I guess I must admit that I find comfort in the strangest places. Wait. That didn't sound right, did it? What I mean is ... take for example a lovely mocha from Starbucks. It's warm and creamy and chocolate-y (even in it's non-fat state). It warms me from head to toe and just makes me feel yummy inside. And sometimes, it comforts me when I'm preparing for a bad day at work.
This has been a 5 Starbucks week. I've "needed" that warm, yummy, comfort every day this week. Bad sign, but oh so tasty. It goes without saying that weeks like this do not help with the big resolution. And, to top it off, I owe Jesus 12 miles. Or is it 15? Hummmmm....
As I sit here tonight I'm already anticipating my 5th of the week and looking forward to that chocolate-y goodness. Sigh.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
3 Miles for Jesus
It took me approximately 44 years, 4 months, 3 days to figure out that I'm a stress eater (Jillian would be so proud!!!). Now, let me clarify - not an "upset" eater, just a stress eater. My job has really been stressing me out and then the Girl Scout cookies were delivered and that is a bad, bad combination when you're on your bazillionth try at losing weight. When I'm upset, like when my mom was having surgery on her foot for a melanoma and I was freaking out, I can't eat. But I can't wish for life threatening situations or a divorce to help me lose weight. In fact, I relish in the fact that I can't stop myself right now because really it could be viewed as an indication that all is well in my world. But I will try to use this new-found information (the stress eater stuff) to aid in my bazillionth and one try.
Today is Ash Wednesday. That means the start of Lent and in the Catholic world that means you should make a sacrifice for the next 40 days. Usually, people give something up that is important to them. For example, I considered giving up sweets because with the cookies and all, I think I've had a little too much lately. But then I realized that would mean I would have to give up my mocha too because they put chocolate syrup in it. I'm not sure I'm willing to make that much of a sacrifice. Fortunately, instead of giving something up, you can also do something. My boss reminded me that one of the guys we used to work with would run 2 miles a day and he would call it 2 miles for Jesus. Well, I don't run, but I do walk and it is high time that Joey and I hit the trail again.
Today we began. 3 Miles for Jesus. Here's hoping that at the end of 40 days, it will be a habit.
Today is Ash Wednesday. That means the start of Lent and in the Catholic world that means you should make a sacrifice for the next 40 days. Usually, people give something up that is important to them. For example, I considered giving up sweets because with the cookies and all, I think I've had a little too much lately. But then I realized that would mean I would have to give up my mocha too because they put chocolate syrup in it. I'm not sure I'm willing to make that much of a sacrifice. Fortunately, instead of giving something up, you can also do something. My boss reminded me that one of the guys we used to work with would run 2 miles a day and he would call it 2 miles for Jesus. Well, I don't run, but I do walk and it is high time that Joey and I hit the trail again.
Today we began. 3 Miles for Jesus. Here's hoping that at the end of 40 days, it will be a habit.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
HOT-lanta
This is a little late, but my motto is..."better late than never."
On Valentine's Day weekend, Joe and I decided to get out of town and our destination - Atlanta, GA. Fortunately for us, it's not hot in February. In fact, it was quite cool and a even a little drizzly on Saturday morning. Here's my recap of the weekend:
Friday, February 13, 2009 – We’d never make it on The Amazing Race
We aren’t having a ton of luck with the non-reving these days. Although we did have a flawless trip to Dublin, the last 2 weekend trips we have taken have been interrupted by cancelled flights. Now, let’s face it – I know I shouldn’t complain. I’m flying for free. And, please do not think that I don’t think of the 100s of people who actually bought tickets that are inconvenienced. I do. I feel their pain – just in a different way. In order to make it to Atlanta and stay in the hotel that we pre-paid for (how many times have I said I will never do that again?), we had to fly to Chattanooga, TN.
Our trip was kind of last minute. We decided to get out of town last weekend, but didn’t really know where we wanted to go. We decided to stick to the south so that we wouldn’t be caught in snow or ice. We then narrowed it down to Atlanta, Memphis, Corpus Christi, and College Station. I’m not even sure how Atlanta won, but it did. We planned it all out on Thursday night, including the EXTRA expense of a hotel downtown so that we could ride MARTA from the airport and not rent a car. Sigh.
Fortunately, we knew early in the morning that our flight had been cancelled. Joe then worked all morning on our alternates. Chattanooga was the closest we fly to and it had 6 seats available, so instead of leaving at 3:35, we left at 1:40. And we rented a car (of course) to drive the 100 miles to Atlanta. The coolest thing about that was that we ran into Terry Hart. Terry was the VP in Chicago when Joe worked there and when I worked there, too. He left the company a couple of years ago and went to work for the airport in Chattanooga. He was on our flight. What a small world, huh? It was great to see him and catch up – he’s just the nicest guy. We both really enjoyed working with him.
