Heads One Minute...

Tails the next...

I feel wishy washy, and flip floppery.

One minute it's like, "House only! Absolutely no apartments!" But, the more and more I look the more and more I am realizing that an apartment would be the best bet for the time being.

I must admit (even though I have seen some really nice apartments) I am utterly terrified that we will get into a lease and have these super wretched neighbors. I have hope that in the communities we would be interested in the possibility of truly nasty neighbors is far more limited than, say, where we lived in Salem...

I guess there will always be sacrifices until we are able / ready to buy.

I will be extremely picky about apartments though. It's not just about the money we would be saving, I still want to have some of the amenities we have here. Okay, most of the amenities. Like a washer and dryer in the unit. One thing I could totally do without? A freaking fireplace. Sadly, they appear to be pretty standard in the "nicer" complexes. We have not used ours at all... Oh, and did I mention we are fairly certain there is a wasps nest in the chimney? The floo is tightly closed. I am hoping they don't wake up until AFTER we move.

We are on the precipice of no return. I am dropping the sixty day notices off tomorrow; one in the mail and one in the "Manager's Box."

That freaking balloon is still all floaty and shit... The balloon Collin got me with the arrangement from Edible Arrangements is still at full "power." Two freaking weeks later! Cah-razy... Mylar.

Last night was one of those bastard nights where I just could not switch off my brain. I didn't fall asleep until sometime around midnight. I honestly don't know when exactly it was; I just know that it was a fitful four-odd hours of sleep (if you can call it that) that was mostly made up of flashes of "dreams" and tossing and turning. My plan is to go to bed here in the next hour or so. I might read for a little bit. I just know that I must get a full night's sleep, or I am going to be even more worthless tomorrow than I was today.

I need to start the dishwasher, and then I am going to look at some places until I am sick of it for tonight...

Brownies!

Like The Weather In Oregon...

Give me a few minutes and I will change.

This morning was fantastic! Over six and a half miles; that's half of a half marathon! I felt wonderful after the run (legs are still a little tired almost six hours later...). New shoes totally made the difference; my legs weren't nearly as fatigued as they have been and my feet didn't hurt! Even though they were wet due to a slight misjudge and wrong turn I was still comfortable. What made the run even better?

The freaky, jacked up Oregon weather! It was raining when we got to Lake O, drizzling when we left the truck, rain some more, then about mile two it was starting to get a lot of chunk factor (that's to say there were some flakes involved... In fact as I type this there is some chunky precipitation falling from the clouds), and then between miles three and four the freaking sun came out! The sun was with us up until about the last half mile or so.

All in all, we had a great run!

Last night I ordered some compression sleeves for my calves. Combined with the new shoes I should be invincible! Okay, not so much. Ideally, though, the two things combined should make my post run recovery even faster, and the running itself better.

Since we were already in the area, after the run we drove by the place we were lusting after... Note the past tense... Yea, it's a no Jim. We might as well rent an apartment. The hill to get up to the place was insane. If there was any, and I mean ANY ice we wouldn't be able to go out. The parking area was meh, and it just was not what I expected based on the photos. It is a most certainly no to that place. Which is kind of nice. Now I won't be sad when it's gone... After driving up there I don't think I would want to live in that area at all honestly.

We have come to the understanding that if it gets close to the wire and we are not finding houses within the price range we are looking for we will consider apartments. But, dammit, if we are going to live in an apartment I will not pay over eight to nine hundred dollars per month, and I want it to include water, sewer, garbage, and the inevitable pet rent... If it comes down to an apartment, so be it. All the faster we can pay off our debt and do the stuff we want to. I am not giving up on the hopes of an affordable house / townhouse /  duplex, but I am trying to keep an open mind to the other option.

I have a almost a full load of stuff to go to Goodwill. Four bags of clothes (along with some accessories), a box of random kitchen crap, a box of old work out gear (I should throw in the DVDs, running is my thing now!), a box of random crap, and a couple of space heaters. I need Collin to go through his clothes, and all of his shit in the nerd domicile... I swear, I have no idea where all that stuff comes from...

