It’s a New Year, but the Same Old Stuff.

I haven’t blogged in a while. It’s kind of depressing to write the same thing repeatedly.

• I still haven’t been hired.
• I’m pretty sad about it.
• I’m working on it.

After Christmas, I started playing World of Warcraft. I have really been enjoying it. I joined a guild and I play about an hour or so a day. It helps me to feel productive.

Jack has ten teeth now. Those stupid molars are still causing him some pain. I could do without that.

Tonight, James is out with my brother and I am alone with Jack. I made broccoli cheese soup. It was good, but next time it needs to be from scratch.

I’m not sure when I’ll write again, but let’s hope I come back soon and employed.

The Gym Again.

Today, there will be cookies.

For those of you who are like “Cookies?! You just were at the gym yesterday.”

I have the endurance of a 90 year old woman who just woke up from a ten year coma. Seriously. I have ZERO interest in losing weight or gaining weight. I weigh the same thing I have weighed for years. This was broadcast across the screen of the elliptical machine as a motivator, I guess. I weigh 155 pounds.

I originally planned to do a half an hour. At 1:28 I realized that was not going to happen and that there was a good chance I might die in the gym. I installed spotify on my phone so that was helpful. I only have three songs now, but they are good songs.

I selected the “Total Body” option on the machine and so throughout the time that I was wishing for my own death working out different messages would suddenly flash across the screen.

PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!

Am I in labor again? What’s happening?!

The machine automatically changed up the resistance levels so your body gets a complete workout. I think you have to be there for much longer than 15 minutes. I was at 13:24 and I was reddish purple. I was slightly afraid that I was going to fly of the machine. It was torture. I turned on the most energetic song on my playlist and just kept going.

15:00! DONE!

I brought the machine to a full and complete stop and resisted the urge to fall on the floor. I took my, now led, legs and wiped my machine down and then I made a decision. I am going to do the three personal training sessions that come with my membership. This is ridiculous. I have friends running 5k’s and perfecting their strides and I’m almost dead from 15 minutes of cardio? SERIOUSLY?

Today, I am only a little sore, but instead of leg pain I have tightness in my arms, neck, and back. This is a good thing.

Today, I am going to rest, do more Christmas shopping, and make a batch of Christmas cookies. I need some help recovering.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

This Thanksgiving, and every one really, I am so thankful for my family. We all get together and have a good time. Every year we are closer to the last big Thanksgiving and it makes me very sad. Some of my aunts already do their own things now because they have their own grown children and grandchildren. 

I know there will come a time when we are all forced to make a new tradition, but I hope it isn’t for another 15 years or so. 

Green Iguana – Dale Mabry

Monday, I went to lunch with Cameron. He wanted me to visit the Green Iguana and he was singing it’s praises.

We arrived and we were seated immediately. The restaurant was about half full at 12:15pm with business casual lunch customers. There are flat screens on most walls with multiple sports channels on and the restaurant has a tiki – beach party theme.

We had Jack with us and he was happily bouncing all over the place. We ordered the Hummus for an appetizer. I ordered the fish and chips, but substituted steamed veggies for the chips because I ordered chicken tenders and fries for Jack and I knew he wouldn’t eat them. Cameron ordered the Mojo pork Sandwich which came with fries. We ordered the Dulce de leche fried cheesecake for the grande finale.

Here’s how I felt about the food:

• The Hummus – I have had some serious hummus in my life and this was on par with the best of them. I was very happy.
• The Fish –  Amazing. It was fried perfectly.
• The Chips/Fries – They are crinkle cut fries. They do have some skin on them, which is nice, but they’re not my thing. However, they were perfectly crispy.
• The Steamed Veggies – These were, sadly, a disappointment. They arrived wilted and cold as if they had been steamed an hour before.
• The Chicken Tenders – These are hand breaded and cooked well, but I thought the breading was a little coarse for my preference.
• The Mojo Pork Sandwich – Cameron said it was “Awesome” except it is covered with a ton of whole cilantro which he hates.
• The Dulce de Leche Fried Cheesecake – This was the perfect ending to our meal. It was rich and creamy and surrounded by a crunch pastry like a flauta. I ate the whole thing by myself.

Our server was friendly and professional. The food was served in a very timely manner and I couldn’t have been happier about that.

I would definitely recommend giving them a try. With the exception of the steamed veggies, I was very pleased.

All the things in my head.

I’ve been in bed for the past hour just crying. I know it’s dumb, but yesterday I saw that video of Gadhafi dead in the street and it really hurt to see that. I shouldn’t have watched it in the first damned place. I accidentally saw the tail end of the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 three days ago and I’ve been scared to go pee in my own bathroom at night since then. I don’t know why I thought seeing a really dead man would in any way benefit me.

I really don’t know what I expected when I saw the video. I knew that I would see him dead, but I didn’t realize that the first thing that I would think about upon seeing him would be about his birth day and how overjoyed his family was to recieve him. Those lovely baby smells and sounds. It’s horrible how a life from go from those first few beautiful moments to being dragged out of a sewer pipe and killed in the street like an animal.

I’m certainly not saying he deserved to live. He was not a good man. He hurt the people he was sworn to protect and aided others in harming people. I just mourn that wasted potential. Those little orbs of goodness and consciousness that come together when people are born.

I’ve never been able to believe that anyone is born bad. I just can’t believe that. I’ve held dozens of babies in my hands and they are all goodness and light. They have no malice in them.  All these bad people had to have had the opportunity over and over to do the right thing, right?

