TTT

Thanks, Laura Belle, for the wonderful-ness that is Ten Things Thursday. Wherein I get to take the lazy way out and still feel like a good blogger.

 1) Work is nutso. Part of my hodge podge of a job description involves recording training videos. I spent the last two full days recording. And I mean, literally, videotaping seminars from 8 am to 5:30 pm. It is exhausting and no fun.

 2) Speaking of work, I got "spoken to" today about the fact that I come in between 5 to 20 minutes late every day. Bummer.

 3) My work to do list is re-donk. Just shoot me now.

 4) No stuck episodes since Tuesday's lunch! Huzzah! And thanks for the comments on the last post. I am in agreement with y'all. No unfill for this lady. Just a whole bunch of slow down and small bites for me! Seems to be working now.

 5) My spaz of a 2-year-old has decided that any time between 3:45 and 6:30 am is a great time for a crib party. Seriously. All week long, he has woken up between these hours and has a grand old time carrying on a conversation with himself. It wouldn't be such a big deal if his head and my head weren't separated by about 4 inches of paper-thin wall.

 6) I have an official goal to weigh in at 231 by my March 9th birthday. It's a slightly crazy goal that would require me losing more than two pounds a week, but I really think that with my new-found restriction and upping the exercise ante (which I haven't done yet, oops!) I might be able to do it. Or at least get super close. If you will recall, my highest NPR (non-pregnant recorded) weight was 281, in March of last year. If, by my birthday, I get to 231, it will be 50 pounds down in a year. Which would be total awesomesauce, if you ask me.

 7) I had to change the comment settings for my blog because I am getting SO MANY spam comments! It is so frustrating! Hopefully, the change that I made (allowing only registered users to comment) will stop the stupid spammers, but not be as frustrating to y'all as if I had turned on word verification. I really HATE word verification, and it's the last option for me as far as this goes. So let me know if you have issues commenting, please!

 8) The Hubs and I are going to see "Shrek: The Musical" on the 18th. I'm super excited for this because {1} It's Shrek! and {2} The Hubs actually agreed to go to the theater with me, which is like a "hell froze over" kind of event!

 9) I know I've said this recently, but the whole learning how to follow bandster rules thing? It's hard. But I'm kind of glad that I had two stuck episodes, because I'm so much more careful now about chewing and small bites-ing since I know that pain. And me no-likey the pain.

10) Biggest news of all: I done gone and did it. I signed up for my first 5k of 2013!!! On my birthday, no less! So even though it will definitely be cold, and there's the possibility that there will be snow - believe me, we've had blizzards on my birthday weekend in March before - I will be at the Shamrock Shuffle, shufflin' my 5k worth of buns off. And it's already paid for and everything. So I have to do it now! I've got about 8 weeks to get my butt in gear, so we definitely need to come up with a plan up in here. But I'm super excited to get back into running, and to have a goal to work toward. Woo! 

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train...

(Crazy Train, Ozzy Ozbourne)

I recently discovered a lovely group of lady bloggers, and I'm totally jumping onboard their Crazy Train! Drazil is the conductor of this "loco"-motive, so let's get to chuggin...

In Drazil's world, Fridays are BYOC days. Here's her explanation...

"It’s time for BYOC – Bring Your Own Crazy…a couple of questions we answer to get to know each other better and to give our blogging brains a break! Copy and paste to your own blog and enjoy!"

"Copy and paste to your own blog and enjoy!"...Well, Drazil said it, so I'll do it.

Question 1: If you were asked to symbolize yourself as an animal – which animal would you be?


Um...a monkey? But not one of those monkeys that throws their poo at you. A nice monkey. I say that because I like to have fun and generally feel lighthearted and carefree. Also, if you're my friend on FB, you've seen video proof that I can do an excellent monkey impersonation. Just ask my 6 month old.

Question 2: Did you ever play an organized sport – with coaches, rules and scoring? Tell us about it.