Now it's sunny again. Collin thought I was having a Liz Lemon moment... There is a plastic bag in the tree outside our neighbors place... He couldn't see it at first and thought I was imagining it... Ass.

Hot Chocolate.

This Is An Illusion

My mind is a dangerous thing right now. One moment it is calming and reassuring and the next it is screaming and slathering with frustration and fear.

I think I am holding up pretty well... I am not good at not having a plan. It just creates this overwhelming loop of scenarios. Every time I am on here looking at places I feel extremely bi-polar. One moment I am excited and hopeful of all the prospects and then I am suddenly angry or depressed because of the whole time thing.

I know, this probably sounds like a repeat of some post... Like my last one... LOL. That's just the way it will probably be for the next few weeks at least. I use this more as a vent / method of processing my thoughts / outlet for otherwise abnormal thoughts and/or feelings. It is also for the entertainment of the reader, but at my discretion. In layman's term: if Alicia suffers so does the audience! Yea, think about that for a while with the knowledge that I am also getting ever closer to the half marathon....

Just imagine the posts that will bring... Actually, I think they will be positive messages of awesomeness and excitement... Just this one little hurdle of where the hell will I be living when I get to that half marathon. Just a minor detail.

We discussed it and if the place we really are lusting after is available still at the end of March (or if by mid-March we can convince the rental company to do it) I know I can budget for us to be able to pay rent on that place while we finish out the lease here. Basically, we would be paying a rent for both places in April... It would make the moving in process nice and leisurely. Whatever... I think I need to just let that place go... But I don't think I can until it is seriously taken, and gone...

Dammit. I hate moving. Especially with the deadline to give our sixty day notice is fast approaching. In fact it is Leap Day. I am hoping that this will be a thing of luck... Lucky Leap Day, right? (Just lie and agree with me, okay?)

Once we have a place on lock down it won't be an issue... And I will stop rambling on like a broken record about the mental and emotional instability it is causing me.

Crap, I need to go print the map for the run tomorrow. Part of the route is unfamiliar to us. Six and a half miles, and it is NOT around the lake!!! Score.

I just ordered a pair of compression calf sleeves to hopefully help with the shin splints / leg fatigue / post run recovery. That is what they are meant to do.

Avocado.

What If It's Recreational?

Collin gave me strict orders to not look at places tonight... I am finding hard to resist, but I know a break will be good for me.

Crap! That was the book I meant to grab! I just spent ten minutes standing in front of my bookshelf downstairs, tottering from side to side, trying to think what book I wanted to dive into next, and I ended up grabbing two different books that I wouldn't mind re-reading the series they are in. I also grabbed a small stack of books for my fellow book worm at work (Okay, it's only like three books, but that is still kind of a stack...). As I am sitting here typing the first paragraph of this post it hit me; I meant to grab another of the books my friend had lent me! (Whilst thinking of this I should also grab her friend's book and put it with the stack I am taking to work tomorrow... I'm gonna go do that real quick....)

~*~*~*~ imagine this as hold music ~*~*~*~

Back to the story at hand. Now, where were we....

A long time ago in a town far, far away lived a girl. The end.

I want to look at places some more, but I know it is not doing me any good. Most of the current listings are available now or will be in a couple weeks and there is no way to put a hold on them with out essentially renting them. Lame. I know, I know. Practice what I preach to everyone. Be patient and trust in the fact that it will all work out as it should. It's always so much harder when you are the one who wants something done now, NOW, NOW!! I know that, and I try damn hard to remember that when I am spouting off my sage wisdom about this shit to others in stressful situations. I feel like I am rambling in circles tonight.

I went to Safeway, and the scale at the self-checkout I was at wasn't calibrated properly so I got over a pound of zucchini for two cents.... TWO FREAKING CENTS!! Pretty awesome. Kind of made me feel better about how much I paid for the tomatoes and bell peppers.

