Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Chillin'


Is what we're doing. We still have power. THANK YOU GOD!! Last night the weather was nice. That's what's so weird about hurricanes. We sat outside at the neighbors & ate & had a few drinks.
This isn't a great picture but I promise there's a rainbow!
The girls!

The crew!

A-A is taller than me now.
The boys. Yes, that is a flash light hanging around Cliff's neck. I told him he looks like Flavor Flav.
This is making me very sad. My poor palm tree. It looks even worse now. It was looking so good because we had such a mild winter & now I'll be lucky if it doesn't come out of the ground. It's raining pretty hard now & is really windy. The worst is yet to come.

Toodles!!!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

And we're dark......

Literally, it's starting to get a little dark from Isaac & we're now in our "dark" period at work. What that means is I'm sitting here reading blogs & looking at all the stuff everyone's saying about Isaac. Which, incidentally, is now a hurricane. The dark period entails us not being able to get into the computer system due to conversion to the new system. Of course nobody would ever tell us to just go home so that you'll be home before the bad weather gets here. Nope, that would never happen. Especially, since tomorrow is a regular workday because the powers that be don't think the storm is going to be that bad. Funny, you'd think they would've learned their lessons with Katrina & Gustav. Guess not. Unless I wake up tomorrow to sunny skies I'm taking a day of vacation. Tomorrow is a dark day too so there's not a whole lot that can be done.

Thursday is going to be a horrendous day. You know it's going to be bad when you're told to bring your "red bull, 5 hour energy, coffee, pj's & whatever else you need to get through a very long day". Again, all because of the new operating system. I can't imagine there isn't a better way to handle this.

Dean was told when he left work yesterday not to come back until Friday. He works at a plant & they tend to actually take precautions with bad weather. OK I interrupt this blog post to take back everything I said about the powers that be. I was just told by the big boss that only essential personnel need to be here tomorrow. He tried to convince me that I was essential but we all know better. That means I don't have to take a day of vacation. YAY! It's the little things right??

Anyway, we spent some time last night picking up stuff in the yard. All of our patio chairs are in the house & my glider is in the kitchen. I have plenty of books on my Nook & everything is charged for when the electricity goes out. Hopefully, it won't be out too long. If it is I have plenty of actual books as well. For Gustav it was out for 3 days. Not fun. The worst part of course is that it's HOT!

I even thought about how Isaac is messing out my workout schedule. If you're not from here you may not know or you may, Louisiana's public school systems are crap with the exception of a couple of suburbs. That means the majority of the kids in Baton Rouge go to private school & the vast majority of those go to Catholic schools. Today I was supposed to go to Yoglates but they're closed because they're going by the Catholic school calendar & schools were closed today. Why you have to cancel a 5:30 am class for that I'll never know but whatever. I was planning to run but I guess between nerves, anxiety, whatever I was wide awake at 1:45 for I don't know exactly how long. when 4:45 came I wasn't getting out of bed. Sad thing is that I couldn't go back to sleep so I ended up getting up at 5:00. Epic fail. I could do some sort of workout inside at home but that means sweating & if the electricity is out no blow dryer & that won't cut it. That brings me to a conversation Dean had with our 18 year old neighbor. She sent him a text the other night wanting to know what he was cooking for the hurricane party. He said he didn't know yet & she said she was excited to which he responded "Traci's not". This was the response he got "Of course not. You can't use a flat iron with no power". Umm helllloooo!!!! I know I like to have my hair fixed but come on!

So, if you're in the path of Isaac, be safe!

This has been the most random post ever. I think I'm a little delirious from lack of sleep.

Toodles!


Sunday, August 26, 2012

It's Almost Over....

The weekend that is. I'm very sad. I don't want it to be over. Aside from a work week that promises to be worse than any I've ever experienced there's this thing called Isaac. Don't know if you've heard but it's a hurricane. UGH! Not good timing. Not that any time is good for a hurricane but this week is really not good. I think I've said before, I work at newspaper. You know those things that are thrown in your driveway & are becoming more extinct by the day? Yeh, well, a hurricane doesn't keep a newspaper from printing. Well, except for a few years ago when Gustav hit. That was bad. Anyway, I've always taken pride in the fact that I have never nor will I ever be considered "essential personnel" EXCEPT THIS WEEK. Seriously. My fear & apparently a pretty valid one if Dean telling me to "pack a bag" is any indication, is being stuck at work. If that happens you'll probably all hear me screaming.

Anyway, Friday night we had dinner with our friends that live down the street. We went to Superior Grill. It's Mexican. I noticed something on the menu that I thought was really weird.
See that part that says "OFF MENU ITEMS". Ummm, it's on the menu so how exactly is it off menu????

Have y'all ever ordered from drugstore.com? I ordered some tea bags.
The only place I can find the iced green tea bags in town is at Starbucks & They're $4.99 a box. Walmart has some of the other Tazo tea but not this one so I ordered it online. $3.99 a box & free shipping when you spend $25. The best part? I ordered it Wednesday & it was at my door Friday!

