Talk to you next year...

Highlights of 2008:
1) Promoted to Senior at my job, along with a nice pay raise.
2) Accepted different position at my company, which I *adore*!!! My work has stopped feeling like work!
3) Ran another half-marathon.
4) Made it to Spokane, Vegas, Sedona, Chicago, Lex, and Fondy.
5) Blondie has an awesome idea for a website that he has been busting his ass on - can't WAIT for people to get to see it.
6) Made an aunt x3 for me, uncle x3 for Blondie.
7) Received notification that we will be x4 for nieces this year!!!! C'mon Sam... we want to meet you.

Plans for 2009:
1) Run a 5K in under 30 minutes - Blondie of course has done this many many times over, but this would be important to me.
2) Back to KY in Feb to meet TCKITW v4.0
3) VEGAS!!!!
4) Launch of Blondie's website.
5) Tahoe!!! Blondie will be working on perfecting his snowboarding skills the first weekend in Feb.
6) Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to visit Memphis and meet baby Ali!!! WC - watch out. We are coming.
7) And whatever else life may throw at us this year, we are ready for it. Bring. It. On!

--K and S

Merry Xmas!

Blondie and I hit up the Land of Cheese for Xmas this year. We had a very good time, and also had a white Xmas for the first time in forever (it felt like anyway). It didn't stop snowing pretty much the entire time we were back, and it was also pretty dang cold.

I've pretty much eaten my way through 3 states in the past week, and I can so feel it. I've signed myself up for WW at Work (I swear, I keep WW in business) and it starts next week. I have to figure out how to make this a lifestyle change, and not a diet, and then STICK WITH IT.

Having said that :) Blondie and I are off to Napa tomorrow to meet my old boss for a day of wine tasting.

Our NYE plans are up in the air at the moment, but rest assured, we will have fun. And then our "eating right" plans start this Friday.

Today is my first day back at work, and I'm enjoying the slow time right now. I might go shopping over my lunch break, or I might just sit here. Such a hard decision.

Happy Holidays.
--K

Tis the season... of parties...

I'm an awful sick person - I hate being sick, and I get real weepy and demanding when I feel bad. Trust me, it's BAD (ask Blondie). Having said that, I've been down and out for the past week. Suffering one of the most massive colds ever. I thought it was just sinus, and then it turned into awful coughing/sore throat. The past week has been *so much fun* for all who have come in contact with me. Ugh. Happy Holidays! :)

So last Wed (the day the problems started), Blondie and I hit up the 'Stro to see the movie Milk at the Castro Theater, and then to head for Dungenes crab legs after. Milk was an incredible movie, and Sean Penn should win an Oscar for that. It was cool to watch, b/c they filmed a lot of the scenes actually in the Castro and of course, that's where most of the movie took place also. After dinner and movie, we met up with Party C at the Bar in the Hood and hung out until pretty late. Then it was time to head home and shoot darts for an hour, while drinking some more.

Thurs I woke up in full misery, but still managed to drag myself to work. My nose wouldn't stop running, and I rubbed my face raw from blowing my nose so much. And I had a headache that wouldn't quit, so I only lasted about 4 hours before heading home.

Friday I basically called in sick. I laid on the couch for most of the day miserable (again, Blondie can tell you how much *fun* this is). But then it was time for Party with the Peeps, and then Ms HK's 30th. We hit Party with the Peeps for a bit, and Blondie got to meet all of my cool coworkers, and then headed into the TLoin for some Karaoke and more beer. I was home by midnight, but Blondie came strolling in around 2:30 am.

Saturday and Sunday found us not moving from the couches.

Monday found me calling in sick again to work, b/c it had progressed into horrible coughing fits at that point.

I finally made it to work on Tues, and then met my girlfriends for Girl's Holiday Dinner followed by frosty beverages in the NV. I was home early, but then worked until almost 3:30 am on Wed morning trying to catch up from being out so much.

And that work was worth it, b/c yesterday I finished up a major project that I had been assigned. The work wasn't officially due until mid-Jan, but I had been whispered to that the sooner I could get it done, the better. So I got it done. And now I can take a Xmas vacation and not freak out about what's left for when I come back.

Today is my office Xmas party. We leave in a couple of hours. I'm pretty lucky, b/c I love my new position at the company, I love the people I work with, and my company is still throwing us a Xmas party even with the bad economy.

And tomorrow my new boss is having everyone to his house mid-afternoon for the "Hair of the Dog" party.

I plan on crashing and sleeping for 4 days (between being sick and all the parties, I'm exhausted) before heading to the Land of Cheese for the holiday season.

Aren't I a ball of fun? You know it, yeah, you know it.

--K

Oh holy ....


SHUGS! I LOVE YOU! EVEN WHEN I FORGET YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Happy 8 days late (red face) to the fabulous Shugs!!!! Hope you had a great day and are still talking to me!

--K

Senior-itis....

And I'm not a senior. And I'm not leaving my job. And I only have 3 days of vacation for Xmas.

But god. It sure feels like I'm lacking motivation to do much right now (even though I know I'm busting ass at my new job). I think this "lack of motivation" feeling comes from the fact that my new job is so much less frantic than my old job. Without the constant pressure, even though I'm still working my butt off, it feels so much less like a "job". Kind of nice.

So, Yours Truly had a bit of a drinking fit on Friday night. From many bottles of wine with Party C, to tossing back a few beers with Blondie before dinner with Shelbs and Bbbb (and more bottles of wine), and then bar hopping until 1 am, it was a green Saturday. I believe I laid curled in a ball on horizontal surfaces for most of the day.

On Sunday, Blondie and I got our errands out of the way, and then had a depressing day as both the Packers and the Jets lost. Sigh.

Tomorrow I'll be working from home, and Blondie and I are going to have a date-evening. We are off to see "Milk" at the Castro Theater, and then to dinner at Anchor afterwards! Woot! Dungy's are going to be mine!

Blondie and I are headed to the Land of Cheese for Xmas this year. I'm looking forward to the trip. I hope *cough cough* Mama G makes me some peanut butter balls *cough*. Maybe Blondie *cough* can drop a hint too *cough*.

And then in January or February, after Mrs Pooh gives birth and has gotten settled, we are off to the Land of Whiskey, Tobacco and Horses, to meet the Cutest Kid in the World, v4.0.

Of course, when I win the lottery on Friday, then Blondie and I can just start making trips to wherever we want, whenever we want, for how long we want to. But until then...

--Ready to go home for the day.
K

Vacation Rulz!

Hope everyone had a great T-Day! A big shout out to Mr Pooh who finished his 5K in under 30 minutes, which is HUGE! We are so proud of you Mr Pooh, you are a true inspiration!

Blondie and Party C ended up doing the 5 mile Turkey Trot on T-day, while I did the 3 mile Turkey Trot. We were all extremely happy with our times, and also happy we got some activity in prior to EATING. ALL. DAY. LONG.

After the Turkey Trot, Party C came up and helped me assemble an apple pie, and then Blondie and I headed over to Sweetie J's for some awesome cooking!

I've been thinking about eating meat again, so at Sweetie J's, I ate 5 bites of turkey, and then spent the entire morning the next day doubled over with stabbing pains in my gut. So yeah, I'm not thinking about eating meat again. At this moment in time.

After the stomach thing cleared up on Friday, I met Sweetie J and Party C for a movie and some drinks. We saw 4 Christmases, and while they really liked it, I found it depressing. But the company rocked, and that's what matters.

Saturday I met PC early in the CV and we got some sandwiches and movies, and proceeded back to the apartment to literally not move for the next 12 hours. Sweetie J joined us later in the evening, but other than that, it was a day of chick flicks, food, and beer. Perfection.

And on Sunday, Blondie "forced" (put a gun to my head, I swear!) me to go workout. I hit Kezar Stadium while he ran in GG Park. I ended up going around the stadium track about 8 times, and ran up and down the bleacher steps for each side. I can't feel my calves today.

Headed back to work today and the new job is such a nice change from my old job. I still feel rushed, but in no way do I feel franctic which is always how I felt in the old job. I hope that makes sense. I'm still really busy, but it's for my own projects, and not due to someone else screwing something up (only if I screw something up). It kind of rocks.

Blondie is really busy also, working on his fabo-idea. Can't wait for everyone to get to peep it!

--K

Happy Multiple Birthdays!!!!

Happy 2 days late birthday to the Sheriff (stealing this from Mrs Pooh)!!!
Happy 1 day early birthday to Mom and TT!!!!!!



Happy Turkey Trotting!!!!

Good luck to Mr Pooh on his T-day Turkey Trot! We will be cheering you on from SF.
Blondie and I will be doing a T-day Turkey Trot also with Party C. Blondie and Party C will smoke it, and I will stroll it. Because I'm a super good stroller.


That is all. Continue as before.

--K

A tribute to Mississippi Queen...

Conversation revisited -
Yours Truly: "What's a zephyr?"
Mississippi Queen: "It's like a big blimp"
YT: "Okay"
- pause to drink beer -
YT: "Wait. Isn't that a zeppelin?"
MQ: "Oh right! Wait. Then what's a zephyr?"