I played one year of softball when I was in middle school, but not for a school team. I was the catcher, so yeah, pretty much the least active member of the team. For two years in high school, I was a member of our show choir, which was a pretty intensive, year-long physical activity, and it was a TON of fun. I miss those days.

Question 3: When did you start shaving your legs?

Oh, geez. Sixth, seventh grade, maybe? I begged my mom to let me and finally just took it upon myself. I'll never forget my older sister laughing hysterically at me one day because I had a smidge of shaving cream on my face from shaving my armpits in the shower. Still to this day, I don't know whether other women use shaving cream on their armpits, or if I'm some sort of shaving cream freak.

Question 4: When you’re in a crabby – pissy – want to stab everyone you see kind of mood – what do you do to get out of it or do you revel in it?

Misery loves company, and as much as I wish I didn't let my bad moods affect other people, I can't say that's true. Usually a foul mood consists of lots of pouting. My poor husband. LOL

Question 5: Repeat question: Summarize your week in blogland and in real life.

In blogland, I discovered some lovely new blogs (Evolution of a Black Butterfly, My 30th Summer, My Trek Downward, and Beer, Dogs and Getting Healthier), and blogged alot myself. I also hit fiddy followers! In real life, I'm super busy at work, developing the online learning management system for my company, and also researching intranet options. I'm leaving on a jet plane Sunday afternoon to head to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days so that I can get some LMS/intranet ideas from a company that shares it's best practices with us.

Personally, my husband has finally decided to quit his horrible job, which makes me happy and scared. I miss my son, who has been at my MIL's house since Wednesday morning, and The BFF and I got to go see The Lion King musical for free because my company is a sponsor. All in all, it hasn't been a bad week.

Peace out, homeslices! Enjoy your weekend!

And where have you been, young lady?!

Sorry, Mom...

I've been out of it, and I apologize. On the downside, that means you haven't been graced with any hilarious, witty and entertaining posts from yours truly. (Apparently I think pretty highly of myself.) On the upside, now you get to be bombarded with them! Yay!

Without further ado, Post #1, or "What I've Been Doing for the Past Twelve Days," by Mrs. B.

When we last spoke, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the warp in the space/time continuum that made my shoes perfectly comfortable in-store, and unbearable at home. Yes, groundbreaking, earth-shattering news, I know.

Friday:

I ended up wearing those shoes (with a back up pair, of course) to work and was surprised to find that I made it through most of the day with only two band-aids. And as all of you ladies know, you can determine the comfort level of a pair of shoes by how many band-aids you have to wrap your feet in to keep the blistering/rubbing at bay. In the end, I decided to pack them to wear to the wedding with no back up plan. You'll find out how that went in a little bit.

I put on my back up shoes when I left work because I had to hurry to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy whatever I could scrounge together from my cousins' registry on the night before the wedding. Ugh. Yes, I know, it's my fault for waiting until the last minute, but I couldn't help it. I walked in, armed with a handful of BBB coupons, printed off their registry, and started rummaging through my choices. Of course, the $300 Kitchen Aid Mixer and the $300 vacuum were still available, but I could only afford about $30 worth of gifts. Guess what they got. Go ahead, I dare you. Give up?

They got spoons. I got them all of the random, individual serving spoons on their registry and called it a day. It's quite possibly the worst/strangest gift I've ever given someone, but in my defense, they registered for them, so they must have wanted them. And those things are freaking expensive individually - between $7-$10 a piece! (That's expensive to me, but maybe I'm cheap...) I'm sure they'll think of us every time they have a need to scoop, dip or stir.

Anyway, I bought their gift, went back to the house, packed for the wedding and the weekend, and we went up to The Hubs' parents' house. We finally got to hang out with The Kids, and had a really fun night at the bar with them. I drank a lot, but never really got drunk. (Which seems to be how it goes since the gallbladder left town...) At any rate, we got to hang with them, which should buy us another month or two of crazy schedules that interrupt friend time. Bah, I hate that!

