gardens. there were also several art galleries we didnt get to go to, a rainforest, a children's garden (we avoided that just by listening to the shrieking children and cringing, then running tin the opposite direction), a bog, rose gardens, and an amazing herb garden.





after wandering around the gardens for a couple hours, we went to the rose garden tea room and had tea. lots of yummy sandwiches, fruit, and scones. seriously i was in heaven. also i didnt have to work on a monday and thats always good.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

some people...

last night jeremy and i went to the house of blues sunset strip for dinner and a concert. we saw edwin mccain (he was the second act; the headliners were the alan parsons project band.), one of our favorite artists. his most famous song is i'll be, which was the song we danced our first dance to at our wedding. he played for about an hour and it was all of his good stuff. it was amazing.

the only un-amazing part was one of our coattendees. these two guys came and stood in front of us when edwin mccain started his first set. they were not the typical edwin mccain fan (middle-aged white people) and they were really really drunk. it was only about 9pm and house of blues isnt a cheap place to buy drinks so thye must have either been drinking all day long at home and then drove to the show or they were really really really cheap drunks. anyways midway through one of my favorite songs i feel something splash on my foot. at first i thought someone spilled their drink but no it was the dumbass standing in front of me, puking in the middle of the show because eh was so drunk. he and his friend left and went to the bathroom and a security guy came and put sawdust on the mess. (elementary school anyone?) it was all well and good (although you would be amazed at the number of people who do not look where they are putting their feet and walked straight through the puddle) until they came back and he had ANOTHER beer in his hand. thankfully one of the guys in the group standing to my right went and got security who escorted him out. after that we were able to enjoy the rest of the show and even able to slow dance to our song.

it was wonderful.

toepick!


friday night we celebrated my friend sarah's 25th birthday with dinner at islands and ice skating at the pasadena convention center. it was super fun. i havent been on the ice in uears. while i am decent at going around in circles and (accidentally) turning in a circle, my attempts to skate backwards were dismal at best. but it was great. i am only minorly sore, which i attribute to all the hours i have been putting in at the gym (can i also attribute the tight fit of my pants to those same hours? why is my butt getting bigger if i am exercising like a crazy person????). jeremy took one minor spill and i stayed on my feet the whole hour and a half.
great idea for a party sarah!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Day 14

The basil is catching up to the chives, which are apparently unsafe for animals, which makes them the number one target for crickey to chew on. Of course. Hopefully we can keep her from eating any of the plants and off the counter. Dream on.
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more news from the sauna

i guess thought this was just common sense and/or courtesy, but apparently we need to go over a few rules of sauna etiquette.

1. talking is extremely unnecessary and should be limited to "do you mind if i flip the sand timer?" especially if one or more parties involved in the conversation are bare assed naked and asking questions that require eye contact.

2. if you do decide to take off all your clothes before sauna-ing (not my personal choice but im not judging) go ahead and bring a towel in to sit on. no one wants to sit on the bench where your old saggy butt has left a sweaty mark. thats just disgusting.

3. stop crowding me! you make me nervous!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

why is it so hot here?

we had to run the air con last night. completely ridiculous. it is january for pete's sake! why is it over 80 degrees? while i am not a huge fan of cold weather i dont mind wearing my hoodies and jeans comfortably a few months out of the year. now i have to dig out all my tank tops. sheesh.

i had my first meeting for the academy awards on sunday. i am SO excited for this february. the show is the day after my birthday (last year it was on jeremy's birthday so we didnt have any great celebration until march). i guess if i could get this heat wave to come back show week when i am standing outside from 10pm until 7am that would be great! there is a limit to how many layers a girl can put on and still move comfortably. :)

there is a distinct possibility that i will work out every night this week (if you count ice skating on friday night as a workout) which is pretty amazing. tonight is a swimming night so i have to make the trek over to the universal city gym. it isnt that much farther away but it always seems like so much more of a hassle to go there. it is bigger nicer and newer than our little gym in sherman oaks but it also attracts a lot more of the industry see and be seen types. if you only come to the gym to wear a crop top and prance around get off the damn treadmill and let me have a turn and actually sweat! not that its a big deal or anything... at least it is cooler so all the people who were in the pool all summer to show off their new bikinis and chiseled abs are too wimpy to take up one of the three lanes so that those of us who are actually swimming laps have a place to be.