SF has a zeppelin - a company bought one, and now does tours all over the bay area (for a disgustingly expensive cost). The thing is HUGE. How do we know this? We see it often from our dining room window (which looks out onto the Pacific Ocean and the bay). We watched it floating by on Saturday, and it dwarfs everything, including my ass. Once the economy turns around (or we win the lottery, whichever comes first), Blondie and I are going to take a tour on it. And you all are going to be uber jealous. So be ready.

--K

P.S. Zephyr = gentle, mild breeze.

The Mystery House...

Blondie and I enjoyed a day of non-work on Friday, and headed down to San Jose (Do you know the way to San Jose?) to tour the Winchester Mystery House. It was INSANE. The house was owned by the heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune, and after her daughter and husband died within a short time of each other, she visited a psychic who told her to move, buy a house, start building onto it, and never stop.

She literally never stopped. It was the creepiest house in the world. There are stairs and doors to nowhere (the doors opened onto brick walls, the stairs hit the ceiling and stopped), an obsession with the number 13 (she had 13 coat hooks in the rooms, windows that had 13 panes of glass, etc), and turned all the posts in the house upside down.

There was a crescent shaped hedge growing outside the window of the room she died in. But what freaked me out the most was our tour guide. He told a story that the first day he started giving tours, he had forgotten to charge his cell phone. All day long he watched as his cell phone charged itself, and by the time he left for the day, it was completely charged. He also was standing in a doorframe and the door swung shut on it's own and smacked him in the face.

I wouldn't want to live there. Or anywhere near there.

After we did our tour, we stopped for late lunch and shopping, and then headed back to the city.

Saturday I met up with PC for drinks in the hood, and then we headed back to the pad to watch movies and continue drinking.

Sunday was a lazy day. Didn't do much of anything. Including watching football. We didn't get a single 10 am PT game on Sunday (we still don't know why). Sigh.

--K

Shame on California...

Prop H8 passed - this means that same sex couples no longer have the right to marry in the state of CA. I'm embarrassed to live here to be honest.

Marriage is a RIGHT everyone should have.

A new motto for the state of CA: "Separate but Not Equal". Lovely.


On a more pleasant note, I have today off and Blondie and I are off to San Jose to check out the Winchester Mystery House! I've promised to try and not gasp and grab the dashboard every 3 seconds on the car ride down (I'm soooo my mother), and Blondie has promised not to tailgate every car within 20 yards of us (he's sooooo his dad). :)

--K

Blah blah blah blah blah. I VOTED.

First off, the birthday was this past weekend and I wanted to thank everyone that came out to help me celebrate. My friends 100% rock, and I love you all! You guys are one of the few reasons we can't make ourselves leave the city yet!

Second, I would like to state that I actually registered and voted in an election for the first time since I was 18.

I've had several reasons why I've not voted - one being that I lived in Texas for so long, and it didn't matter what I voted, GWB was always the state of Texas' choice. Then I moved to CA, and it didn't seem to matter here, b/c CA always elects the person I think should be pres.

But this time around, there is a proposition on the ballot to ban same sex marriage rights. Which I think is just insane. Are you kidding me? Is this not the year 2008? When are we going to STOP stepping all over people's civil rights? The ONLY good thing about this proposition is that it got me off my ass, and got me to register so I could vote against it. So good job "Yes on Prop 8" people - you got 1 more voter to vote against you. :)

Off my political soapbox. Onto thinking about lunch.

LUNCH.

--K

Yo! 'Sup?

So based on Mr Pooh's incredible weight loss, Blondie and I bought the P90X program. Bootcamp was getting to be a LOT of money, and we wanted something we could do without spending a lot and that didn't require 2 miles of walking a day to get to camp and back.

It's been pretty good. I'm very sore, and while I recognize moves in the program that were part of Bikram and bootcamp, they put the moves together in interesting ways. My favorite thus far is the boxing program. Of course when we were supposed to "put sound into it!", I kept saying "Fuck! Work!"

We've been pretty low-key in the meantime. Blondie and I are both working very long hours right now, and are pretty exhausted at night.

We made it to Porn King's house for a Halloween party last night, and it was great catching up with everyone! It was supposed to be a pumpkin carving party, but they were convinced to not give drunk people knives, so we all ended up just hanging out.

Plans for this coming week include 2 overnights for work, and then a celebration on 10/30 that my sites roll into freeze for the year! Yep, come 10/30, you'll find me (and probably 75% of the company) with a flask. Coffee and Bailey's anyone?

--K

Exhausted...

I've had a sleep "thing" since I can remember. It's not insomnia, as I have absolutely 0 problem falling asleep. I can fall asleep sitting upright. I can fall asleep with the TV going, while reading a book. I can fall asleep on a hardwood floor with a regular bus going by the window of the floor I'm on (ask Shelbs!) I credit my mom with giving me this "talent". My mom can sleep anywhere. It's kind of funny sometimes.

My problem is that I can't stay asleep once I fall asleep. Every 1.5-2 hours, I'm up. And as soon as I wake up my mind starts racing.

It got worse, a lot worse, when I started working at the Despised Old Job; I blamed it then on fucked up work hours. It's still bad though, and to top it off, I work for someone currently who doesn't like to do his job and I end up having to cover.

Case in point - I'm working right now. It's become another Despised Old Job over again.

The whole point, and god knows I know you were wondering if I had one or if I was just bitching as normal, is that I've accepted a new job with my company. I'm going to get out of what I do now, and I'm starting down a different career path.

I CAN NOT WAIT. My due date to be in my new position is the end of this month, and I'm counting down seconds.

In honor of this new job, I present you with 5 stupid things I've done while exhausted:
1) Washed my hair without shampoo, and without realizing I hadn't shampoo'ed, and then spent 45 minutes wondering what the hell had happened to my hair because it was all greasy and stinky. And then had to rewash my hair.
2) Went to my bootcamp class wearing 2 different sneakers, and didn't realize I had done it until 5 minutes left in class. This was even though both shoes felt completely different on my feet.
3) Cleaned out the cat litter box, and never put new litter in. They showed their displeasure by pooping behind the TV.
4) Put my glasses on to look for my glasses. Begged Blondie for help in finding said glasses after I had scoured the room looking for them. Which prompted him to say "the glasses on your head?"
5) And the capper - at the Despised Old Job, after 2 nights of working all night, crashed the entire website ON ACCIDENT. I pushed a faulty script out, and recycled every server we had for our site at the same time. I am a rock star. An old aging rock star.

--K

Making it legal...

Blondie and I had our govt-recognized wedding ceremony 5 years ago today.

Hugs and kisses babe.
K

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I saw a hairy comedian...

Sooooooo, I managed to snag Blondie and me tickets to see Robin Williams last Monday (a week ago today). He lives in Marin - across the GGB from SF - and has been gearing up for a new tour, so he has been testing out his material.

Blondie and I got to the club super early to get in line so we could get a good seat, and while we were waiting in line, RW pulled up in his car outside the club! He literally was about 10 ft from us, messing around in the trunk of his car! I squealed like a total wuss, but Blondie kept his cool - so at least one of us didn't look like a total ass.

We ended up getting SUPER seats in the club for the show, and it turned out that RW stood directly over our table doing his bit for about 90% of the show. And let me tell you - this man is insane. He was all over the place, sweating, doing dances, spitting. Unfortunately, the sweating and spitting part happened a LOT and it didn't matter that he was literally close enough for me to touch - we got nailed by RW fluids.

BUT, the show was totally worth it. I laughed so hard my sides ached. And it was cool to be able to add him to my "Celebrity Sighting List":
1) Blue from Old School - RIP.
2) T.Flo.
3) Dave Chapelle
4) RW!

This past weekend was killer - I got called at 7:45 am yesterday morning for work, and spent most of the day trying to track down people to do things, or doing things myself (for work). I'm ready for another weekend, and I've still got 4 days to go!

--K

ALSO! COMPLETELY FORGOT!

I BEAT A HARD LEVEL GUITAR HERO SONG ON SATURDAY NIGHT!

Shelbs, Bbbb, Blondie and I had a GH playoff, and after too much vodka, I decided to give the hard level a whirl. I beat the first song I tried!

Woot! Expert level, I'm coming for you!

--K

Vacation all I ever wanted...

It's been awhile, b/c as usual, it's been busy. As usual.

So, vacation was a BLAST! We left the city on Thurs and flew to Spokane. I knew it was going to be a good trip, when on our flight from Portland to Spokane, our airline (hugs and kisses Horizon Air!) offered complimentary beer and wine! Helllllllo wine.

Spokane was beautiful and it was so good seeing mom and sis, and my cray cray uncle and aunt! We spent all of our time going back and forth between northern Idaho and Spokane. Couer d'Alene was beautiful, and I was independently wealthy, that's where I'd live. We did a "Pig Out in the Park" and enjoyed beautiful weather, a boat ride around Couer d'Alene, and a seaplane tour. I had a moment of "WTF" when it hit me that I was sitting in a brewery in northern Idaho, about 30 miles from the Canadian border, watching the UCBerkeley game.