Tonight we did an awesome new out and back along Evergreen Parkway. 2.6 miles. It felt fantastic. I needed it. Every now and again when shit is getting mildly complicated I get down, and part of me starts talking me out of going on our runs. It's just stupid. I need to remember how awesome I feel afterwards and how it is primo time for me to work stuff out in my head.

I know Saturday's run this week will be a beast. I am fairly confident our fearless leader is making us do one of the loops I hate with a passion. We are scheduled to do a six and a half mile run in Lake O, and I think he means to make us go around the lake. I hate that loop. There is seriously over a mile and a half of just up hill (going the direction he made us go last time), straight up hill. Well, not even straight, winding intensely steep up hill. Followed by a mile of intensely steep down hill before a half mile back up to the end... Yeah, he saves the real evil stuff for the end. Mind you, this last couple miles is after four miles of up and down, up and down..... If this is the loop he is planning on us doing, I intend to do it backwards. Tackle the nasty, NASTY hill first and then smile for the next four mile, even if my legs are dead.

Looking over the routes of similar distance there is a possibility that we won't have to do the lake loop... This is what I am praying for, but I am going to plan for the worst and be prepared to go early so I don't spend ALL day Saturday running around Lake O...

Either way, as the runs get longer on Saturdays, Collin and I are going earlier, especially now that we will be moving in a couple months. We need all the time we can get on the weekends for taking care of shit. As I have said before, the end of April seems like ages from now, but at the same time it is a finite deadline that will approach faster than I want it to. And for those of you not quite up on it, our half marathon? It's three weeks after our expected move... Yea. It'll be awesome. We are dead set on the half which is why we will probably be shelling out the dough to get some movers for the loading and unloading. The last thing Collin or I need is to get injured in any way right before the race. I would be crushed if either one of us was unable to do it.

Tomorrow is bound to be epic! Not only will I be making my super awesome yummy brownie bottomed cheesecake treats for work, but the game of the century (not really but I am totally playing it up in my head because of the previously reported wager I have going) is going to be on. I don't care what I have to do... I will find a way to watch it. Work should be interesting tomorrow (typed while making super serious squinty eyes like one would if they were staring someone down).

Kielbasa. 

Voices I Play Within My Head

Argh!

The hardest part about looking for a new place is seeing ideal places now that are more than likely not going to be available to me in eight freaking weeks... *sigh* But then again what might be wrong with them if they aren't wanted by others...

We found a PERFECTLY sized place; two bedroom and one and a half bathrooms; with all the ideal amenities and the perfect price for rent! Sadly, it's available March 7th and we won't be able to move until last weekend in April... I am not getting my hopes up about it. And I am trying to convince myself that we will find something better. Maybe closer to my work... This place would triple my commute distance and is WAY too far from the MAX. This isn't too much of an issue because we have been discussing the idea of getting a second car after we move... One thing at time. We may have to do a drive by...

You know me. I am one of those people who hates loose ends. I remember how relieved I was last year when we got this place. Then I was able to stop looking.

The scariest thing is always going to be the passage of time. The end of April seems like forever from now, but I know I could blink and it be the third week of March...

SWEET JEEBUS! The freaking cat just sneezed and I almost peed my pants! Crikeys.

In other news...

Do you ever imagine you and the goings on around you are moving like a stop-motion film made of paper cut outs? .... Oh, you don't... Uh, me neither...

Okay, so sometimes I do. I will eventually make some such photo slide show to express what I am thinking... Because I have buttloads of time on my hands and nothing more pressing to do...

What's worse is when I imagine the sounds effects I would want going if I were a paper cut out figure in a stop motion film...

I need to go watch an SNL thingy if I can find it. It's totally work related...

Peas.

Once Everything Is Where It Belongs

We end up moving.

No, seriously. We are moving when our lease is up at the end of April.