another interesting feature of the universal gym is the sauna. i read an article in a health magazine that said going in the sauna after cardio workouts can help you increase lung capacity faster. so after i bike and swim tonight i plan on hitting the sauan. since i swim first, i just wear my swim suit in there. some people go in there with all their workout clothes on including socks. i dont know how they dont pass out from the heat! i cant og in there without thinking of the seinfeld episode (i think it featured teri hatcher) where they are all wondering if she is all-natural or surgically enhanced and jerry makes elaine go in the sauna with her to try to figure it out and she trips and winds up groping teri. needless to say i watch my step very carefully while in there!

"by the way, they are real and they are fabulous" one of the best seinfeld quotes ever, after "these pretzels are making me thirsty" love it! jeremy bought us the seinfeld scene it game. party mode on that thing can keep us entertained for hours!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Day 12

I've got chives taller than my thumb and the last biodome comes off tonight when the light goes out. All ib less than 2 weeks! Fresh herbs soon - I am very excited and so is my tummy!!!
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Saturday, January 10, 2009

things that make me feel like a grown up

i dont think that anything i do makes me feel more like a real live adult than dropping off and picking up dry cleaning. i paid bills and had a job in college. i had to get my car fixed and buy my own clothes etc. but i do not believe i ever dry cleaned anything until i started my "real" (aka 40 hour work week) job and even then i held off as long as possible using dryel etc. there comes a time in every girls life when the pants need new creases (i sure as hell am not going to put them there). that time came today.

dry cleaning was the first of many errands which including finishing my christmas shopping (at work we are celebrating next friday so i am not late thank you very much) and buying some new clothes! yay christmas money!!! i also went to the library. working hard on my reading list for 2009. any suggestions?

Day 10

My chives are very tall and my mint not so much. The parsley still hasn't poked his little head up. It is almost time to add more nutrients and pinch the basil. Fascinating stuff I know.
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Friday, January 9, 2009

lance's birthquake

yesterday was lances 38th birthday so kris brought brownies to small group last night to celebrate. a few minutes after we all got to dan and bridgets house the windows started rattling and the ground was shaking. yep. my third earthquake. terrifying as usual. it was a 4.5 centered in san bernadino so we felt it in pasadena but we may not have felt it if we had been at home in the valley. lance was in california during the 1994 northridge earthquake so he wasnt scared at all. give me a hurricane or tornado any day!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Day 8

All but one of my biodomes are off. The mint was the latest thing to join the plants breathing air. In a week or so I will start pinching back the basil so all the plants grow at around the same height (or so my book tells me).
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this week

oh it was hi ho back to work i go on monday. ick. started off the week with three days of IEPs. its enough to make a girl crazy! last night kris, kim and i met at the gym while our husbands plus dan played racquetball. treadmill and bike - we are training for our next triathlon! i signed up last week, kim signed up last night and i think kris did too. this one will be shorter than our other one so i am super excited. plus, the best past is that the swimming portion will be in a pool instead of the freezing cold and full of huge clumps of seaweed that try to drown a person pacific ocean. :D

cricket is happy to have us back and for a while was being really snugly but now has settled back into her normal cuddle with jeremy while hes awake and with me while i am sleeping routine. oh well... i gotta get my affection where i can. she is very intrigued by the plants we are growing in our aerogarden. she loves eating green things. apparently dill can be harmful to small animals so of course that is one of the plants in a front corner for easy access. great. hopefully she sticks to gnawing on the basil and thyme and mint. so far the plants are all to small to eat but the automatic light is very intriguing to her. 10:45 every night when it goes off she jumps. awesome! kim said the entire time cricket was staying with them she never got used to their automatic litter box. whenever the machine would start whirring and scrape the litter she would run over and watch it, both intrigued and terrified. hilarious!