We left Spokane on Sunday and flew back to SF to repack. On Monday we flew to Vegas. We also flew the Best.Airline.Ever. Virgin America is worth every penny you'd spend on it. We even upgraded to first class for our flights! Virgin America has personal TV's with every seat, and we spent our time watching movies, music videos, and playing video games.

Vegas was as always, the best time! We took in a Blue Man Group show, and an improv show. We spent 12 hours at the exact same craps table, at the exact same spots. We watched the fountains at Bellagio. We drank beer in the sun on the patio. Blondie told me I was the best wife ever - this was because we had just had our butts handed to us at blackjack and I was still laughing and drinking beer. :) I had a fabulous pedicure at the spa.

We left Vegas on Thurs and drove down to Sedona. OMG. We've been to Sedona before, but I forgot how beautiful that area is. We checked into our hotel and were upgraded 2 levels to a creek side cottage. I would've moved into the bathroom in that cottage and been fine. While in Sedona, we visited 2 different energy vortexes and took a helicopter tour over the red rock area. When the woman working at the helicopter tour place found out it was almost our 5 year anniversary, she gave us a 10% discount. We spent a lazy afternoon laying by the pool, before going over for complimentary beer and wine and cheese in the lobby of our hotel. We also spent an evening with an astronomer who had a giant telescope and did free astronomy lessons in the parking lot. For those who haven't been to Sedona, you can see forever out there, and with the telescope, we could even see Jupiter and it's moons!

It was good getting home though - I missed my buddies, and it felt good to crash and watch some football that Sunday. GO JETS! GO PACK!

Robin Williams (he lives in SF) did a comedy routine at one of the comedy clubs in town this past week, and Blondie went with Party C to take it in. He loved it. I was a bit bummed about not being able to go, but was also glad to be able to just crash on the couch and watch bad TV. Then, this past Friday night, I got email that Robin Williams was back, so Blondie and I are going tomorrow night to see the show!!! I can't wait!

Work was insane first week back. I'm ready to look about switching positions at my job, and have 2 in mind. One would involve a move (if everything came through), and one would still be at the SF office.

Our 5 year anniversary is coming up, and Blondie and I are thinking about visiting NYC for a week! I can work from our sister company's office while there, so I wouldn't use any vacation time, and then Blondie and I could still take in the city. And, ahem, Virgin America flies there.

That's all for now. POST SOME PICTURES BLONDIE!

--K

5 hours 12 minutes, and counting.

VACATIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Spokane tonight through Sunday, Vegas Monday through Thurs, and Sedona Thurs through Sat!

Notice how work is not involved in any of this????? :)

--K

Also...

A congrats to the Pooh family! Their second daughter will be joining the family in January. Looking forward to meeting little baby girl Pooh, and glad the family is doing okay!

--K

Guitar Hero!!!!

Blondie surprised me with Guitar Hero last week, and I've spent the last 4 days rocking it out. I totally BEAT the easy level (woot!) and am now working on perfecting my skills in Practice Round while slowly starting to play medium level songs. It is so much fun - and I even unlocked Slash and earned enough money to make him my guitar man.

The weekend was pretty good - I had to spend 8 hours working on Saturday, but other than that, Blondie and I had a lovely weekend doing absolutely nothing.

Vacation starts Thurs afternoon - I am so excited I can't hardly stand it! We are off to Spokane through Sunday, and then Vegas/Sedona from Mon-Sat.

NO WORK!!!!

Congrats to the fabulous VU! Her baby boy was born this past weekend and he is a definite cutie!

--K

Merry Birthday!!! It's "Happy". "Happy Birthday".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR POOH! Hope you have a great day, and get lots of good gifts, and have a fun time celebrating!

--K

Da bears... Da lake...

It's a good thing Blondie is so darn cute, b/c he can sure be so darn stubborn. I've been bugging Blondie for over a week now to post about our Chi-town trip, and he keeps resisting, so it's up to Yours Truly to fill everyone in.

2 weekends ago, Blondie and I took a trip to Bear-Land. We went to hang out with the G-clan in a small town about 40 miles out of Chicago. And we had a blast! I got to meet Blondie's 2 nieces - Kenny G and Baby Rhi Rhi. They were 2 little balls of cuteness, even when they were crying. We got to eat some Lou Malnati's which is the end all of Chicago pizza. We got to play some whacked out card games (Sheepshead I'm looking at you). We got to play some BEER DARTS! But most importantly, we all just got to hang out and catch up.

This past weekend, Blondie and I and 10 of our friends drove up to Lake Berryessa (it's about 10 minutes north of Napa). We got in on Friday night, and did a whole lot of camping and drinking. Saturday morning found Yours Truly rather *green*. It was atrocious. On top of that, the closest toilets were porta-potties, which just made the whole experience that much more atrocious. Saturday afternoon we rented a boat and hung out the rest of the day on the boat. We did some grilling, some drinking, some swimming. Yours Truly managed tp get stung by a bee (honestly, a bee, in the middle of a freaking lake). We grilled out Saturday night, and on Sunday we all got up and had a few mid-morning beverages before making our way back to SF.

The best part of this though had to be on Friday night leaving the city. The fog had rolled in and it was just awful and COLD, and we finally just start to get over GG Bridge, and literally, the fog lifted in like a matter of 50 feet, and it was sunny and GORGEOUS on the Marin side of the bridge.

Got to love SF. Even if you hate it.

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

A 1 day late birthday wish to Brother R, and a current birthday wish to Sis! Hope you guys have (had in Brother R's case) great birthdays!!!!

Love

K and S

Bretty.... Bretty.... Bretty and the Jets....

Wanted: 1 Large woman's Jets t-shirt.

Why: someone who has never cared a lick about the Jets now has to.

--K

P.S. But still, go pack go!

Give it up for Blondie!!!!

The SF Half Marathon was yesterday, and Blondie SMOKED through the course in a blazing 2:09:07 - which is rock star good! This is almost 15 minutes faster than his time last year, and this course was WAY hillier than last year's half.

I ran my half in 2:55:16 - under 3 hours which was my goal! In addition, mine was 15 minutes faster than the half last year also!

Achingly yours
--K

All about VACATION...

Flying all night sucks, especially when about 15 minutes after the plane takes off, it hits you that you never followed up on a task you assigned to someone else (a new someone else) and are pretty sure that the item that needs to happen in 3 hours isn't going to happen b/c there will be no paperwork to support it.

And then you land and turn on your phone and sure as shit, there is voicemail asking where all the paperwork is.

And then you have to run around O'Hare frantically calling back certain people and walking them through verbally what needs to happen and swearing up and down that the new someone else will submit after the fact paperwork.

But then it's over, and vacation has officially started, and ahhhhhh, it's worth it.

We made a trip for a day to hang with the V's in IN. We had a blast. Their new home is beautiful, and they took us on a tour of an LST which Blondie LOVED. Then they took us to the casino, which Yours Truly LOVED, seeing as how I walked away with over $230 in profits in an hours time. THEN they took us for BBQ - Blondie about cried in gratitude, and after that, we picked up the mixings for margs before crashing in front of their fire pit and making S'Mores. All in all a blast.

The next day we made the trek back to KY to visit the fam. The Cutest Kid in the World had the entire family cracking up as she attempted to drive her pink Power Ranger jeep, and then I had everyone cracking up as I attempted to fit Shugs' motorcycle helmet over top of my gargantuan head. I braved a ride on Brother R's motorcycle, we had a BBQ with the whole family, I think The Cutest Kid In the World bonded with me (FINALLY!), we enjoyed the heat, and we played many rounds of cards/games. It was sooooo good to visit again!

This week has been catching back up at work. Oh Yay. My favorite thing. Tonight we are off to celebrate Bbbb's new job, and his final week of "easy getting to work job" before he heads off to south bay to work. Pedi plans with Party C on thurs, and then many many many hours of sleep this weekend.

--K

V. A. C. A. T. I. O. N!

Smart people... stupid ideas...

Party C and I decided that it would be a fabulous idea to drink 5 bottles of wine between the 2 of us yesterday. I'm sweating wine today.

So things have been trucking along here in SF. I moved offices last week, and my new office has these things called "windows" (my old office did not have those; and by that I mean, ANYWHERE ON THE ENTIRE FLOOR). I love the "windows". Natural light is my friend.

My new office also ditched the dress code we had, so I'm back to living in jeans for the first time in 1.5 years.

Also, Blondie and I decided to take some much needed vacation! We leave this Wed night for a weekend of hanging with various family. I'm pretty psyched about it, and really really really really really ecstatic about having 4 days off from work. WOOT!

I might have more good news on the job front coming up - I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow for 2 reasons:
a) 3 day work week
b) I have to find out what's going on with a certain someone I work with - I heard a rumor on the elevator out of the building on Friday and need to confirm what the hell is going on (the rumor was a good one!)

That's all for now - I have to go back to sweating wine now. Apparently it's my full-time job today.

--K

Happy 4th!

Happy 3 days late anniversary to the fabulous Mississippi Queen! Hope you guys had a wonderful day!

The 4th was actually a completely crap weather day. Blondie and I got up and went for brunch in our hood. We sat there for awhile batting ideas back and forth about what we wanted to do, but finally decided to head over to the de Young museum in GGP to see the Chilhuly exhibit. The walk over was nice, but it was *completely* misting outside, so we were soaked when we got there.