Anyway…getting out of Chattanooga and to Atlanta was not really a problem. HOWEVER, maneuvering downtown Atlanta without a clue as to how to get to our hotel was another thing altogether. We hadn’t prepared for needing to know how to DRIVE to the hotel because we weren’t renting a car – remember? So, we were winging it. We knew the general area it was in, so I guess we thought we would just run into it. I finally ended up calling and after being hung up on twice, I finally talked to a nice lady who gave us some directions. This helped not at all. We ended up at some convention center or something – no hotel in site. The good thing was that there was a line of taxis. So, we stopped and I asked a cab driver how to get to the hotel. We had been close, but we would have never found it if we wouldn’t have stopped. After writing down the directions, I rolled up the window, looked at Joe, and said, “We would never make it on the Amazing Race.”
So what was the damage?
Additional cost of a hotel in downtown for 2 nights - $100
Cost of rental car that we weren’t expecting - $86
Cost of gas for the rental car we weren’t expecting - $15
2 days parking at hotel in downtown - $36
Spending a weekend out of town – PRICELESS
I’ll have to get back to you on that one! Right now I’m thinking that might just be a cheesy commercial.
Saturday, February 14, 2009 – Maniac Tourists
Last night after we finally found our hotel, we decided to get a snack. That’s when we discovered that there are one bazillion people here this weekend for something called Cheersport. It’s a “National Cheerleading and Dancing” competition. Ugh. (And speaking of "Ugg" - Joe thought it was an Ugg convention given the number of girls wearing them.) It was lots of fun trying to sleep with them all running up and down the halls screaming and giggling, too, let me tell you. I’m surprised we even got a hotel room. But I digress…
Today, Joe and I did something CRAZY. We set the alarm. On vacation!!! Having discovered the extra bazillion people here in downtown Atlanta, we decided that we should start early. The Georgia Aquarium opened in 2005 and is touted as the biggest aquarium in the world. Joe and I had a lively conversation about whether that was measured by total gallons of tanks, total number of fish, total pounds of fish… We still don’t know, but it’s been a hot ticket since it opened so we decided to be there when it opened at 9:00AM. It was genius. And it was by FAR the best aquarium I’ve ever been to. Their biggest claim to fame is their whale sharks and the only manta ray in an aquarium in the US. The guide told us that when full grown, whale sharks are the size of a school bus and they are incredible to watch.
The aquarium has 2 floor to ceiling tanks – one with Pacific Reef fish and one with these whale sharks and a huge manta ray swimming around. We could have watched those fish for hours – it was so cool.
They also have 3 Beluga Whales. We watched the male, Niko, for quite some time. He was really active and put on quite a show for us. I think the Belugas are really cool, too.
Other highlights were the jellyfish, the piranha tank, and the seahorses.
From the Georgia Aquarium, we walked next door to the World of Coca-Cola. It is, of course, the story of Coke. It’s a little Disneyland-ish with a 3-D motion movie, complete with moving seats, water, and wind. The tasting room was interesting because they had a kiosk for each continent with a sampling of products they make especially for those countries. Everyone was touting the “Beverly” drink, but Joe and I both thought it was pretty disgusting. We tried a few we hadn’t heard of and we tried a few old favorites, ending with a Cherry Coke for Joe and a Diet Coke for me. Probably the funniest thing about this visit is that it was Joe’s second trip to the World of Coca-Cola and he doesn’t even like Coke. He’s a true Yankee and they drink Pepsi. Oh, and he enjoys “refreshing Dr. Pepper” as well.
After a late lunch, we headed to CNN. I had heard that their tour was pretty cool, so we decided to try it. It actually was really interesting. First they take you into a theatre where they show you the different feeds they could go to. They let you listen to the “control room” where the director is telling the production team what to show. We got to see the newsroom and also the set. We even got to see a little of CNN International and CNN in Espanol. It was a 55 minute tour. We learned that 70% of what you see on CNN is broadcast from the Atlanta studio. The rest comes from NYC.
My favorites in order are 1) Aquarium, 2) CNN, 3) World of Coca-Cola
Check out all of our weekend pics, here on our Shutterfly site:
On Valentine's Day weekend, Joe and I decided to get out of town and our destination - Atlanta, GA. Fortunately for us, it's not hot in February. In fact, it was quite cool and a even a little drizzly on Saturday morning. Here's my recap of the weekend:
Friday, February 13, 2009 – We’d never make it on The Amazing Race
We aren’t having a ton of luck with the non-reving these days. Although we did have a flawless trip to Dublin, the last 2 weekend trips we have taken have been interrupted by cancelled flights. Now, let’s face it – I know I shouldn’t complain. I’m flying for free. And, please do not think that I don’t think of the 100s of people who actually bought tickets that are inconvenienced. I do. I feel their pain – just in a different way. In order to make it to Atlanta and stay in the hotel that we pre-paid for (how many times have I said I will never do that again?), we had to fly to Chattanooga, TN.