In the last month or so Collin and I have been discussing possibly moving into something smaller. We realized (as nice as it is to have all this space) we really truly don't use more than 60% of the living space available. We rarely if ever hang out in the nerd domicile, and the second bedroom is just there. With Collin still in school for a few more months and the prospect of him switching jobs we figured moving could wait until next year. We were anticipating the new lease terms to arrive any day now, and they did on Friday. Like a wet fish to the side of the head (and a big fish at that!) we got the wake up call. They are raising the rent an additional one hundred and twenty dollars per month. As it is we are wasting money on square footage we don't use, but to be paying even more is ridiculous. So, we decided to bite the bullet and at the end of the month we will submit our required sixty day notice.

We are already looking around to get an idea of what's out there. Ideally, we want a two bedroom, one and a half bath (or more of either) house. We would settle for a duplex and possibly another townhouse, but I think we have agreed; absolutely no apartments. There are some other items on our wish list, but those are the basics.

As we did with the last move we will be getting rid of some stuff; mainly stuff we haven't used since we moved the last time. I went through the kitchen yesterday and came up with an entire box of crap we don't need... In just the effing kitchen. As it stands, with the list I have going we have a good two to three Rickys full of stuff. Almost definitely three.

The difficult part will be finding a house in the area we want the size we want. This is the epitome of suburbia so finding a eight hundred to one thousand square foot home is more difficult than one would think. Most of the homes out here are three bedroom, two bath and fifteen hundred square feet. Not really what one would call down sizing.

I am confident we will find the right house when we are supposed to. I just wish we were in the position to buy right now... We could try and get one hundred percent financing but two months is a VERY small window of time to find the right house. I know people who have been looking for a lot longer than that... Oh well, I am sure it will all work out.

We are pretty open on where we will live as long as the neighborhood doesn't scream crackheads and it isn't right next a main thoroughfare.

We have found a fantastic website for the hunt though (above and beyond craigslist), it's called hotpads.com and it is a map based rental property search site. It is awesome!

Dinner is about done. A spin on chicken bruschetta  bake; turkey stuffing bake. I am thinking it will be pretty effing awesome; just like me! :-)

I'm Not A Betting Man

But that's because I am not a man...

I'm really not one for wagers most days, but this forthcoming hockey game is one of epic proportions.

On Thursday, February 23rd, my boys (the Detroit Red Wings) will play their final regular season game against a coworker's team, the Canucks. Ick... Many of the people at work keep asking if we have a wager going for the game and we haven't really made one; I figure we could save the wagers for the post-season. I may regret this decision, but on my way home today I thought of the perfect wager! Only mildly humiliating for the loser... I messaged the genius idea to my evil coworker and he agreed to the terms.

What is the wager, you ask?

Here are the terms:
Losing team's fan has to pose for a picture with a sign proclaiming the winner's team the best in the NHL and post the photo on their Facebook page as their profile pic for a week, AND for that Friday after the game anytime the loser is asked who the best team is they have to proclaim that the winning team is the best team in the NHL. I think these are fairly good terms, but then again I am fairly confident I will be the winner... 

I copied and pasted the terms from the message I sent him. So, now it is on like Donkey Kong!

I'm going to make dinner now. Chicken  stir-fry with peanut sauce. Mmmmm Yum.

Salsa!

The Lopsided Onion and I

There was this lopsided onion in the big bag o' onions I got from Costco. I kept putting it aside and putting it aside not wanting to use it because its ends were off center of the bulb itself, and they were at opposing angles from one another. I should have taken a picture... You will have to imagine it yourself. Back to the point, I used it tonight to make some super yummy meatball soup. Even the lopsided onions will serve their purpose.

Yea, there is another gem of wisdom and wit you can take from reading this.

Random observation: Cat tripping on the nip is equal to a human tripping on a Jeffrey (look it up on the urban dictionary) or ecstasy. Spaz got a snooter full of nip from one of her toys and then proceeded to "make out" with the leg of one of the dining chairs... It reminded me of someone on E rubbing fabric, or carpet, or anything really, and being like, "Woah.... This feels crazy." That's right my cat has a nip problem. It's not like this is new behavior or anything. It was one of those days where I took note of it and thought of a funny correlation and opted to share that bit of joy with you.