The exhibit ROCKED though. Dale Chilhuly is a glass blower, and the exhibit was his glass pieces. It was insane. I felt like I was floating underwater the entire time.

I also felt like I was going to fall the entire time and take down millions of dollars worth of glass, so yeah, that wasn't the best. But I didn't fall!

After the exhibit, we wandered through the rest of the museum. I, of course, had to laugh at all the penises in the Oceania exhibits - I laughed until I realized they were all fertility statues, and I need to back away ASAP unless some of that power rubbed off on me.

Then there was a brass band playing in the music area afterwards, so Blondie and I chilled there for awhile. We listened to Yankee Doodle Dandy like 5 times in a row before we left to head over to the Inner Sunset for lunch.

All in all, it was a great day - even the rain didn't put a damper on it.

On Saturday it was much nicer. We met up with Shelbs and Bbbb, and their siblings to see the Fillmore Jazz Festival.

Yesterday was spent fighting off "Sunday Dread" - it's been much worse since my boss left 3 mos ago, and now, after turning down my other job, it was in FULL SWING yesterday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Yay for 3 days off in a row!

--K

What's been happening...

About 3 weeks ago, I interviewed with another company here in the SF area - they had found me via a website that I'm on and had asked if I'd be interested in interviewing. Ironically, they are a .com also and I use their site frequently (unlike my current job and my despised old job). I went in for an interview and enjoyed everyone I met, and they liked me also.

About 2 weeks ago, I got promoted to Senior Release Engineer at my current job. This was unexpected and a nice surprise. It came with a fat raise so that also was a good thing. Because I like money. And food. But you know, money.

Last week I interviewed a 2nd time with the other company and they extended a job offer.

I turned them down today. I have no idea if I made the right decision, but my way of thinking was that since I didn't know if I should switch jobs (especially after the promotion/raise), then I probably wasn't ready to leave my current job.

I had a little sob fest here after I turned them down. I am just HOPING LIKE CRAZY this was the right thing to do. If not, well, I survived 5 years at the despised old job, so you know, I can go on. Gah - I totally sound like I'm vying for an Oscar or something.

If you have any thoughts on this, or you know, want to just tell me I did the right thing even if you don't know it was the right thing; or hell, if you want to tell me I did the right thing even if you know it's the wrong thing, I'm all for it.

Dreading 3 more days of work... Dreading 30 years to retirement...

--K

CRAPPIEST AUNT EVER!!!!

The Cutest Kid in the World's birthday was today, and Yours Truly forgot to give her a call to wish her a happy birthday.

Sooo.... deep breath... say it with me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CKITW!!!! I love you with my whole heart, and wish I could be there to celebrate with you. I hope you enjoyed your pizza dinner!!!!

Hugs and kisses Cutey Cuterson!
--K

I. Need. A. Breather!

So my 2 am start time last week went not the best. Several *extremely* high-ups at my company joined the call, and it was a very strenuous 5 hours of dealing with a lot of questioning about how and why things were being done. I guess I came through okay, b/c my boss' boss' boss (3 up) sent email later on that day telling me that he had heard I was great on the call, professional and accomodating, and that I had made my team look very good.

Some other things have happened on the work front lately also - things that I will try to post about at a later date.

The weekend was extremely good - I had a reason to celebrate, so I met up with my coworkers from My Despised Old Job on Friday night for drinks and dinner at my fav Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, Blondie and I invited everyone back to our house to hang out for a bit longer.

Saturday, Blondie and I had a date day. We went and got vegetarian rolls at my favorite sushi restaurant, and picked up some videos afterwards to watch. Semi-Pro is hysterically funny, whereas Cloverfield was funny when it wasn't supposed to be.

On Sunday, I was feeling lucky. So I drug Blondie up to San Pablo to go to a casino. It 100% TOTALLY SUCKED HAIRY B*LLS! OMG. Never have been to a worse casino in my life, and I've been to some pretty bad ones. Shreveport, I'm looking at you. However, Blondie and I still managed to have a pretty good time.

My other coworker left for 3 weeks of vacation starting today, so I'm still swamped for awhile right now. I think I just need some vacation time, and hopefully can plan a few days for sometime in July.

--K

Lahhhhh lahhhh lahhhhh....

I'll start by getting it out of the way - it's been an insane few days again with work. I had to work at 4 am on Sunday, and have a 2:30 am start tomorrow morning. It makes me want to cry a little, especially b/c, as we all know, I don't really like my job.

At least I had a good Friday and Saturday to make up for the crap Sunday.

I joined Blondie on Friday afternoon in the Inner Sunset to just tool around for awhile. I needed new running shoes, and that's where my running shop is so we just met up and hung out. We stopped afterwards and picked up some movies and some hummus and went home and just snacked all night long.

Saturday we ran some errands in the morning before stopping at Walgreens, which was a mistake b/c I went down the candy aisle and of course had to by a candy bar and some Nerds. After that it was over to Say Cheese for the yumminess that is their sandwiches. Sigh.

Other than that though, one word can describe Blondie and I right now = "Lame".

--K

BUSY

So yes, I've been busy. It's been *insane* at work lately. However, there might be good news, really good news, on that front in the next few weeks, so check back for updates on that.

Last weekend was pretty good. Let me just start by saying "I HEART SUMMER FRIDAYS!" Honestly, my life is so much better from the period of Memorial Day to Labor Day b/c of this. Ahhhh.... summer fridays.... my new BFF.

I managed to con Blondie into picking me up from my bus stop last Friday, and we went and ran some errands. One of those errands happened to involve another BFF of ours - that BFF is named "hummus and pita bread". After our late afternoon snack, we headed down to the bar in the hood to say goodbye to Wonderbutt. She's moving to New Zealand in a week, and it sounds like it's going to be really exciting.I cut out early b/c I was suffering some severe exhaustion from the week - I did manage to stop by the corner store on the way home to buy a pint of ice cream, so yay for me.

Saturday Blondie and I met up with my running group for a jaunt through GGP. I love running through GGP - there are so many things to look at (windmills, bison fields, museums, tai chi classes, THE OCEAN), and it makes the time zoom by. I ran 7 miles exactly and Blondie did 9.3 (thanks Garmin watches!)

The weather on Saturday was disgusting so after our run, we decided to just crash out in the apartment. We spent all day watching movies, and it was fabulous.

On Sunday we got out and got our grocery shopping and some other errands done. We hit Safeway-by-the-Ocean for our grocery shop, and made the amazing discovery that this Safeway sells Bud+Clamato (beer and clam juice in a can). Yeah. I spent 5 mins holding back dry heaves after I saw that.

Then on Sunday we were joined by Mr B to the bbbb for some more watching of movies and just hanging out. I decided to take a nap for 2 hours while Blondie and Bbbb watched TV, but other than that, we had a blast.

Work has been hellacious for several weeks now and this week is no exception. I'm so busy I barely have time to breathe - and the average time I get to heat up my lunch is about 2:15 pm every day. Boo hoo right?

--K

Catching you all up...

Memorial Day Weekend was a MUCH needed break from the grind of the job. 3 days off was *glorious*, although I did have to work for a couple of hours on Saturday and Monday.

This past Friday also started summer hours at work - 1 pm end time with no making up time. However, that also didn't happen exactly as planned, but 3 pm found me with some of my coworkers having a beverage in honor of the long weekend!

Friday night, I collapsed when I got home and slept for 12 straight hours. The weather on Saturday was yucky, so Blondie and I took it easy - we got our laundry and grocery shopping done, and then just relaxed in front of the TV. I did get myself a nice pedicure on Saturday - since it was rainy weather, I thought I'd get a nice lemony yellow color to cheer myself up. However, I didn't really check out the nail polish, so my nice lemony yellow is actually "French's Mustard". Blondie walked around on Saturday going "Nice yellow toes!" every 5 secs. :) Thanks Blondie!

Sunday was much nicer. Shelbs and Bbbb picked us up and we headed to Marin to relax on the beach for awhile. We hit up Stinson Beach, and then headed to The Pelican Inn for a few drinks and some lunch.

Monday was back to doing nothing, and it was needed as this week has been insane.

Frazzedly yours,
--K

A Party for Party C!

Happy birthday PC! Hope you have a fantabulous day!!!!

--K and S

B2B... Speedy peeps...

Blondie and I set out to run the Bay To Breakers 12K (7.46 miles) race on Sunday. This race takes you from downtown by the SF bay, all the way across town to the Pacific Ocean. We both rocked it out. I only had to walk a tiny portion of the 11.15% grade hill that came between miles 2.5 and 3 - and was able to run the rest (1:32:11). Blondie of course, ran the entire thing and rocked it out!!!!

The thing about B2B is that 60,000 people set out to do this thing, but only about 25,000 finish it - the rest get TRASHED along the course. So after we finished the race, Blondie and I walked the 4 miles from the ocean back to our 'hood and hung out with Party C, Wonderbutt, and few other friends to watch everyone else come through.

I got passed by naked men who were running. That's right. Completely butt naked. Everything flopping around. They still passed me.

Ouch. That's all I have to say.

