Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A Revamp... Again

Today I was given the list of how much PTO (paid time off) I have for 2011.  After looking at this I realized "CRAP.  I'm turning THIRTY this year."  And I felt old. 

What would make me not feel so old?  Well travelling doesn't make me feel old, I think I'll travel somewhere.  Who would I go with?  Well Alyssa's turning 30 this year too, I could go somewhere with her.  Where should we go? Well she's never been west of the Mississippi, we should go west.  California!  Brilliant!

And it was this thought process that brought us to the present situation which involves us still running a ton, still going to Disney World next January, but now adds in the additional cost of a 5 day trip to California.  The current plan is to fly to SFO (San Francisco) the evening of August 9th and spending part of the long weekend in Napa.  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  Well now this all depends on whether or not she can get the days off, she won't know until February so all we can do now is hope.

In anticipation for this potential trip, we are revamping our race schedule.  Namely we will not be doing the Roaring Earth Day Dash and instead of running the Flying Pig 1/2 marathon we will instead run the Flying Pig 10K.  Both of these decisions were made purely from a dollar and cents point of view, not as a waning interest in running.

Another thing that's going to get revamped this year is my backyard.  I am going to be trying my hand at vegetable gardening - using seedlings this time instead of seeds.  Hopefully I won't kill everything I plant.  I think I'm going to build 2 or 3 small raised veggie planters on the upper tier of my backyard.  After seeing what the soil in the backyard is like in the spring/ summer I think this is a wise plan (it's exceptionally rocky and just not very good for planting veggies in).

Is anyone else dreaming of the warmer days to come, which currently seem like light years away?

Monday, December 27, 2010

Merry 2nd Day After Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!! I got a new digital camera, so hopefully that means I'll be posting a lot more pictures!  AND my laptop is now officially fixed - thanks Justin!!! 

Just a few more days until New Years.... Get those resolutions ready!

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Last of the Ornament Swap

Here are the last 4 ornaments from the swap:


As much as I hate picking one out, I have to say I think the moose is my favorite!  My opinion could be skewed perhaps by the fact that I have a collection of Christmas moose (or mooses or meese or meeses or whatever term you like best for multiple moose!)

And for laughs...


Here is poor Ellie...


She's such a good sport...


Don't you agree?







Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas is Coming.... And I'm Nowhere Near Ready

I have a whopping 3 gifts bought/ made and so many more to acquire or make or bake or whatever....
One thing I can check off my list though is my Christmas cards - well ordering them anyways.  Luckily  overnight shipping on Snapfish was the same price as standard and they are offering 25% off your card order through the new year, so I was able to get exactly the cards I wanted without having to worry about the fact that I needed them fast and I wanted a higher quality card rather than just your standard photo card.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the standard photo card - goodness knows I've sent them out so many times, but I just wanted the cards to be a little special since goodness knows the presents won't really be anything extravagant.  And the only reason I chose Snapfish over Shutterfly was because they are who Flickr is linked to and I could use photos I had saved in Flickr.  Truthfully I use both equally and I have different photos saved to each site, which actually was a nice surprise when my computer crashed taking all the photos I took in Europe with it.

On the agenda for today is candy making.  Alyssa is coming over and we are going to be truffle making machines!  I made truffles last year and decided it would be more fun with friends, so I invited Alyssa, Angelina and Amanda (all my "A" girls!), but Amanda had plans and I never heard either way from Angelina.  Although it may just be me and Alyssa it will still be fun.  I'm going to lug my TV back downstairs so that we can watch Christmas movies during.  We're making 6 different types of truffles, and hopefully we can get about 4 dozen out of each type, so that would be 24 dozen or 288 truffles!  Which, split 2 ways, is 12 dozen (144) each.  I plan to give some out to friends and co-workers.  Also we're going to dip caramels in chocolate and nonpareils - an easy way to make a nice looking festive candy.  Last year they were some of the most popular candies I made, and hands down the easiest!

I'm also going to assemble cookie jars for my coworkers today - the kind of jars where you layer all of the dry ingredients for a batch of cookies and they just have to add butter and eggs.  I'm making 3 different types - including a diabetic friendly version (made with splenda) for a coworker who is diabetic.  Tomorrow is macaron day.  I'm planning on making 4 varieties for my friends.  Once I had discovered that I could make an almost passably French macaron, I fell in love with making them.  They just require a lot of planning so that you can achieve optimal results.  Tartelette has a good tutorial if you're interested in trying to make them yourself.

I got my last ornament from the swap in the mail on Thursday - I'll post pictures of the last few on Monday. 

Now if anyone has any ideas as to what I can get my brother-in-law, who is currently getting his PhD in English Lit, I would welcome any suggestions.  Preferably suggestions under $20!