Today was one of those days. Which of "those" days am I talking about? The kind where there was a high probability that my filter wasn't going to stop a smart ass remark that, in some circles, might be a tad inappropriate. For example... There was a "Get Well" card going around for our IT guy; desperately, I wanted to write in the card "I hope they fixed your brain while they worked on your knee!" Instead, I jotted a healthy and kind "Feel Better! :-)" Yea, it was none too satisfying.

On top of the high probability of filter failure, I also found myself to be more fidgety and unfocused than normal. And I have no freaking  idea where the energy came from. I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Every night since Sunday (stayed up way past norm for Walking Dead) I have sworn up and down that we were going to bed early... Yea, total fail. We have tried... But yea... Um. So I am tired. I swear we are going to bed early tonight.

Luckily the two mile run tonight helped to settle the jittery fidgety-ness.

Every now and again I find a song that totally captivates my heart. The kind of song that just seems to be coming from some recess deep inside my mind. Some of the songs that have done this to me in the past include Fade Into You by Mazzy Star; The Priest and The Matador by Senses Fail; Let It Enfold You by Senses Fail; How I Go by Yellowcard; Breathe by Anna Nalick, and lord knows how many others by various artists from AFI to The Used. Yesterday a new (to me) song came up and bitch slapped me. Lights by Ellie Goulding. It's just one of those songs that I could listen to a million times and probably never tire of. Hell, they played it on the radio just as I pulled into my driveway after work. I jumped out of my truck and ran up two flights of stairs to turn on the one radio in the house so I could rock out without the neighbors thinking I was completely bat shit crazy... Yea, it has that kind of power over me... I will probably just have to buy the single... Maybe I will check out her whole album and get it. It would totally be a great song for the running playlist that I never actually get to listen to... That will be changing in the coming months...

Collin just freaked me out. I know my head phones are not turned up that loud... He was bobbing along in time with the music... He is good at mimicking... Music makes me move. What can I say? I have to curb it at work and on days like today that is nearly impossible. I think if I was constantly bobbing and swaying with music it would make it difficult to get my work down...

I have been crazy productive lately and the creativity bug keeps biting me... Bastard. I keep coming up with all these crazy outlandish and overly imaginative stories. I will try to share them. They mostly seem to float through when I am literally in the middle of something that I can't just drop to write up a quick story... I will have to try and start making notes. As long as I remember the bold points the rest normally fills in easy enough.

I found the new running shoes I want. Obviously first I need to find them in a store and try them on. I also have to convince myself that a hundred and thirty five dollars is not too much to pay for a pair of running shoes. I want the new Nike LunarEclipse+ 2s. Total drool fest. Funny, I never saw myself being the type to drool over running shoes... Life takes us to some of the weirdest places.

I can thankfully say that I had a zombie free V-day. I was a little afraid after last year's episode (this will take you to that posting)....
~*~*~*~*~Side note: just opened Pandora and it played The Priest and The Matador!~*~*~*~*~
Collin sent me a teddy bear, balloon and box of noms from Edible Arrangements. Said box contained granny smith apples and MONSTROUSLY HUGE strawberries covered in the most perfectly bittersweet chocolate. I got him what every nerd wants: a gift certificate to NewEgg.com (total nerd/tech fest). We had a great evening. I made us "Greek" chicken salads. I don't know that they are really considered Greek but this is what it consisted of: a bed of baby spinach topped with red grapes, feta cheese crumbles, herb chicken, and balsamic vinaigrette. So nom-ilicious. We just chillaxed together. It was really nice.

Collin is paying for the night off though. Turns out he has not one but two chapters to do for school this week. This means seventy plus pages to read, four labs (plus one for extra credit), and two tests. Yea, I know what my weekend will consist of. But I suppose this will be a good opportunity to work on my programming stuff. ~*~*~*~*~Pandora is playing Silver and Cold by AFI, another of those songs!!~*~*~*~*~

Speaking of, I should go work on that now... But I think I would rather do some "window" shopping... Well I guess it would be "tab" shopping on here... LOL!

Taco Salad.

When All Else Fails...