Blondie and I had taken last Thurs and Fri off of bootcamp in order to be rested for the race on Sunday, so today was our first day back. Monday was the start of a new camp, and was initial assessment for the new people. So today we show up thinking we'd be doing a class, but we ended up having to take the run test today.

15:38!!!! 1.5 miles in 15:38! That's CRAZY good for me! That's also 1:26 faster than last time I did the run test (thanks running group!)

But the incredible news is Blondie - who did his 1.5 miles in 12:08!!!!

I think we are most proud of the fact that we ran our fastest times today, 2 days after we did a 7.5 mile run with a 4 mile walk back to our apt after.

Go us!

--K

The birthday boy... and some major news!!!!

Blondie convinced me to stay home yesterday and celebrate his birthday with him! I hope he had a great day, b/c I know I did. I did have to work, but it was a manageable day - so I also got to spend a lot of time with Blondie.

We went down to Kezar Pub for lunch so that Blondie could have some chicken wings, and ended up watching soccer playoffs with a bunch of people while chowing down on our grub. It was great fun - everyone was yelling and screaming, and saying Fuck a lot (the team that everyone wanted to win wasn't winning).

Afterwards, we headed to the grocery so I could buy some cake mix and make some cupcakes for Blondie, and then it was home to pop in Eurotrip and laugh ourselves sick.

Shelbs and Bbbb drove to the Haight and met up with us for some Greek food. We had a blast - and it was really good getting to catch up with them.

So, again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLONDIE!


Major news.... The Cutest Kid in the World, v4.0, is due in January!!!! Mr and Mrs Pooh (aka Happy Skittles) are now expecting their 2nd (the 4th total - hence v4.0 - between me and Blondie). Congrats to the Pooh family, and can't wait to meet the newest addition to the family!

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLONDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHOMP!

Happy happy (almost) birthday!!!!

So, my favorite man in the world is having a big giant birthday on Monday. I just wanted to let everyone know in advance, b/c this birthday is a big one.

Blondie and I have been having a celebration week b/c of the birthday also. We went and saw Ironman on Wed night - that was a really good movie! I had to laugh b/c it seems like the 80's stars are on a comeback right now (Jon Cryer - 2 and a Half Men; Patrick Dempsey - McDreamy of course; and now Robert Downey Jr). Who's next?

Last night we went for our favorite deep dish pizza. It was so fantastic. Fantastic until this morning when all 5 tons of food I inhaled last night decided to rise up on my way to bootcamp. I spent 20 minutes talking myself out of yakking.

Tonight Blondie and I are joining our bootcamp group to take in the SF Giants game! If the Giants win, it will make our record of going to the games and having them win spotless.

Tomorrow we are going with my running group to CS Reservoir again for an 8 (6???) mile run and then afterwards are finally headed to San Jose to see the Winchester Mystery House!

Sunday, we will sleep.

Happy Friday all! And Happy Almost Birthday Blondie!!!

--K

Too much vodka... not enough non-vodka...

Work party Friday night + hanging with Sweetie J and Party C afterwards + sooooooo NOT used to drinking anymore = green Yours Truly on Saturday morning.

Blondie and I skipped running with the running group on Saturday because the only thing I could think about Saturday morning was bagels. Bagels to sop up the vodka rolling around in my gut.

Blondie drug me out to Crystal Springs Reservoir on Sunday morning though - it's about 20 minutes south of SF, and it's a paved out-and-back, 12 mile roundtrip course.

I managed to actually run an entire 10K (6.2 miles) - I used to run 6+ miles on the treadmill back when I was in great shape, but never could do that distance outdoors. I used to sign up for 10K's and have to run/walk them. But I managed to run it all on Sunday, and run it faster than I've ever done a 10K. I was ecstatic.

Of course Blondie ripped out 10 miles in only 30 minutes more than my paltry 6.2 but that's okay. He's got longer legs than me.

The most exciting part of the run though was the wildlife. I was on my way back to the parking lot, and there was a baby deer alongside the path, just chilling. I couldn't stop staring at it (almost tripped over my own feet there) b/c I couldn't believe how close I was to him! It's times like this I wish I had little cat leashes and could drag them for a run with me - how much would Tigga and Max (okay, just Tigga) loved to see the deer!

--Boring K.

Happy Birthday Mississippi Queen!

2 days early of course! Hope you have a great birthday weekend!

--K and S

Red is not my color...

So, again, SF was hit with a wave of summer this weekend. As gorgeous as it was 2 weekends ago, it was about 10 times better this weekend. It looks like it's shaping up outside to be another beautiful day. And poor Blondie is in Land of Cheese, where the weather was not cooperating. Sigh. Poor Blondie.

I met up with my running partner (RP) on Saturday morning for a jaunt through GG Park. I wore my running pants (they come to just below my knees) and a short sleeved t-shirt, and was *sweating* by the time I got there. Which wouldn't be such a big deal, but it's only a mile walk and it's all downhill. We did 4.22 miles and we made pretty good time. I was pretty happy about how well we did.

After I got back from the run, I did a bit of work and then I had the most wonderful Saturday ever. I know you are thinking "wow, what did she do??? she must've done something fabulous!" and I'm here to tell you - it's true, I did do something fabulous. I opened up the windows in the apartment, laid down on the couch, and didn't move for the next 12 hours.

Sunday I ended up working for several hours in the morning, and then drug my lazy ass down the hill to the gym and over to the grocery after. I was starting my routine from the day before when Shelbs called. We ended up going out to Pacifica and crashing out on the beach for awhile. Which leads to the title of the post - I ended up lying on my stomach most of the time, and the back of my legs and shoulders are FRIED. And they HURT. People - I look ridiculous. Luckily, the burns are in places I can cover up, but I know what I look like underneath my clothes (thank your lucky stars *for whatever reasons* that you don't know that feeling).

Today was running day in bootcamp and I rocked it out. I actually got sent with the fast part of the beginner's group for a much longer run than the other half - this is the first time that has happened. I even managed to keep up with them. Of course, they chatted they entire time and I kind of panted in their direction, but hey, I did it!!!

--K

Ugh

It's my boss' last day at work today. I'm really going to miss her - she is flaky, and kooky, and a bit weird, but she is also (it took me a few months to get it) smart, opinionated, and fiercely loyal. I'm going to miss her.

The week has been pretty low key. Blondie flew out on Wed to the Land of Cheese to visit his fam, and meet his 2 nieces for the first time. We are already having "Cutest Kid in the World" wars.

I've been busy working my ass off, and working out. I have plans this weekend to do NOTHING. I have to do some minor grocery shopping, and maybe a run tomorrow, but other than that, I'm sleeping, watching bad TV, and reading. Maybe I'll take a bubble bath.

--K

1 day early...

But tomorrow my favorite Shelbs in the world gets 1 year older.

Happy Birthday Shelby Shelbs!!!! It seems like only yesterday I was getting scary emails from you that said "I can see you through the crack".

And I'll leave the rest of the you to wonder what she was talking about (i.e. what we were smoking).

--K

Ready for summer...

SF went into premature summertime this past weekend. It was insanely beautiful. I wore shorts for the first time in 1.5 years and actually sweated even with those on. Of course, I sweat anyway - I sweat when it's 10 degrees outside - but this was actual sweat caused by the sun!

I got stuck working the release from hell this past weekend so Blondie and I just took it easy on Friday night. Saturday, we drove out to the beach and crashed for a few hours. My allergies - as I've mentioned - suck, and so as soon as we dropped our blanket on the sand, I crawled onto it and fell asleep. And woke up with the most glorious farmer's tan (red lower arms, white upper arms) that you've seen in awhile.

After our beach-capade, we headed over to the NV to meet up with Shelbs and Bbbb for a late lunch/early dinner and to check out their new car! It was very good catching up with them, and wish we could've stayed longer, but I had a hot date with a bag of Swedish Fish.

Sunday, we hit the gym (in shorts) and the grocery, and then came back home so I could work all afternoon. It ended up being a good thing, b/c about 2 pm, the wind and clouds came rolling in and bye bye to summer.

My boss turned in her 2 week notice on Monday - this was a sad day for me. I'm very worried about how the job is going to go without her there (I don't think it's going to go well at all). We went out for drinks last night, to just chat about how things were going to be. I skipped dinner b/c Blondie had met me for a big lunch, and well, no regular drinking anymore + 3 beers + no dinner made for a really grouchy, upset stomachy Yours Truly this morning.

I took it out on the hills today (it's hill day in bootcamp - which means exactly that, you run a lot of hills) and am feeling much better now. Now if only I could shake this craving for pizza...

--K

My day thus far... Or, this is not a joke.

1) Waiting on my bus today (my train had delays this morning and it showed with the 19 minute wait predicted when I got to my stop), crossing the street, a gentleman in polka dot shorts, striped shirt, suspenders and a jaunty green cap.

2) STILL waiting on my bus (and I only waited 5 mins for my bus), a gentleman (of the night maybe) also crossing the street wearing a white suit, white shoes, a white hat, and leopard print fur jacket down to his knees and walking with a cane.

3) After I got downtown, a "something" dressed in bright blue crocs, purple muumuu, with tattoos all over his bald head of curls. That's right. Someone tattoo'ed his head with curls. Green curls.