Unless I win the football pool this week.  Then I could afford a $30 present ;o)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Things I Learned While Walking Across a Bridge With a Wind Chill of -2 Degrees

  • You should have dried your hair... Even with a hat on, it still turned to icicles.
  • If you're going to cover your entire face, only leaving your eyes exposed, it might be wise to wear your contacts because your glasses will most certainly fog up.
  • Be glad you chose to wear shorts under your skirt, because the wind was a'whippin'!
  • That said, you should have worn pants, because your legs - from the bottom of your shorts to the tops of your kneesocks - were so cold it was painful.  It feels as if someone was jabbing you with pins and needles. This was not the day to brave the weather in a skirt and tights.
  • You really should think about investing in a parking pass, if only for the winter months.
Brrr.....

Monday, December 13, 2010

Jingle Bell 5K

Ok, so now the Jingle Bell is officially my 2nd favorite race!  (after Costumes for a Cause of course) The mix of athletic levels, the costumes, and the crowds totally made it a very fun run.  That and the fact that the elite runners got confused as to how the race was laid out and a lot of them had to double back - which by the way was hilarious to watch.  If you're an elite runner, I apologize, but for me - an affirmed mid to back of the pack-er - watching them mess up was a complete guilty pleasure.  Alyssa and I had matching times (41:34, with a 13:24 pace) and placed 855th and 856th out of 1159 finishers.  It's not a very fast pace, but after having barely run since the half marathon, it was a comfortable pace.

Also of note - we only walked 2 out of those 41 & 1/2 minutes!  That's 39.5 minutes of running folks - yay!!!

Alyssa and I after the race.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

3, 4, 5, and Christmas photos!

This week has been so crazy chaotic and I had hoped to post a couple of these earlier in the week, but oh well, such is life.

This was the 3rd ornament I got from the swap


and the 4th


and the 5th

This is what my ornaments ended up looking like (much different than originally planned), and I finally got them out in the mail yesterday, so hopefully you will all be getting them soon!


It's been so cold here, it was even too cold for Frosty!  So he came and hung out with me and Ellie in the house... Well that and it was too cold for me to deal with hauling the ladder outside to decorate, so that will have to happen Saturday morning after my race but before my party.


We attempted Christmas photos the other night and they didn't go so well.

Ellie refused to sit by the tree...


And then she decided sleeping was preferable to getting her picture taken...


And so, the tree stands alone, no Ellie to keep it company.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Mini Blogs - Part 6

Aren't you so proud of me?!? I'm up to 6 Mini Blogs!!! Well I'm proud of me :o)

Earlier I complained about something Bill Bryson said in Neither Here Nor There, now it's time for something I agree with:

He was very impressed with the Musee d' Orsay in Paris - as was I, so at least we agree on that!

In fact, here is Flat Zach enjoying the art at the Musee d' Orsay as well...

Mini Blogs - Part 5

So you may be wondering how Turkey Trot went... well... it didn't.  Yes, the race still occurred, but Alyssa and I both decided it would be in our best interest to miss it.  I confess - I did not earn the shirt. However, if you were in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving morning, you would knew that the weather was doing it's best impersonation of a typoon.  I don't think it stopped raining all day.  And to cap it off, the temperature was only in the 30's. 

So instead, we went to Dunkin' Donuts and had munchkins (donut holes) and hot cocoa (well I had hot cocoa, Alyssa and Bob had coffee), and watched as the rain water flowed across the parking lot.

Mini Blogs - Part 4

Poor Londy!!! Alyssa's cat, London, had to have emergency surgery this past weekend - he was (as the vet said) a "blocked cat." And then they discovered his bladder stones, so that meant a second surgery. At least now, after several nights at the kitty hospital, he is back to their home. They had to shave the poor dear for his i.v.s so now he looks like he has skinny forearms and with fluffy black mittens on. They also shaved his entire nether regions, but I opted not to check that out. I'll take their word for it. He now is on the exact same brand and type of food as my Ellie - just the kitty version instead of the puppy type!

Mini Blogs - Part 3

I have been rereading Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson and one part had me a little perturbed...

He travelled to Cologne and was complaining about how the plaza surrounding the cathedral was empty and cold and found it to be quite ugly (to sum it up briefly), but in Cologne's defense I must say - he should see it at Christmastime!






And he also said there was nothing too impressive about the cathedral itself - again - I disagree. 


An awesome pixelated style stained glass window

And relics of the Magi (the 3 Wise Men)!!!  Perfect in time for Christmas!

Mini Blogs - Part 2

I got my second ornament yesterday!!!


I love when things come in little packages - it adds to the suspense...


He's totally cute!  (the picture's kinda dark, but you get the idea)

Mini Blogs!!! Part 1...

Sorry it's been a while, but I've been on vacation and thus away from a computer for a while.... But to catch up today I'm going to do a series of Mini Blogs!!!  Enjoy...

Ellie and the Reindeer


We were decorating the dining room last night and my annoying reindeer (one that lights up and sings songs and dances) fell off the table and rolled under the tree. Ellie walked up to it and, employing her puppy emt skills, made sure it was ok. When she was sufficiently satisfied she took him by the hand and carried him to her bed, leaving him in front of the heater so that he could recuperate in comfort.


She has such good puppy emt skills.