Our trip was kind of last minute. We decided to get out of town last weekend, but didn’t really know where we wanted to go. We decided to stick to the south so that we wouldn’t be caught in snow or ice. We then narrowed it down to Atlanta, Memphis, Corpus Christi, and College Station. I’m not even sure how Atlanta won, but it did. We planned it all out on Thursday night, including the EXTRA expense of a hotel downtown so that we could ride MARTA from the airport and not rent a car. Sigh.
Fortunately, we knew early in the morning that our flight had been cancelled. Joe then worked all morning on our alternates. Chattanooga was the closest we fly to and it had 6 seats available, so instead of leaving at 3:35, we left at 1:40. And we rented a car (of course) to drive the 100 miles to Atlanta. The coolest thing about that was that we ran into Terry Hart. Terry was the VP in Chicago when Joe worked there and when I worked there, too. He left the company a couple of years ago and went to work for the airport in Chattanooga. He was on our flight. What a small world, huh? It was great to see him and catch up – he’s just the nicest guy. We both really enjoyed working with him.
Anyway…getting out of Chattanooga and to Atlanta was not really a problem. HOWEVER, maneuvering downtown Atlanta without a clue as to how to get to our hotel was another thing altogether. We hadn’t prepared for needing to know how to DRIVE to the hotel because we weren’t renting a car – remember? So, we were winging it. We knew the general area it was in, so I guess we thought we would just run into it. I finally ended up calling and after being hung up on twice, I finally talked to a nice lady who gave us some directions. This helped not at all. We ended up at some convention center or something – no hotel in site. The good thing was that there was a line of taxis. So, we stopped and I asked a cab driver how to get to the hotel. We had been close, but we would have never found it if we wouldn’t have stopped. After writing down the directions, I rolled up the window, looked at Joe, and said, “We would never make it on the Amazing Race.”
So what was the damage?
Additional cost of a hotel in downtown for 2 nights - $100
Cost of rental car that we weren’t expecting - $86
Cost of gas for the rental car we weren’t expecting - $15
2 days parking at hotel in downtown - $36
Spending a weekend out of town – PRICELESS
I’ll have to get back to you on that one! Right now I’m thinking that might just be a cheesy commercial.
Saturday, February 14, 2009 – Maniac Tourists
Last night after we finally found our hotel, we decided to get a snack. That’s when we discovered that there are one bazillion people here this weekend for something called Cheersport. It’s a “National Cheerleading and Dancing” competition. Ugh. (And speaking of "Ugg" - Joe thought it was an Ugg convention given the number of girls wearing them.) It was lots of fun trying to sleep with them all running up and down the halls screaming and giggling, too, let me tell you. I’m surprised we even got a hotel room. But I digress…
Today, Joe and I did something CRAZY. We set the alarm. On vacation!!! Having discovered the extra bazillion people here in downtown Atlanta, we decided that we should start early. The Georgia Aquarium opened in 2005 and is touted as the biggest aquarium in the world. Joe and I had a lively conversation about whether that was measured by total gallons of tanks, total number of fish, total pounds of fish… We still don’t know, but it’s been a hot ticket since it opened so we decided to be there when it opened at 9:00AM. It was genius. And it was by FAR the best aquarium I’ve ever been to. Their biggest claim to fame is their whale sharks and the only manta ray in an aquarium in the US. The guide told us that when full grown, whale sharks are the size of a school bus and they are incredible to watch.
The aquarium has 2 floor to ceiling tanks – one with Pacific Reef fish and one with these whale sharks and a huge manta ray swimming around. We could have watched those fish for hours – it was so cool.
They also have 3 Beluga Whales. We watched the male, Niko, for quite some time. He was really active and put on quite a show for us. I think the Belugas are really cool, too.
Other highlights were the jellyfish, the piranha tank, and the seahorses.
From the Georgia Aquarium, we walked next door to the World of Coca-Cola. It is, of course, the story of Coke. It’s a little Disneyland-ish with a 3-D motion movie, complete with moving seats, water, and wind. The tasting room was interesting because they had a kiosk for each continent with a sampling of products they make especially for those countries. Everyone was touting the “Beverly” drink, but Joe and I both thought it was pretty disgusting. We tried a few we hadn’t heard of and we tried a few old favorites, ending with a Cherry Coke for Joe and a Diet Coke for me. Probably the funniest thing about this visit is that it was Joe’s second trip to the World of Coca-Cola and he doesn’t even like Coke. He’s a true Yankee and they drink Pepsi. Oh, and he enjoys “refreshing Dr. Pepper” as well.