I feel like shit today too - I'm exhausted and my allergies are rocking - so now I'm sitting here wondering if I hallucinated the entire morning. But I know I didn't.

Yay for SF!

--K

Faster than a speeding bullet...

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's BLONDIE!!! Blondie rocked out his 10K this past weekend, and did it in 57:02, which is amazing considering the first 2.5 miles were uphill. The race took us over the GG Bridge, which is actually not flat. No sirree. It's uphill and downhill x 2 (we ran over and back). Anyway, this is an amazing time, and I'm so happy for Blondie!

I did mine in 1:22:45, which is okay. I'm content with it. I had pulled a muscle in my right inner thigh last Thurs while working out with the advanced group, and I was still having a serious problem with it yesterday, so I feel quite happy with how I did. Not only did I come out knowing I was not feeling right, I also knocked off 6.2 miles. Now of course, if I could do it as fast as Blondie.... ;)

The rest of the weekend was incredibly lame. I've also been fighting allergies and have been taking Claritin - it's supposed to be non-drowsy, but I swear they spike it with Morphine. I pop a pill and 30 minutes later I'm drooling I'm so out of it. So the time not spent running (or grocery shopping) was spent sleeping. I'm sure Blondie loved that!

Plans for the week include:
1) Lunch with Blondie today! He's downtown doing a resume writing class and is meeting me afterwards for grubbity grub.
2) NCAA final game tonight (go Memphis I guess - I don't really care at this point about who wins, but just want to watch it).
3) Drinks with Sweetie J, Party C, and Blondie tomorrow night. It's been a long time since I've seen Sweetie J, and am excited to catch up with her.
4) Bootcamp new session started today. Between my 10K yesterday and my stupid inner thigh problem (how tacky is that), it sucked this morning. But that's okay - I still loved it even though it sucked.

--K

No excuses...

This week was our week in between bootcamp sessions - I think they add in a week off every so often to give their trainers a vacation (well deserved vacation). Anyway, for those who don't want to take off, they hold a "No Excuses" week, and instead of having 3 different levels of classes, everyone works out together.

I know myself, and I knew that if I didn't do this week with bootcamp, I would get absolutely 0 exercise in. So I joined up. And worked out all week with the advanced trainer. And am 100% sorer today than I've been since I started bootcamp. It's insane. We did exercises I've never done, we ran further and faster than I have done in awhile, we worked ourselves to the point of exhaustion (the trainer actually said today that working out is the one area you want to fail at - muscle failure that is).

So yeah. If the beginner group was as intense as the advanced group, I'd lose 50 lbs in 3 weeks I swear. However, after this week, I also recognize that I'm in no way, shape or form, ready to move out of my group yet.

Holy crap people. I hurt.

Last night Blondie and I made it out with one of the guys who works out in Blondie's group - we went with him and his wife for dinner, and had a really good time. I made it out past 8:30 (which is my standard bed time anymore), so that had to count for something.

On Fridays, with work, I have to actually go into the store to do part of my job. The path that I take through the store is always right by the Bare Escentuals counter, and it's always crowded. I keep thinking, since Mrs Pooh loves Bare Escentuals so much, that I should at least check it out, but everytime I'm in there, there are too many people so I always skip it. Today it was dead empty and one of the women working there was like "Hey! You should come over and let me do a makeover on you!" So yeah. I got myself a makeover. And then I bought all the stuff she used on me.

My skin looks freaking fantastic though.

--K

I've got nothing today...

So here are just random thoughts from my head. Yay.

Most important of all - Blondie has been seeing his doctor consistently since the Thanksgiving incident. He had a follow up appt yesterday, and it went EXTREMELY well. His cholesterol and triglycerides have *considerably* dropped since last time. His blood pressure is back to normal, and his weight has dropped a lot also. Blondie did this all in 6 weeks!!!! GOOOOO Blondie!

I started up a 2 day a week "bootcamp" with some of the women in the 6 am class. We are working out Wednesday at 6 am (sob) and either Saturday or Sunday, in addition to the normal bootcamp. Today was my first day meeting them - we are doing this b/c we are all training for a half or full marathon. I had such a good time that I even forgot I had gotten up at 5! We did a lot of sprints (1.75 miles total, half of which was sprinting) and push-ups/dips (this was at Kezar so we did these up and down the bleachers). They ran the Nike Half last year also, but did their race 30 minutes faster than mine, so I know that training with them will 100% get me a better time for my half this year!

They also talked me (and subsequently Blondie) into running the Presidio 10K this Sunday. We start out on Crissy Field and run along the water and into the Presidio, UP UP UP and over the GG Bridge and back, and then back down to the starting point. I'm a bit nervous - I did a 6.2 mile run this past Sunday in about 1:16, so I'm hoping that I can mimic that time, but I know the hills are going to be a lot steeper for this course.

After the race though, is FREE FOOD and FREE BOOZE (not that the free booze matters anymore), but damn. I saw "pancakes" on the website, and thought "well F me, I guess I'm registering". Pancakes. OMG. This reminds me of when I used to do the Run to Joe's in FtW for the free beer and mexican food they had after.

Yep, that's me. No matter what I do, I've still got food on the brain.

Thankfully pancakes are vegetarian.

--K

Run test!!!!

I did the 1.5 mile timed run test in 17:04 (23 secs less than last time). I'm quite pleased, especially since we didn't run the test in our normal spot. Usually, we hit Kezar stadium and do 6 laps around it for 1.5 miles - nice, flat, paved, smooth Kezar stadium.

Today we hit Stowe Lake - and ran around the island in the middle. On dirt trails, with roots sticking out, rocks sticking out, dodging squirrels (no freaking joke) and dogs, and old men playing "dirt golf" (literally, he was just swinging his golf club at dirt). And there were hills. And weird bridges in front of the waterfall that we had to run over.

So yay! Yay for Yours Truly!

Blondie is moving up to Advanced group with the next session, so he went ahead and exercised today with the Advanced group instead of doing the run test. He rocked it out - and was actually faster than a lot of the people who have been in that class already! GOOOOOO Blondie!

Weekend plans:
1) Watch Wisconsin WIN today.
2) Run out to the ocean and back on Saturday (starting preparing for my half-marathon).
3) Headed to Porn King's apartment on Saturday night to help GirlfriendJ celebrate her birthday.
4) Bikram on Sunday.
5) NCAA games everday.

Possibly drive to San Jose to see the Winchester Mystery House (woot!) It's a house built by the wife of the founder of Winchester Rifle, she kept adding on rooms to nowhere, staircases to nowhere, etc. It looks freaky!

--K

Yay! And Pbbbbtttt!

Yay - Blondie is now an uncle x 2! Little baby girl RG was born yesterday afternoon to proud parents Nate Dawg and Mrs G! Blondie now has 2 nieces, and is going back to the Land of Cheese to visit in a few weeks. Congrats fam!

Pbbbbtttt - we had the first part of our final assessment for this session of bootcamp - it was not good (running will be done tomorrow):
Flex: 24" (.5" more)
Pushups: 23 (1 more)
Situps: 40 (7 LESS)

--K

Feeling strong today.

I just registered Blondie and me for the San Francisco Half-Marathon (2nd half)! It runs August 3rd, and starts in GG Park, goes through Haight-Ashbury, the Mission, Potrero Hill, and ends up in South Beach. I'm extremely psyched about this - and am hoping like cuh-razy that I can beat my time for the Nike Women's half last year (3 hours, 10 minutes).

I made it a goal for myself to run a half this year in under 2 hours, 30 minutes. I'm going to be signing up for another half on my birthday (!!! - what a birthday gift) and hopefully that will be the one I beat that time on.

But the San Francisco Half - let's just say that with my bootcamp and how I feel right now, I'm feeling good about getting under 3 hours!

--K

Helloooo party people!

Or Monday people. Or just people. Or people who don't feel like people b/c it's Monday and we all know those suck.

So, ahem. Duke lost! Yay! So did KY, but that's okay. B/c they were ranked 11 in their bracket unlike Duke who was ranked 2. And lost.

Blondie and I hit beach bootcamp again this week - I found it much easier than the last time we went. This time, we stayed on the wet sand, not the soft dry sand. Bootcamp tries to make working out not so much about working out, but more about having fun while moving your body - and one of their taglines is something along the lines of "Golden Gate Park - your playground". I always have kind of ignored that, b/c I'm me, and if I can be miserable while doing something, why not be miserable? Why be happy? (Pessimist - all the way). Anyway, on Saturday, it hit me that I was working out on the edge of the Pacific Ocean - I couldn't concentrate on how bad I was feeling, b/c instead I had to concentrate on not getting hit by the water as it rolled in. And besides the roar of the ocean was loud, so I couldn't hear my breathing. IT TOTALLY ROCKED.

The rest of the weekend was kind of lazy - we watched a ton of NCAA games, and went for a hike into the park by our apartment on Sunday. We both just needed out of the house, so we tromped around on the trails for a bit. BTW - there are tennis courts in that park. I had NO idea.

--K

I'm Rick James, bitch!