Screw it all and do it yourself!

Collin and I are coming to the end of our fabulous long weekend. And what a weekend we have had!! Let's back track to the beginning...

We both got off early on Thursday; Collin at 10:26am and I left work shortly after noon. We had lunch, picked up coffee and then went to see Melody; a friend from high school turned AMAZINGLY AWESOME hair stylist (check the link, it will take you to her StyleSeat page). I got a fresh color scheme and a cleaned up hair cut, and Collin tamed his unruly hair so it's more able to be styled. We made a pit stop at Wally World on the way back home and decided to go to Ikea after we got a quick dinner at home.

Since the weekend before this one we have been looking for a headboard for our bed, or a bed with a headboard that isn't a million dollars and has a low probability of us barking our shins on the side rails. We saw some really cool ones, but all of them were either super low quality and inexpensive or amazing and super expensive. Last weekend we went to JR furniture and MOR, saw some stuff we liked but nothing worth buying. Friday, before we went to the movies (we saw One For The Money, and I must say I wasnt' too disappointed in the book to screen translation) we went to Dania and saw some really amazing furniture. We even found a couple of beds we really liked; one I honestly thought we might end up buying.

After the movie we got coffee and were going to go to some more furniture stores but I was tired of looking at stuff that wasn't what we wanted. We tried one more place that was a total bust and disgustingly overpriced. We drove around a little and then picked up some lunch at Safeway and went home. While we were eating the wave hit me. Inspiration. Screw it; no one had exactly what I wanted so why not make it ourselves. We truly just wanted a simple headboard we could attach to the frame; preferably fabric covered and slightly padded. We took some measurements, jotted down any supplies we might need and headed to Home Depot and Joann's Crafts and Fabrics. After we got the supplies it was time to book it to Costco for our much needed eye exams. We both are getting new glasses (that should be in within the week)! We came home, had dinner and began the headboard project. (Pictures showing the whole transformation are on FB but I will post a handful at the end of this post) The headboard was mostly completed Friday night.

Saturday we got up before the sun and made our way to Sellwood for a lovely five and a half mile run. Felt great at the end... Great and extremely sweaty... Came home, took a quick shower, nommed on breakfast and then made our way back to Ikea. Oooo, I guess I should back track a little. Friday morning before anything, we went to Fred Meyer and found some awesome wall art and a gorgeous bedding set. The art itself was sixty dollars per painting and it was a two piece ensemble we liked. The bedding set was on sale for one hundred and forty. The thought was with the money we were saving building the headboard we could afford the bedding and new art. Saturday morning brought the clarity that we don't need a whole bedding set and we could pick up wall art for MUCH cheaper at Ikea. So Ikea-bound were we. We got a new duvet cover and pillowcases, and wall art, and curtains, AND a throw blanket, AND curtain hanging system, AND a couple of storage boxes for less than the cost of the bedding set and half of one of the paintings at Freddy's.

After Ikea we got a quick tex-mex lunch at Chevy's. I had the lunch sized BBQ Chicken salad which was the PERFECT amount of food and it was so good. Had a little more kick to it than I expected but the strawberry raspberry lemonade put the fire out. We then decided to walk off some of our lunch at Clackamas Town Center and for the first time ever I did not find anything at Torrid that screamed to be bought... And I even have a couple of ten dollar off coupons! Sad face... I was more anxious to go home and work on the bedroom, so we did. We got the curtains hung, the new bedding washed, and the paintings mostly ready to be hung. We called it a day at this point and cooked dinner and watched a movie.

Sunday morning came with a sense of completion. We had breakfast and went back upstairs to finish the project. We attached the headboard, relocated the bed, attached the new lamps to the nightstands, moved the dresser, hung the paintings, vacuumed, and (once the sheets were washed and dried) made the bed. It turned out AMAZING. Better than I could have envisioned. I haven't been watching HGTV since I was thirteen for nothing!