After a late lunch, we headed to CNN. I had heard that their tour was pretty cool, so we decided to try it. It actually was really interesting. First they take you into a theatre where they show you the different feeds they could go to. They let you listen to the “control room” where the director is telling the production team what to show. We got to see the newsroom and also the set. We even got to see a little of CNN International and CNN in Espanol. It was a 55 minute tour. We learned that 70% of what you see on CNN is broadcast from the Atlanta studio. The rest comes from NYC.
My favorites in order are 1) Aquarium, 2) CNN, 3) World of Coca-Cola
Check out all of our weekend pics, here on our Shutterfly site:
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Living in Texas
I'm sitting in my closet right now. This doesn't usually happen until Spring and, technically, we're a few months away from that, but here I am. I learned tonight that Texas has more tornadoes than any other state. I was a little unclear on whether or not that means total tornadoes or "per capita" so to speak. They said on CBS news that there was tornadic activity at Highway 26 and Highway 114. That's about 2 miles from my house, so I figured better safe than sorry. At this time, I haven't even lost power, but if I do, I might freak out. Especially because I'm at home alone while Joe is out babysitting airplanes. Sigh.
I hope this isn't a sign that we're in for a bad spring. Amazing (that way overused word) that less than 2 weeks ago there was ice and now there's a spring storm.
It looks like it's passed. I think I'll come out of the closet now. So to speak.
I hope this isn't a sign that we're in for a bad spring. Amazing (that way overused word) that less than 2 weeks ago there was ice and now there's a spring storm.
It looks like it's passed. I think I'll come out of the closet now. So to speak.
Monday, February 9, 2009
A Lovely Sight...
This, dear friends, is one of my favorite sights:
A knife block? Yes, but no. Salt and pepper shakers? Yes, but no. It must be the money!!! Yes, but that's not all. Money on the counter means one thing. Maria will be here tomorrow. Yes, Maria is one of my favorite people - she is my cleaning lady. I love, love, LOVE coming home after Maria has been here. The house is all smelly with that wonderful clean smell. She's saved me hours of my own time and much frustration. I love Maria. I don't even mind that the money will disappear when she leaves.
A knife block? Yes, but no. Salt and pepper shakers? Yes, but no. It must be the money!!! Yes, but that's not all. Money on the counter means one thing. Maria will be here tomorrow. Yes, Maria is one of my favorite people - she is my cleaning lady. I love, love, LOVE coming home after Maria has been here. The house is all smelly with that wonderful clean smell. She's saved me hours of my own time and much frustration. I love Maria. I don't even mind that the money will disappear when she leaves.
Happy Birthday, Mom!!!
Happy Belated Birthday to my mom!!
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As you know, her REAL birthday was February 1st, but we celebrated with the family on Saturday night in Ardmore, OK at Two Frogs restaurant. Mom, Dad, Steve, Rebel, Daniel, Jessica, Michael (Jessica's boyfriend), Erik, Joe and myself were all in attendance. Only Josh and his family were unable to meet us.
And this time, I remembered my camera!!!
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As you know, her REAL birthday was February 1st, but we celebrated with the family on Saturday night in Ardmore, OK at Two Frogs restaurant. Mom, Dad, Steve, Rebel, Daniel, Jessica, Michael (Jessica's boyfriend), Erik, Joe and myself were all in attendance. Only Josh and his family were unable to meet us.
And this time, I remembered my camera!!!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I'd like to make a recommendation...
Today is my mom's birthday. We went over and took her to lunch to celebrate, but I forgot my camera.
I also forgot my camera when we went to San Antonio to have lunch.
I also forgot my camera yesterday. Yesterday, Joey (God love him) took me for a drive. We went to Mineral Wells to check out a scrapbook store. That is approximately an hour or an hour and a half from our house. But, Joey is the best and he understands my dilemma. No good scrapbook stores around here!!! For the record, he was rewarded with an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen. These days you have to take a drive to get a DQ because most of the our local DQ's have also closed. Hum...a pattern???
But, I digress. My recommendation...if you want to take random pictures to post on your blog or to keep a picture-a-day scrapbook, then keep your camera with you.
I also forgot my camera when we went to San Antonio to have lunch.
I also forgot my camera yesterday. Yesterday, Joey (God love him) took me for a drive. We went to Mineral Wells to check out a scrapbook store. That is approximately an hour or an hour and a half from our house. But, Joey is the best and he understands my dilemma. No good scrapbook stores around here!!! For the record, he was rewarded with an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen. These days you have to take a drive to get a DQ because most of the our local DQ's have also closed. Hum...a pattern???
But, I digress. My recommendation...if you want to take random pictures to post on your blog or to keep a picture-a-day scrapbook, then keep your camera with you.
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