Saturday (we're up to May 23rd in my 12 days of abandonment):

The Hubs and his dad changed some belts on my car and then it was off to the wedding. But first, we had to make a stop at the prom:

The MIL wouldn't let us leave until she got pictures of us in the front yard. It's endearing, I guess. The Hubs went to his senior prom with a bunch of friends, so she never got to take these pictures 10 years ago. It's a little fun to indulge her. (Btw, I'm wearing the shoes in this pic.)

The wedding was nice. It was the first time I had ever been to a Catholic wedding with a full mass. Other than the awkwardness of the whole stand up, sit down routine, and not knowing the songs or the responses, it was very nice.

Here's the happy couple, my Step Cousin, Steve, and his new wife, Jen.

I'm sure they'll look just as happy when they open up their spoons...

The reception was good. I had the most amazing roast beef I think I've ever had, and I did The Booty Call, The Cha Cha Slide, and The Cupid Shuffle - in my shoes! They actually ended up being one of the more comfortable pairs of high heels I own. I'm really glad I gave them a second chance.

Sunday:
I went out to lunch with The BFF and Tonja, and then we had shopping to do! We hit up Wal Mart and Target for camping supplies, and then I went home and did grocery shopping with The Hubs. Lots of shopping that day, nothing really exciting to report.

Monday:
Memorial Day. Instead of going out to my Mom's house, we lounged around all day and enjoyed the first day in a very long time that we had absolutely nowhere to be. The Hubs did homework most of the day, and I enjoyed an all-day John & Kate Plus 8 marathon while cleaning out my closet. (Yes, it took almost a whole day to clean out my closet. Don't judge.) I filled 3 trash bags full of Goodwill goodness, and sorted and organized all my junk. What a fun and exciting life I lead.

Wednesday:
I went with MFN andThe BFF to see "A Chorus Line". Can you say "booo-riiing"? OMG, I thought it was never going to end! Luckily, I'm not crazy, and MFN and The BFF felt the same way. Maybe we're Theater Snobs, maybe we've been spoiled by Les Mis and the other amazing shows we've seen, but man, was that a rough two hours to sit through. Oh well, at least I can add another show to my list.

I got the 2009-2010 schedule the other day, and I'm pretty much going to have to get a second job to pay for my theater habit. "Mama Mia!", "The Color Purple", "Rent", "Chicago", "Legally Blonde: The Musical", "Dreamgirls", and I'm super excited about this one: "Mary Poppins"! I HAVE to see all of them, or I'm pretty sure I'll die. (What? I'm being overly dramatic? You think so? Okay, fine. I'd really, really, really like to see these shows, and if I don't, I'll be really sad. Better? Good.)

Thursday:
I realized on Wednesday that there was no way I was going to be able to get all of our camping stuff organized and packed, and clean up our apartment in time for the trip on Friday, so I took Thursday off. I spent the first 4 hours of my day reformatting my iPod and adding/organizing songs. Ugh, what a P.I.T.A.! Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning, organizing, and packing. When The Hubs got back to the house around 11pm, we only had a few things left to do on our list. It never would have gotten finished if I had worked that day.

Friday - Sunday:
Camping. I'll give it it's own post.

Monday (today!):
Back to civilization, back to work, back to the diet and exercise. I'll give the whole diet and exercise thing it's own post, too. (Aren't you lucky?!)

So you may have had to live without me for 12 days, but as you can see, I had a lot going on.

Do you forgive me? I sure hope so.

"Throw me a rope to grab on to, help me to prove that I'm strong..."

("The Music and The Mirror" from A Chorus Line.)

MFN, The BFF and Mrs. B. just bought tickets to see A Chorus Line! Woot!

Another one I can cross off my list!

What's even better? Because I'm a Broadway Across America member, we got discounted tickets - Loge seats for the price of Upper Balcony seats! (Woot again!)

So maybe my second-speeding-ticket-in-two-weeks-day won't turn out to be a total loss, after all! (*frantically searching for some wood to knock on...)

"And now it's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea..."

(Please tell me somebody who reads this knows where that came from!)

Good Idea: Going to see Avenue Q.
Bad Idea: Going to see Avenue Q with a nineteen-year-old and her mother.