It has been a fantastic weekend and we accomplished so much! As I mentioned above, there was one bed we found at Dania that was the closest to what we wanted (just wood though, no padding). The price? $500. Grand total for the entire room redo (and I mean ALL of it; bedding, curtains, art, headboard materials, etc.)?? $280. So for just over half the cost of the bed we mostly liked we redid the entire bedroom. Yea.

Here's some pictures:

What a great weekend! I plan to end it with dinner and a new episode of The Walking Dead! Heck yes!

Reconciling with the Butterfly

It's difficult, but in a good way. I am working on reconciling the me that I have been for so very long with the me that I am growing into. Collin and I have been at the running thing for over a month now, and our diet is back on track. I was slightly disappointed to find that I only lost three pounds in January, but I take heart in knowing that my body is changing whether or not the scale is a testament to it.

I know that there has been a big change because of the way clothing fits me now. Or rather doesn't... The majority of my current wardrobe is quickly becoming too big which sucks because I really am not ready to go out and buy new clothes... PLUS I know that I will most likely continue to out-shrink (really there is no adequate term for the reverse of outgrowing) my clothes. I guess it will be a matter of buying a couple staples here and there on sale and what not.

This is me being insanely open, but hey, what else is a blog for but a way to bare your soul to complete strangers (and the occasional good friend): As I recently posted, I have dropped two sizes in the last six weeks or so. TWO.... It's just insane and unheard of for me... As long as I can remember back, since I was around fifteen or sixteen I have been a size 26. At first I thought it was just this one particular brand of jeans that were just super awesome at making women feel fantastic. Then I tried on the jeans at Target this past weekend... A size 22... 22!!!! And they fit almost better than the super awesome jeans I bought a couple weeks ago. It was surreal. So very surreal. I didn't buy the jeans on this visit, right now I need to look at getting a couple new tops. It's weird to be going through this transformation, but in the same breath it's so mind blowingly awesome.

Collin finds it humorous the way I go on about it, and (since he too is on this journey of awesome transformation) I know he understands why I go on about it. I knew I could do this, he knew I could do this, we knew we could do this, but as it's happening it still seems so shocking that it is happening. Part of the shock for me is that since I was fourteen (yes, the young age of fourteen) I have tried almost everything under the sun: diets, workout videos, pills (even prescriptions from my doctor as a teen), and at one point just not eating other than the bare minimum (which was part of what put me where I was before these past couple years); and not a single thing ever got me feeling the way I do right now. Ever.

My next big wish/goal? Other than getting faster at running and getting strong enough to go for longer intervals of running? Other than being able to run greater distances with out tiring? Other than being able to complete my first half marathon in May? I want to be able to shop at Old Navy! Not just online. I effing hate, HATE shopping online for clothes. Everything is always cut differently and I hate doing exchanges. I am like one or two sizes away from being able to buy ON jeans in the store!!!! Weird but true. I want what any woman wants: to be able to shop with the "normal" looking people. I want to walk into the store, over to the denim wall, grab my size, try them on, and buy the em effers all in the same freaking day!

Okay, okay... Let me get my not-as-fat-as-it-once-was ass down from my soap box.

What can I say? I feel strongly about buying jeans. LOL.

Oh, on to current events: I got my last birthday gift from Collin today, and I am NEVER taking it off!!! He got me a super awesome t-shirt that I plan to post pictures of tomorrow. I am wearing it to work and it is going to ROCK! Best. Husband. Ever. I haz him. I love you, swedish asian man. <3

Off to see the wizard about a goat.

Macho Macho Man!

I truly do not know why that tune is stuck in my head... It's kind of jacked right?

So I just did the dishes from dinner and as I am rinsing them I start freaking out in my head because the forks aren't in the sink. My brain is processing like mad trying to figure out where the hell the dinner forks are. Then it all comes flooding back. They are still protruding from Collin's corpse because he was being a bastard.... Okay, not really. Well he sort of was but the forks weren't protruding from his corpse. They weren't in the sink because we didn't use any forks tonight! Derp... We had chipotle black bean burgers and sweet potato fries... No fork action required.