Thanks to an early morning text from Party C, Blondie and I got tickets to see Mr Dave Chappelle in person on Saturday night at a comedy club here in SF!!!! We joined Party C and WB, and H&S, for a truly hysterical night. This man is FUNNY. My side ached so bad from laughing so hard for so long, and I literally thought I had peed myself at one point (I hadn't, thank god). OMG. What an excellent evening!

I'm making that a celebrity sighting. Party C, WB, and H got their picture taken with him after the show, but I didn't go over, b/c I was afraid my KY roots would show through and I'd be all "I LOVE YOU DAVE! Autograph my chest!"

Last night, Blondie and I walked over to the Inner Sunset to our favorite sushi restaurant for some veggie rolls. Last time we were there, our waitress had recommended a roll on the fish list that could be made vegetarian (Vegetarian Shangrila), and wow - that shit was good! So last night we decided to head back over and partake in some more veggie goodness.

I was worried b/c this morning I woke up still full from last night - and heading to bootcamp, just made me more aware of how jostling around the food was in my gut. But my run rocked - everything felt great today (unlike last week).

And finally, I'm getting the mop chopped off this afternoon. I'm saying goodbye to my hippie hair and getting back my usual do.

--K

Sunny days... chasing the clouds away...

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to San Francisco?

Sunny gorgeous weekend yet again. BEAUTIFUL. Warm.

Spent Saturday morning with my Blondie cleaning our home. I don't even know why we bother - 1.5 days after a massive cleaning, and cat fur has accumulated so much you think we had a "cat fur floor" instead of a hardwood floor.

Spent Saturday midday grocery shopping, and then grocery shopping again when we realized we bought all the stuff to make guacamole, but didn't buy the chips to eat it with.

Spent Saturday afternoon hanging at Dolores Park with the loverly couple of Shelbs and Bbbb.

Spent Sunday morning avoiding our yoga instructor, which was kind of hard considering the room is small and there were very few of us there for class (yay for time change!)

Spent Sunday afternoon dancing around the clean apartment, forcing the cats to be our dance partners. They hate us for life now.

Spent Sunday evening with Party C who is now no longer a blondie herself but is a reddie. LOVE THE HAIR!!!!! LOVED THE DRINKS!!!!

Spent Monday morning cursing myself for having a love/hate relationship with running. I hated it today, but loved it last week, but hated it the week before... lah lah lah.

And finally, spent today moaning about how old I've gotten - the run today made me supa sore (Supa! WC!), and I had to spend time recalling how "spry" I used to be.

Love.
K Dawg.

Happy day... Sad day... Randomness..

Happy day! My dear friend WC, the most fabulous Mississippi Queen alive, is preggers! This makes me an honorary aunt, but at least I'm a sober honorary aunt now so I won't scar the poor child for life. Congratulations WC and Lil Bean! Lil Bean... haha... that still makes me laugh.

Sad day :( Brett Favre has left the building. He announced his retirement from the Packers this morning. Sigh.

Randomness... Feel better soon Brother R. And only 3.5 days and counting Mr Pooh!

--K

49 minutes down, 39 hours and 11 minutes to go...

I love Mondays.

Blondie and I had a great weekend. We have decided to start doing things we don't normally do but keep saying we want to do. It's an original idea, I'm very aware, and probably a lot of people are going to steal this idea, but that's okay. I'm okay with stealing.

So, anyhoo, we started on Saturday morning with bootcamp! I know, I know - we do bootcamp 4 (Yours Truly) and 3 (Blondie) days a week, so this *shouldn't* be something new - but it is. Saturday bootcamp is done on the beach. So we spent a grueling hour running back and forth in soft sand, doing pushups, sprints, situps before heading over to run a ton of steps. It was worth it though - we had some incredible views and the weather was peachy keen.

Our original plan for after bootcamp had been to go to the farmer's market, the supermarket, and then to hike Mt. Tam. However, after the torture session, we quickly modified our plan to go to the supermarket and go home.

Sunday, we made it to Mt Tam. It was again, an incredibly beautiful day, and the view of the city from the top of Mt Tam took my breath away at points. We did a 3 mile hike, complete with a peanut-butter sandwich picnic, before heading on home.

Sunday night, I got to meet up with Party C for a few drinky drinks - well deserved drinky drinks. We kept it to 2 beers each (I think we deserve a medal for this), and I was fast asleep by 9:30 pm.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. It's going to be another insanely sunny day out there today, and being inside is like pulling teeth for me. Here's hoping to an early leave time today!

--K

BLONDIE IS AN UNCLE!!!!

Blondie's brother and sis-in-law, D&MG, had their baby girl yesterday! Welcome to the world Kenny G (her name lends well to this nickname).

She's a definite cutie with a full head of jet-black hair like her mom.

If Blondie can get his brother's permission (cough cough - that means Blondie, get permission!), I'll post some of her pics up!

Congrats D&MG, and Kenny G!

--K

What's this from?

Bears...

Beets....

Battlestar Gallactica....

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS POOH!

Mrs Pooh, aka wannabe strawberry picker, is having a birthday today! Hope you have a great day, and have fun celebrating!

Woooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooo!

-K

The next Heidi Klum... Aka Yours Truly...

Okayyyyyyyyyy, so my bootcamp instructor does not give compliments. I think I've told everyone that before. She's not a meanie, she's just not a warm person. But actually. Who knows. I've never seen her outside of class, so maybe she's dancing on bars drunk on the weekends and we are truly BFF's at heart and just don't know it. Somehow I doubt it, but I've been wrong before (gasp!) Just ask Blondie about the 3 times this weekend I was wrong - all in the span of about 5 minutes.

And I went off on a tangent.

Back to my point - bootcamp instructor does not give out compliments.

BUT (a big BUT for my big BUTT) - today she told me "Yours Truly, you are 100% improved from when you started bootcamp". Followed 5 minutes later by "You're going to be a swimsuit model in 6 months". I had to refrain myself from kissing her. I think I just stuck my tongue out at her.

Now, I know Heidi Klum is not a swimsuit model. She's a former lingerie model. But lingerie is kind of like a swimsuit. I know I've got to be completely comfortable with you before you'll see me in a swimsuit. Or lingerie. Or to be honest, just completely drunk.

So, in summary: Yours Truly = Next Heidi Klum
Bootcamp instructor <> complimentary
lingerie = swimsuit
drunk Yours Truly = drunk Yours Truly.

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SLICK!!!!!

Woot! Hope you have a great day!

--K

Grossest non-gross thing I've ever heard...

The gang (at the Despised Old Job Company) and I had a game we liked to play - it was the "non-dirty words that gross you out" game. Like moist. Or scab. Or crotch. Things that just give you the heebie-jeebies.

This weekend I was doing my typical watch TV routine (it's strenuous), and I about peed the couch - this was due to a commercial for a doll, and the following line was actually said "When you comb my hair, my jewels light up". Yes. Ah yes. When you comb my hair. My jewels light up. Comb hair = lit up jewels.

Someone in that ad agency is laughing.

Also, I'm laughing today due to the glorious pic of the Poohs that my sister sent out. Love you guys!

--K

CONGRATULATIONS MR POOH!!!!

Yay! Mr Pooh has accepted a new job. For those who don't know, his old job had some funk going on with it - i.e. no paid holidays. WTF is up with that?

This is a great thing for Mr Pooh! Woo hoo!!!!

--K

This one's for you Shugs!

Soooooooo... here it is in bullet format... the oh so exciting life of Yours Truly and Blondie!

• Bootcamp Session #1 ended on Friday. Due to lack of people that actually showed up for the final class (it reminded me of high school), they combined my group and Blondie's group again. And tried to kill us. Again.
• What better way to celebrate Bootcamp Session #1 ending than by EATING! Pizza and gin (for me) and brownies (for blondie) were the order of the night for Friday night. That and an 8:45 pm bedtime.
• What other better way to celebrate Bootcamp Session #1 ending than by doing NOTHING all weekend! Blondie and I went for Greek food on Saturday night, and then Bbbb joined us for watching some Animal House. I've forgotten how hysterical that movie is, and enjoyed my evening thoroughly.
• We were joined by Party C on Sunday to watch Singles and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And order chinese food. Which meant we ate even more. So yeah, eating was the order of the weekend.
• Bootcamp Session #2 started on Tuesday. Yay! I can't tell you how much better I feel with this. My running has improved so much, my body - you can see muscles. It's insane.
• Lunch with Bbbb and Blondie today - we imbibed in salads from Bristol and just got to catch up (beyond Sat night).

Things coming up that you will get to hear about! (In bullet form)

• CV Supper Club on Thurs night with Party C, Porn King, Girlfriend J, and various other assorted friends. Pizza Orgasmica (yes, it's real name) is the order of the evening.
• Working out both days this weekend - I even went and bought new yoga pants today so that I'm styling and profiling in Bikram.
• Mrs Pooh (aka wannabe-strawberry picker) is having a birthday in 7 days.

Are you guys jealous at how much fun we're having??? :)

--K

Surprise! And Happy VD!

Happy VD everyone! Happy VD mom, dad, sis, Brother R and Shugs, Mr and Mrs Pooh and The Cutest Kid in the World, the entire G-clan, all my friends scattered all over the country, and my Blondie.