Saturday morning Dean left early to go to his parents. He was going crabbing with his dad. I declared Saturday my "Do Absolutely Nothing Productive" day. Since I'll be working next weekend & on my Labor Day holiday I needed a do nothing day. I started with this.
Have y'all seen it? I hadn't. My mom told me how good it was & I loved it. Of course I pretty much love anything that Kate & Anne are in. Well, except Batman. I don't like those type of movies.  After the movie I watched some of the other stuff on the DVR, House Hunters & Real Housewives of New Jersey. You know real mind numbing stuff. It was great! I also read a book. Yes, a whole book. Miracle on the 17th Green by James Patterson. No murder or kidnappings just a good story with a happy ending.  I also floated in the pool for a bit & decided that I needed to do something that resembled exercise since I did drink a margarita Friday night. I swam 30 laps which is 300 meters in our pool. I actually swam 30 straight without stopping. I usually swim 10, rest, swim 10,  rest & swim 10. 

Saturday night we went down the street to some friends for BBQ ribs. YUM! I've been wanting to try Skinny Girl White Cranberry Cosmo but I haven't seen it in any of the stores around here. I was at CVS the other day & there it was! They had all the different Skinny Girl stuff, even wine!
We tried it last night & everyone liked it. I've tried the margarita & sangria but I think the Cosmo is my fave. OK I'm going cry now since it's almost tomorrow.

Toodles!

Friday, August 24, 2012

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

It's been another one of those weeks. I know you're tired of hearing all about how awful work is & how many hours I'm working. I know. This week as been like last week in that I've only worked about 5.5 hours of OT but let me tell you it's 5.5 hours too many. Not to mention yesterday was pay day & a lot of those OT hours went to help pay for all of the drug dealers & losers that don't have jobs. As of now I have the weekend off because all hell breaks loose Monday with us being less than a week from our "go live" date. I have a meeting at 9:30 & hopefully, when it's over I'll still be off this weekend. I'm even hoping to maybe get out of here around 3:30. Probably wishful thinking.

Since I didn't have an "official" Weigh In Wed. post, here it is. I gained 0.4 lbs. this week. I definitely didn't do good with my eating over the weekend & then I had BBQ Nachos Tuesday night at VooDoo BBQ. Since then I've done great. My workouts since Thursday are as follows: Friday I ran for 30 mins. Monday I ran for 34 mins. Tuesday I went to Yoglates. Wednesday I ran 30 mins. Thursday I went to Yoglates. I was going to run this morning but it was thundering & I didn't want to get caught in a downpour. I should've known better than to think it would actually rain since it was thundering. Not a drop. Oh well.

I'm very excited because last night I ordered my new camera! WOO HOO!!! Can't wait to get it. Of course that means I'll actually have to read the directions. As much as I love to read, I HATE to read directions. This is my first DSLR camera. I may have to buy one of those books for dummies. We'll see. I welcome any hints or tips!!!

Speaking of reading, I think it's time that I read a couple of chick lit books. I'm currently reading 2 James Patterson books. Yes, I know, not a smart move. The reason for this is that I read my Nook at work (at lunch)  but when I'm home I try to read some of the actual books that I've accumulated. I don't buy real books anymore but I do have some from friends in book club & my mother-in-law. When I read too many of these books right after each other I have nightmares. I generally don't even know I'm having them but I wake poor Dean up with my screaming. I think these books are also starting to affect my thinking. Yesterday I was at CVS & there was a guy in there that I thought was acting a little weird. Like lurking about, voluntarily telling the cashier that he was buying snacks because he was going to the movies to see Expendables. Then when I went to my car he was in a mini van & just sitting there. If you read any of these books you'll know that the guy doing all of the killing always looks like a plain, ordinary guy. That was this guy. You'll also know that vans are usually a staple for these guys. When I got home I told Dean that I got a really good look at the guy in case something happens I can help identify him. Anyone have any recommendations on some good chick lit?

Toodles!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Happy Belated Anniversary!!!

To ME!!!!! It's not our wedding anniversary. It's my running anniversary!!


I started August 13, 2011. All of those zero's are there because that was before I knew about the GPS part of the app. Lydia clued me in & this is what it looks like now.


Those zeros on the 18th & 20th are there because I was trying to figure out when I ran that fastest mile. Hard to believe I've ran 254 miles! Technically, I haven't been running a year because of my hip injury. That was 4 months that I didn't run but I started a year ago & I'm still at it. Yay me!

Lately, I've discovered the greatness that is the smoothie. My favorite recipe is the one with a banana, scoop of peanut butter, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon & ground flaxseed. The recipe calls for vanilla protein powder too. I ordered some but it hasn't come in yet. I see all over the place about using frozen bananas. Apparently, this doesn't mean to just throw the whole banana, peel & all, in the freezer. That doesn't work at all. It requires that you use a knife & you're hand is frozen solid before you get the banana peeled. Sigh. When we were at Sam's Saturday I picked up some bananas.