only two more days of work and i am excited for the weekend! i have great workout plans, a meeting for the academy awards, and plans to go shopping and unload as much of my christmas money as possible. everyone has to do their part to boost the economy you know?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

day 7


5 of my 7 bio domes are off because the plants have sprouted. i cant believe how fast these things are growing!!!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Day 6

My chives are sprouting. Another couple days and their lid will be off. Yay!

P.s. Anna the directions say "your new aerogarden will take up approximately the size of a breadbox on your counter". And it is a little taller than cricket right now but I will have to raise the light as the plants grow.
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Monday, January 5, 2009

day 5


the lids of my basils and my thyme come off tonight! i cant wait for more baby plants to show you all!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Poor thing

She missed us so much! She sleeps on my pillow all night and snuggles jeremy all day!
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the lighthouse

the lighthouse was built in the 1800s. its daymark is a black and white stripe with a red top. we walked up all 216 stairs to the top. the lighthouse keepers used to have to carry a thirty pound bucket to the top everyday (maybe twice) to fill the oil. the view from the top was beautiful. we could see the drunken sailboats on one side and the river on the other. the lighthouse keepers house (actually a duplex with a cistern in the basement for each family) was a cool tour with a bunch of information about the coast guard back in the day.



day 4

look at my baby plants! the thyme and the two basils are sprouting!




Saturday, January 3, 2009

castillo de san marcos

bryce is such a goof.


one of my favorite places in saint augustine is the fort. it is the oldest fort in america. when we went there when i was younger there were no reenactors like there were this trip. they had guys (volunteers dressed in woolen suits in florida in the winter are cool... in the summer just crazy!) who marched in formation and did drills with the cannons just like they would have done in the 1500 and 1600s. pretty cool. and loud! the guy leading them said all the commands in spanish - very authentic. you can tell by looking who is old and who is new. one summer in the florida sun would fade that suit like crazy.


there were also more people there than there ever has been before. the st augustine chamber of commerce has really been working hard over the last few years!!! they have turned the fort site into a national park or something becuase there were park rangers everywhere. that was kinda weird. we did get to do the things i remember, like going into the barracks, and pretending to be locked in jail, etc. but they also had a bunch of interesting bulletin boards and displays set up so we learned stuff too. fun and educational. who could ask for more?

my new aero garden

grandma and grandpa koci bought me an aero garden for christmas. it looks like this:



i have seven herbs that grow hydroponically. the first ones should be sprouting soon.


DAY 1




DAY 2


there is some condensation from the heat of the grow lights. no plants yet!





DAY 3


both of my basils are sprouting! as soon as their leaves grow above the lid of their pods i can take the biodomes off (that would be a goofy name for the plastic lids). the first one is italian basil; the second, purple basil. you can see the seeds and little tiny white baby plants. i am SO freaking excited for my new herbs!

shower time...

three days in to 2009 and i guess it is finally time for me to break down and take a shower. it was a good run and im proud. actually i am really grimy but whatev. since i left the house for the first real time today (grocery store yesterday doesnt count) and sweated a little at yoga its time.

Friday, January 2, 2009

happy happy birthday!




when we were in jacksonville we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday. the entire family (minus stephen - we missed you!) got together at carrabas (they opened the place early just for us) for lunch. we ate and took family pictures and jeremy got to meet lots of people that he hasnt met yet in our 3 1/2 years of marriage. it was great. i got to see cousins and aunts and uncles that i havent seen since our wedding and from the cruise 6 years ago. everyone was so grown up! i sound old when i say that but the difference between 2 and 3 year old cousins and 8 and 9 year old cousins is alot. they were way more fun this trip. we played rock band and went out on the river.




one of the best things about the party were the party favors. they were little spice jars full of m & ms that said happy 80th pat! thats not the good part though. the good part is that on some of them the words had rubbed off to say happy 30th fat! it was hilarious.

we took a gigantic family picture with everyone but i didnt get one on my camera - anyone out there reading this with a copy can you email it to me?