Happy Birthday to Jack!

I can hardly believe that a whole year ago my teeny tiny baby was born.

Yesterday, Jack turned one year old. He’s a big boy now.

Special thanks to Jenny Schoenfeld Photography.

Birthday Prep Post

Jack has been with us for a whole year tomorrow.

I am so ready for Jack’s party. Goodie bags are stuffed to capacity. Decorations are purchased and packaged. Plates, cups, soda, juice, water, candles, and silverware are ready to go. I gotta throw together fruit salad tonight and pick up the food and ice tomorrow.
Plans for tomorrow:

5:00am Give Jack a bottle and put him back to bed.

5:15am  Start Coffee / Shower/ Get dressed

5:30am Play the Sims 3 until Jack wakes up.

7:00am Make breakfast.
10:00am Load Vehicle
10:30am (AT THE FRIGGIN’ LATEST) Leave the house.
11:00am Pick up Sadia.
11:45am Arrive at my mother’s to get ice and an extra cooler.
12:15pm Arrive at park to decorate and set up party.
1:00pm Food and 2 cakes will be picked up by husband.
1:30pm Husband to arrive at park with Jack and the final touches will be um… touched up.
2:00pm PARTAY!

THIS WILL HAPPEN.

 

Dear Library Patrons…

I do not work at the library. However, I’m at the library three times a week. It really irks me when I see people in the library treating the librarians and the staff badly.

You are not the only patron in the library. There is a visible line.  She is only one person. She does not deserve to be screamed at because she is attempting to bring the line down. She does not deserve to be screamed at because you are attempted to fax paperwork that is old, yellowed, crispy, and refusing to go through the fax machine.

Now, that said, should you yell at the librarian and tell her that she was helping you first you should take a moment and be grateful. Your response should not be to turn and give me a dirty look. We’re all just waiting for some help. I didn’t do what you did and yell across the library.

The library is a wonderful place, but the librarians and additional staff all work hard. It makes me furious to see people on Foursquare say the librarians are jerks. They are really nice people. Their job is to make sure that as many people get to use the services of the library as possible. This would be made soooo much easier if people came in with a respectful and understanding attitude.

Dancing With The Stars! Goodbye Mark and Kristen!

On Monday night something wonderful happened in Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned to Monday Night Football and were victorious. This was very good for the Tampa Bay area. Since most of our games have been blacked out our little hearts have been broken and we have not seen the games we love.

Monday night on ABC is regularly Dancing With the Stars followed by Castle. This past Monday if you wanted to see either show you had to wait until after 1am in the morning. I’m going to guess that many people could not do that. In addition, I tried to see the show on Hulu Plus in the morning, but it wasn’t up until afternoon when the voting period had closed.

I’m really disappointed about this because yesterday Mark and Kristen went home. It was ridiculous. They were lovely and contenders for the finals as far as dancing ability goes. I attribute them being sent home to the fallowing factors:

• Voters in Tampa not getting to see the show.
• People not knowing who Kristen is or caring. She’s not on a show that the majority of the viewers who watch this show would know. (This has a lot to do with the results every year. Do you think people are really voting for Hope? Nope. They’re voting for Maks.)
• Lastly, I blame Chaz.

We love Chaz. He’s like a gentle giant. Like Bruno said he looks like a chubby Ewok. However, so many people are fired up for Chaz that they have forgotten about the point of the show. This is a DANCE competition. The first two weeks on the competition I could see voting for Chaz. He was not the worst. He made progress, but this week his dance was SLOOOOOOOOW. He barely danced at all. The very lovely Lacey Schwimmer did all the dancing. They finished at the bottom of the leader board three points behind the nearest competitor, Nancy Grace and it was a disgrace that they stayed.

That said, my outlook for the rest of the season is not as clear as it should be. The Chaz voters are sending people home who should be staying. If the luck of the Chaz continues I saw that Hope Solo goes home next week. Not even Maks can save her. The judges praise her, but she walks like she has a stick up her butt during the dance. She’s great otherwise, but that paired with the fact that she’s not drawing many votes spells the end for her in my book. I will miss the Chmerkovskiy Charm.

One last thing, Mary J. Blige was great last night!

The Worst Kind of Nerd

I was thinking about Halloween and I realized I am the worst kind of nerd.

I should preface this post by saying that I wasn’t allowed to celebrate Halloween for most of my childhood which has made costuming this foreign thing to me. Almost every year I am a witch. When I was in the Star Trek club I simply wore my Star Trek uniform. Now, I am 30 years old and responsible for dressing a new member of my family. (I will post his super cute and already prepared Halloween photos on Halloween.) I also want to dress up with him because I want him to know that I’m having fun with him. I want him to knwo that it’s okay for adults to do silly stuff.

All of my other geeky friends have zero problems costuming. The only problem they usually have is deciding which of the many things they love they want to be. My son, Max,  is going to be a Jedi this year. My daughter has not decided as far as I know.

I don’t want to go to the store and pick up a pre-made costume. It feels like cheating. I did pick up a costume for Jack because realistically, he doesn’t give a crap. He’s almost one. I wasn’t sure if he would like the costume, but he totally did and cried when I took it off. Also, the costume I bought Jack is a Rubies. Don’t judge.

I think part of the problem is that I don’t really look like any of the people I like. I’ll have to think of something.