Surprise! They decided to do our final assessment at bootcamp today, in case we needed more than 1 day to complete everything. It ended up being a good thing. Since I thought everything would be done on Friday, I slept like a log last night, wasn't up all night worrying about the test.

RESULTS 2/14/2008 :
Flex: 23.5"
Situps: 47
Pushups: 22
1.5 mile timed run: 17:27

I'm QUITE content with how things turned out.

--K

Sun!

This weekend was insanely gorgeous. I can't even tell you how beautiful it was here. It had to be in the high 60's, low 70's - no wind or clouds, but plenty of sun. And it's STILL like that outside. Yet here I am inside. Working. Sigh.

Weekend was good - hit bikram on Sunday, met up with some friends for a BBQ on Sunday night, went to a bonfire on the beach on Saturday. ENJOYED THE WEATHER.

This is the final week in bootcamp, and they attempted to kill us today. The owner came out and took over one of the classes, and then my instructor decided it would be a great idea to merge my group with the group the owner took over (which happened to be Blondie's). It totally sucked. I think I dropped the F-bomb more times from 7-8 am today than I've said it my entire life.

But, I still signed up for the next session which starts next Monday.

I'll post my results on Friday, keeping fingers crossed it's better than when I started:
1/07/2008 - Results:
Sit and Flex - 24"
Situps in 60 seconds - 39
Pushups (no time limit) - 9
1.5 mile run - 19:46

--K

P.S. And still, yay for hummus!

Hummmmmmmmmmmus = yummmmmmmmmmmmus

Greek food for dinner! It's Blondie's week to pick our date evening, and he has chosen Greek food (we are trying a new place in our hood).

I haven't stopped thinking about hummus (or falafel to be honest) now for 3 hours.

My life is so exciting.

Yay for hummus!

--K

18 - 1

As Mr Pooh so rightly put it, the only way the Super Bowl could've been better last night if it had been Brett and the Packers beating the Patriots.

But wow. What a game! Eli buddy, you are my new best friend!

--K

I've got nothing today...

So Blondie and I had an excellent weekend. I got to come home early on Friday (it was pouring down rain, and I had to work late, so I thought - F it, I'll work from home). We ended up lazing around in the evening, watching TV, and doing a lot of nothing.

Saturday is our sleep-in day (sleep-in day - just the sound of it gives me goose bumps). So we did exactly that. It was everything I dreamed it would be - literally. On Friday morning, I had a dream that it was Saturday and I didn't have to get out of bed - and then the alarm went off and ruined that buzz. So Saturday was off to a much better start than Friday.

Saturday afternoon we met up with the fabulous duo of Shelbs and Bbbb for a movie and dinner. The company was fabulous (seeing as how they are the fabulous duo, they are in fact, fabulous). The movie was hard to watch. And dinner was good.

Side note *** - I've always known my mom is a strong person, but after watching the movie (it had to do with coping with a parent with dementia), if that movie is representative of 1/100th of what my mom when through with her mom, then she's stronger than I ever imagined.
End side note ***

After our movie/dinner combination, we went to a friend's b-day party in Union Square. This friend has been to pastry chef school and had made a ton of mini-cupcakes. So even though we just had come from dinner, Blondie and I proceded to shove about 5 mini-cupcakes each in us. It was worth it.

Then it was off to NB to help dear Sweetie J ring in her 30's also! WELCOME TO MY DECADE PEOPLE!

Sunday Blondie and I hit Bikram for "Fun with Katie". It was horrendous.

BUT, we're both killing it at Bikram due to Bootcamp AND at Bootcamp due to Bikram.

Which leads us to today - I had a breakthrough last week with my running and did our entire run (50 mins or so) without stopping. I did it again today - according to my bootcamp instructor who does not give compliments (she's not mean, she just doesn't compliment), I ran it much faster today!!!! And Blondie went out with the Advanced group for his run and whalloped it too!

Today WILL be a good day.

--K

Run!

Seriously - go see the movie "No Country For Old Men". Now preferably. Gooooooooood.

It was so good, I had to draw the o's out in good. That's damn good.

--K

Just Because...

Things I Should Not Be Allowed To Do:
1) Drink coffee after 1 pm.
2) Tell everyone that it's going to be a Packers/Patriots SuperBowl this year.
3) And finally - be perfect. It's makes people mad.

--K

So...

Blondie and I have a joke that if we saw Brett Favre walking down the street, we'd both be pushing the other person out of the way in order to get to Brett first.

This was made even funnier b/c over the weekend, pre-Packers stomping the Seahawks, there was a Top 10 countdown on the pregame show and the topic was "Top 10 signs you know you are in Green Bay". One of the answers was "97% of women and 79% of men answer 'Brett Favre' to the question - Who are you most likely to cheat on your spouse with'".

Anyway, there really is no point to this except that PACKERS ARE NOW IN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!

When (not if people, when) they beat the Giants, they are going to the Super Bowl.

Go Brett! Go Green Bay!

--K AND S

Las campos de boots...

It's amazing that after doing bootcamp for 4 weeks in Dec, and then taking 2 weeks off, I'm still SO FREAKING SORE after only 2 days. I mean, come on. What was the point of 4 weeks in Dec if I'm still SORE???

Although to be honest, when I was on week 4 of 4 in Dec, I still would come home crying from muscle pain somedays.

And it makes me feel better that Blondie, who is way more buff than me, is aching too today. Hahahahah. Of course, he's in the intermediate group and I'm beginner, but still.

The good news is I'm in the 95% percentile of people in how flexible I am. Bad news is I'm in the bottom 1% of people in how fast I can do a 1.5 mile timed run. I have news for you though: I'd much rather flex than run.

And also, GO PACK GO. GO DOWN PATRIOTS GO DOWN. LOSE COWBOYS LOSE.

--K

Just because...

Spider pig
Spider pig
Does whatever a spider pig does

Can he swing
from a web?
No he can't
because he's a pig

--Spider Pig Lover

A weekend needed to recover from my weekend...

Blondie and I have had a standard weekend layout that we've pretty much followed since Thanksgiving. That would be: 1) get up late; 2) move to TV; 3) watch TV; 4) get shower; 5) eat dinner; 6) watch more TV; 7) go to bed.

What I'm trying to say people, is, we are lazy.

But, but, but... this weekend we actually DID THINGS. It was amazing. I didn't realize so many people actually left their homes on Saturday.

We made it down to the mall on Saturday for lunch with Sweetie J and Party C, and then met up with CaryElwes for a movie. As Party C pointed out, it was like high school all over again - "dude, let's totally meet up at the mall and hang out." Then Party C and WB came up Saturday night and watched another movie.

On Sunday, we started our lazy day plan, but did get to meet up with Shelbs and Bbbb for some tasty dinner grub.

So yay. Yay. Blondie and I are not *that* lazy!

Other News:
1) The "storm" - a bad storm blew through the bay area on Friday. It was pretty nasty. There are toppled trees and broken branches all over the streets of our neighborhood. The worst part though was that we realized our umbrellas were worth C.R.A.P.
2) Blondie and I started up bootcamp this morning. Ugh.

--K

Stealing ideas...

From Mrs Pooh. Aka, Wannabe Strawberry Picker.

Highlights of 2007:
1) Left the despised old job.
2) Started a new job, where I not only got Employee of the Quarter award, but also got my life back (aka NO OVERNIGHTS).
3) Blondie left his old job (not as despised as mine, but still).
4) "Ran" a half-marathon.
5) Started bootcamp (something I've always wanted to do).
6) Fell in love with Bikram.
7) Started making progress on changing Blondie and mine's lifestyle (desperately needed after the Thanskgiving incident).
8) Made the Cutest Kid in the World think I'm a knee-slapper. Of course, she won't remember me when I see her again, but baby steps people, baby steps.

--K

The round-up...

2007 ended with a bang. From a wonderful weekend away hanging with friends in Tahoe (and Blondie learning he has mad snow-boarding skills), to visiting the fam across multiple states, we had a blast.

Highlights:
We got to tour Lambeau Field and actually go onto the field. We got to run out the tunnel the Packers run out for their home games. We got to sit in a luxury box (not while they were playing obviously).

We got my niece a baby Brett Favre jersey, and my 2 not-yet-born nieces baby Packers onesies. My niece hated the jersey. I believe her exact words when my brother put it on her were "no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no".

I got to see my fam-in-law for the first time in almost 1.5 years in Wisc (of course, they all came to visit in Sept except Mama G so that was good).

I got to see my fam in KY again, and terrorize my niece.

The Packers went 13-3 which is awesome and have a bye for the first week of playoffs. Watch out Cow'girls' - we are coming for you.

Plans for 2008:
1) Lose weight via boot camp. Yes, boot camp.
2) Get Blondie and I on a sensible eating plan (and remain on it), so that he doesn't get sick again.
3) Stop eating the chocolate that was left on my desk while I was on vacation. I'll start this goal after the chocolate is gone, which kind of defeats the point of the goal in the first place.
4) Get back to Wisc sometime to meet the 2 not-yet-born nieces.
5) Get back to KY sometime so that the Cutest Kid In The World doesn't keep forgetting me.
6) Spokane!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
--K