Thursday, January 1, 2009

all i want for christmas is half a front tooth

after a great day of tubing on the st johns river behind my uncle marks house, i was sitting on the porch with my aunt and parents and jeremy just talking and eating when i realized that part of what i was eating was half my front tooth.

a little history: when i was in fifth grade, katherine lindholm and i were doing flips on her bad and i connected my face with her footboard. i chipped both my front teeth then. the dentist in wichita fixed them. a year or so later, i dropped my pencil in church and turned around to get it and smacked into the metal bar running along the back of the chair. one of them broke again. i think this was when grandma and grandpa (abood) were visiting us and my grandpa (a dentist) fixed it for me at a dental office in wichita. some time after that, i was using a hula hoop as a jumping rope on our trampoline and knocked the other tooth half off. it got fixed. the fourth and final time (before this week) was in 8th grade during basketball practice. mary norton and i were fighting over a loose ball and her elbow got my tooth (the same one that just broke). i was rather disappointed that time that i didnt get a fat lip, so i would at least have battle wounds to show for all my trouble. it got fixed again and i havent worried about it in years (only when i go to a new dentist and they get aggressive with the floss).

well hopefully i won tever have to worry about this again. if i had a dollar for everyone who said "good thing it happened here." "couldnt have happened at a better place." "youre so lucky you happened to be here of all places." etc i would have at least $20 because thats about how many people were at the house. yes i was very lucky because uncle mark and aunt teresa are both dentists. they took me to their office (which is new and awesome) and fixed me right up. an hour later my tooth looks better than ever! and, since i was such a good patient, i got to sit in the massage chair for 10 minutes. it even does feet and lower legs. amazing!

i am so grateful to uncle mark for fixing my mouth!!!!

well read?

my reading update: i read 529 books in 2008. thats almost 1.5 per day. some were big (900+ pages) some were little (150-200 pages), there were a couple graphic novels, lots of young adult literature (where were all these authors when i was in high school???), and loads of fun.

jeremy is the best husband because he always drives and lets me read in the car, read while we watch tv, and read at the beach.

i hope i read lots more good books in 2009 but i am not going to make a numerical goal. too much pressure for a relaxing activity. (is this a good activity?)

its gonna be a happy new year

this is the part where i get all reflective about the past year and make resolutions about 2009...

i met or mostly met all my goals for 2008.

i wanted to run an entire 5k which i did in may during my third race. all in all i did 4 5ks, a 10k, and a triathlon this year. not too shabby for a girl who hates running!

i wanted to use all recyclable shopping bags for groceries. we did this about 75% of the time, and all the plastic or paper bags i got i used again for something. so we definitely wasted les when it comes to grocery bags.

i wanted to be off all medication by the end of the year. well im not but i only take 1/4 of what i was takinga t the beginning of the year and i am hoping that by renewing my efforts at sticking to my eating plan i can stop taking it completely.

which is a beautiful segueway into my goals for 2009:

1. by the end of the year i want to be able to do 5 "man" pushups in a row, do the splits, and beat my pr in a 5k. a weird trio but it will improve upper body strength (have you seen my skinny arms?), flexibility, and keep me running when i dont want to. theres no one better for me to compete with than myself.

2. by the end of 2009, i want to be off all medication for colitis. part of this goal includes my renewed efforts at sticking to the makers diet and looking into other supplements.

3. my dream goal is to end the year in a different state than i started it in (new hampshire hopefully!).

we had a great and relaxing time at ryan and kims house last night to celebrate the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009. i will be posting vacation pictures/blogs over the next couple of days.