I don't like bananas plain. I've bought them before because Dean likes them. Y'all bananas are CHEAP!! This is 3 lbs. & it was $1.47! Seriously! I'm used to buying blackberries that are $4.00 for a little container. Speaking of, I guess they're out of season because the store hasn't had them in 2 weeks. I bought raspberries last week. They're just ok. So, apparently the correct way to freeze bananas is to cut them up & put them in baggies or containers.


Snack size ziplock are the perfect size for one banana.

Today I ended up working 9.5 hours. Oh joy. I had a little treat when I got home.


It was really good with Dean's homemade burgers!

Toodles!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Sigh....

I was off all weekend & it was glorious. Now it's all over. Why is it work 5 days, off 2?? I think a work 3, off 4 is a much better plan.

I ended up not leaving work until about 5:20 on Friday. 50 minutes later than I'm supposed to be there. It wasn't too bad knowing I was off for 2 days. When I got home we went to dinner at Monjuni's. It was delicious as usual!

Saturday we had errands to run. First stop was to drop my car off for an oil change & tire rotation. Exciting stuff. While that was being done we went to Sam's. The main purpose was to look at cameras. Dean's been doing some research online & we wanted to look at them in person. We did buy a few things.


Apparently, when we drink one bottle of wine we must replace it with 4. Technically, 5 because one of the bottles is xlg!


I also got these capris that were marked down to $10. Y'all, I have them on now & they are sooooo comfy. The brand is Green Tea. They're so soft.


These were marked down to $10 too. They're Nine West. Jean capri's are like purses & flip flops, you can never have too many pair.

We went to Dicks & I got this thing.


Frogg Toggs is the brand. Dean said they're the best rain suits ever. This is some sort of towel that stays cold for when you workout. I saw them awhile back & then I saw someone blog about it. It was $15 so if it works what a deal!

The car was ready so Dean dropped me off to get it & he went to Academy. He came home with this


I've been wanting one for awhile & just hadn't gotten one. I'm not a tennis player & neither is Dean but he has a racquet so I thought we could try playing. I was excited he found a pink one!

We made it home before all the rain & I was able to take a nap before Mass. Afterwards we stopped at Caliente for dinner.


I had quesadilla's with chicken, spinach & chipotle sauce in a whole wheat tortilla. Yum!

This morning when I woke up it was raining again! It was delightful! I managed to get up, eat breakfast, pick up around the house, take a nap (since it was still raining) & wake up before 11:00! Mama & daddy came over for lunch & we visited for awhile. It was a wonderful weekend & I'm not looking forward to week!

Toodles!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

All over the place!

Things are crazy again this week. sigh. I'm skipping Weigh In Wed./Thurs. this week because I'm confused.  I didn't do it last week because there was no time & I didn't record my weight  & I don't remember what it was because I normally weigh several times a week. Anyway, I know what I weigh today, I think I gained a pound, I recorded it in my handy dandy Erin Condren planner & I'll see what happens next week.

Speaking of Erin Condren, if anyone sees any deals let me know. I love my planner & want one for next year.

This week hasn't been as bad as last week. Monday I actually just worked a regular day. I'd almost forgotten what that felt like. However, it was short lived. Tuesday was 9 hours & yesterday was 10.5. This is going to sound awful, but I think the only thing keeping me going is my running tab of how much money I'm making with all the OT! HA!Whatever works right?

With all of this system conversion business going on, my desk is not looking it's best.
This is one area. Notice the bottle of vitamins. I make sure I take them EVERY DAY!
A lot of my regular work is getting put on the back burner. No, that isn't a CVS bag full of fun stuff like nail polish & snacks. It's a CVS bag filled with headlines off the front page of newspapers that distributors didn't sell & return to us for credit. Know what that means? I have to COUNT all those things. You'd be amazed at how many will fit into a plastic CVS bag. This is by far the WORST part of my job. Supposedly, it will no longer be part of my job once this whole system conversion takes place. I'm not getting too excited because that just means it will be replaced with something else that I dislike more.....talking to people. I know I sound awful but the less contact I have with the public the better. The public isn't nice. HA!
All of those stacks of yellow papers? Email addresses that have to be put into the system. I also have 2 full boxes of them behind me. Maybe I'll get to them next year.


I have managed to get my workouts in this week so that's something. Monday afternoon was Yoglates, Tuesday morning I went to Yoglates at 5:30 am. The time just changed from 5:45 to 5:30 & that 15 minutes makes it possible for me to go & make it to work for 8:00. The class is only 45 minutes. We do all the same stuff as the other classes but on a couple of things we do 1 set instead of 2. The teacher is younger & more hyper for lack of a better word. I'm burning more calories in that 45 mins. than I do in the hour class. Wednesday I ran & this morning I went back to the 5:30 Yoglates class. This particular teacher only teaches on Tuesday & Thursday. It's hard getting up at 4:45 but I like being done with my workout before work. I'm going to try to make the early class my new routine.

See, I told you, all over the place.

Toodles!