Good Idea: Going more than five years without a speeding ticket.
Bad Idea: Going more than five years without a speeding ticket and then getting TWO in less than two weeks.

Good Idea: Having a co-worker notice that you've lost weight, and comment that it looks like you've lost more than what you have.
Bad Idea: Drowning your speeding ticket sorrows in whatever comes across your path and undoing a 10 pound weight loss. (I haven't done this...yet.)

"..these are a few of my favorite things..."

("My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music).

Tonight, I'm going to see Avenue Q. I'm going with The BFF, her mom, and her "little" sister to celebrate said sister's 19th birthday. (You probably don't read this, but "Happy Birthday, Puddy!")

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to go to the theater...I'm a huge music/musicals buff, and I have been lucky enough to see several in my lifetime. I was in choir from 6th grade through high school, and was in my high school show choir. (If you don't know what that is, it's a mixed choir that performs a 20-minute program of songs and dance. It's very athletic. And challenging. And uber fun.) And, a bonus to that was that they took us to the theater when ever they could.

I'm also lucky enough to have a BFF who loves musicals just as much as I do. Probably half the shows I've seen, have been with her. Thanks, Sammy Sue!

You know how people make those 101 in 1001 lists? I'm pretty sure I'm not patient enough to come up with 101 things I want to accomplish, but I can (and will) rattle off a long list of musicals I am determined to see before I die.

First, what I have been fortunate enough to see:

• Avenue Q (as of tonight)
• Chicago (a long time ago, before the movie, and when BeBe Neuwirth played Velma Kelly. Awesome!)
• Grease (a college performance)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (I took my mommy on a girl date. Sebastian Bach was a very screamy Christ.)
• Les Miserables (amazing!)
• The Lion King (I took The Hubs to see his first musical. He liked it, but I didn't realize that he had never even seen the Disney version of The Lion King...who hasn't seen that?!?!)
• Miss Saigon
• The Most Happy Fella (another college performance)
• My Fair Lady (with The BFF and Puddy)
• Oklahoma (one of my favorites!)
• Show Boat
• South Pacific (with Robert Goulet...oooh! LOL)
• Ragtime

Now, the shows that I should have seen, but somehow got thwarted. It is because of these experiences that I now refuse to buy tickets to a show more than a month in advance:

• Phantom of the Opera - I had 9th row, center tickets, and it just so happened to coincide with the year's biggest snowstorm. It took me over 3 hours to get home that night, and they did not cancel the show.
• Wicked - The BFF and I had tickets, and then I ended up having to have my gallbladder removed two days before the show.

And, the wish list:

• Fiddler on the Roof* - I have never seen it, or the movie, and I'm absolutely dying to!
• 42nd Street*
• Aida
• Annie
• Annie Get Your Gun
• Anything Goes
• Beauty and the Beast*
• Cabaret
• Camelot
• Carousel
• A Chorus Line
• Grey Gardens - sidenote: I have got to find a way to see the Drew Barrymore version that's coming out on HBO!
• Guys and Dolls*
• Hello, Dolly!
• How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
• Into The Woods
• The King and I
• Kiss Me, Kate
• Legally Blonde*
• Mama Mia*
• Mary Poppins
• Les Miserables (again)
• Movin' Out
• The Music Man*
• Oklahoma (again)
• Phantom of the Opera* (Damn you, Mother Nature!)
• Rent
• Seussical the Musical
• Spamalot*
• Sweeney Todd
• West Side Story*
• Wicked* (Damn you, gallbladder!)
• Xanadu

(*shows I have promised myself I will buy tickets to next time they are available)

Anyway, tonight is sure to be a difficult night with the eating/exercising. We're eating at Cadillac Ranch downtown, and they don't have a full menu OR nutritional information on their website. So freaking annoying!!! And, of course, the show starts at 8pm, so who knows what time I'm getting home. There will definitely not be any 5k's tonight, but that's perfectly fine with me. I get to go hang out with some raunchy puppets instead!