Happiness is realizing you DO NOT have to run seven miles in the morning. Instead we (for training) need to do at least four and a half, but the loop I have us doing will be closer to five. I thought it seemed early in our training schedule to have to pull a seven mile run out of our asses, and I was right. Tomorrow should be fun; running and otherwise.

Happiness is also filing your taxes and finding out you are getting an okay chunk of money back (when you expected to be paying a small chunk!). It is even more awesome because there was originally a screw up with the H&R Block office we had our appointment with didn't actually have our appointment in their book... Yea, made the appointment online last night... Oh well. So we came home and used H&R Block's free online service (not totally free; had to pay 27.95 for the state stuff) which was WAAAAYYY cheaper than having someone in their office do it, and all I had to do was input the info and amounts (which is what they would have done for me...). I was totally expecting to owe at least a little bit, but nope. We do not owe any additional taxes this year!! We are getting a pretty decent chunk from the feds and even a little bit back from the state (the state refund is the first we will be receiving in three years). Pretty awesome!

With the way the past couple of weeks were.... Well the last twelve days (kind of shocking that is all the time that has passed...); one must remember it is important to relish in the small bits of happiness rather than rot in the piles of shit life tends to dish out. Yea, feel free to use that little nugget of wisdom. Free of charge.

I'm going to go do something other that this for a bit and then go to bed so I am refreshed and ready to take on what I am hoping will be an epic Saturday! Good night my minions!

And This Is Exactly Why I Tore Off Herman's Face

The voice on the Will Vision and Laser Center radio ads sounds like Dr. Spaceman from 30 Rock... Another reason I will never have laser eye surgery... Now all I picture is some Chris Parnell looking dude standing over me with a laser pointer... 

I am feeling kind of blah this week. I think it is carry over from last week... Wow, was that really just last week. Crazy how the passage of time can play around with your mind. We didn't run on Monday because I wasn't feeling well. Today we were only out for thirty minutes; we still did over 1.8 miles, but I had intended to do three... Oh well. I will get over this gloomy rut and back on track. 

This last weekend was pretty freaking good. I didn't get the time with the family I had been hoping for; each of them for their own reasons. BUT I did get some super awesome quality time with K and G (K's boyfriend). It is always so therapeutic and relaxing to get to visit with her, and meeting G was an added bonus. G gets my stamp of approval for making K happy. She seems so happy with him, and the happiness looks so natural between them (I know you are reading this, and it is 100% true!). As any best friend I only have one word of caution to G (I don't even know if he will see this but it's good to have it out there): Should you ever cause my girl any grief, I will be there in a heartbeat... With a baseball bat. Or some other blunt object... Like my truck... I don't see this ever needing to transpire, but it's good to make sure this kind of stuff is clear and in the open. :-)

Sunday was a mellow and laid back day. Collin finished his chapter test for the week and we ran a couple errands before watching the NHL All Star game. It was a great game, and (to make it even better) the team my boy, Pavel Datsyuk, played on won! 

Tuesday, my most hated and despised day of the week... My birthday landed on a Tuesday this year. Luckily, the only truly terrible thing that transpired was my left thumbnail broke while I was getting dressed. And it broke low. Thankfully it wasn't too low, so there was only some mild discomfort. Otherwise I think it was a fairly decent day. I got many birthday wishes from my friends, I got a nice card from the crew at work (means a lot more now that they actually know who I am... LOL), my mom sang happy birthday on my voice mail, and I talked to a very good friend for about twenty minutes. And then of course there is my husband. He got me another extremely sweet card that made me tear up a little (especially given the circumstances of the last couple weeks), and he got me a new CD and one of my favorite movies. Plus, apparently, the rest of my present will be here Friday or Monday... The bastard won't give me any clues as to what it is or where it is coming from... He won't even tell the color... THE FREAKING COLOR... o.O Oh, and he bought us a piece of German chocolate cake to split (good way to avoid unhealthy over indulgence). 

I didn't plan on this but I am going to go watch American Idol... It's the Portland auditions and you never know when you might catch a glimpse of someone you recognize.