Does syrup have sugar in it?

Tuesday night was an all-around amazing night. I ended up taking the subway from work down to the lower east side, and met up with Blondie, and my work BFF (who had the day off) and his wife. We went for dinner at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant - WD 50. It was my work BFF's bday so we wanted to celebrate in style.

The restaurant was beautiful but casual which I loved - you felt like you could talk, and didn't have to whisper, and the waiters wore jeans, so showing up in my business casual was totally fine. We had a 6 pm reservation and had no sooner sat down then we saw Wylie Dufresne in the kitchen. I geeked out a little because for awhile, I was obsessed with Top Chef including their master's edition which he was on.

We all ended up doing the 12 course tasting menu, and I did a wine pairing with my meals. It was incredible - there were so many dishes that I would go back and eat - including pho gras; veal tartar; squab; wagyu beef. OMG. And since it was 12 course, the bites were small enough to give you a taste but not too big to overwhelm you. And some of the wine pairings were off-the-hook good - I even took a copy of the wine list so I could look into getting some of the bottles I loved.

4 hours later, without even realizing it had taken 4 hours, we got to go back to the kitchen and meet Chef Dufresne on our way out. He was very nice and very pleasant, and when I said how good our waiter was (because he was awesome), Chef Dufresne cracked a joke about "you don't know him that well". I laughed my ass off. And to give me credit, I wasn't all like "TOP CHEF!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU RULE!"

Wednesday a coworker and I headed out for lunch - we went out so I could buy my boss a xmas gift, and ended up wandering around our area for awhile before sitting down for a meal. It made the day go really really fast. And Thursday, my boss' boss took her direct reports out for a late lunch which they weren't coming back from. So as soon as that crew was out the door at 2, my friends came by and we took off for a late long lunch also.

Thursday night, I decided to walk home and halfway there, my bar friends texted to come meet up for 1 last visit before holiday. I called Blondie who was still at work and pretty busy, but said he join up when he could. The bar that night was a blast. Everyone was in a good mood, and my bar friends decided to buy a round of "doomsday shots" for the group - we were trying to decide what a good doomsday shot would be, when our bartender came up with the idea that everyone who was doing the shot (8 of us - 6 locals, our bartender, the waitress) would put in their favorite liquor and we'd mix them together and do a combined shot - his reasoning was that if we were going out on Friday, we'd go out drinking what we love.

Our shot ended up being a mix of jaeger, jose cuervo, malibu, gin, patron silver, tullamore dew (me), cheap white wine, and then one of the guys took pity and said his favorite drinks were orange juice and cranberry juice. And the shot ruled. We have no idea how it turned out so good, but it did.

Right after the shot, Blondie showed up to the bar. I was all whooping when he walked in because the night was so good. He took off his jacket, and I started laughing - he had gotten swag from his corporate job! A really nice hoodie which made me a bit jealous - I've gotten a ton of t-shirts from places I've worked, but I love hoodies and have never gotten one of those. He started catching up with everyone, when my bar friends all of a sudden, gave us gifts.

I love my bar friends - they are both awesome people, and the gifts were spot on. I got a 5 lb gummy bear that's as big as my head (and my ass after I eat it). And they gave Blondie a toaster that toasts the Green Bay Packer logo on your bread! We already told them what we were going to give them - which is bringing back cheese curds from (appropriately) The Land of Cheese. But then Blondie also came up with another idea that night, so we'll do that also.

Yesterday was spent being hung over. I went to lunch with a friend again, said goodbye to my best female friend who had quit, and then we got sent home early for the day. Which was good. I spent last night being extremely lazy. But now today I've got to pack up for our trip.

No workouts again. I'm enjoying holiday right now. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. Until I eat that 5 lb gummy bear - then I'll feel guilty.

Happy Holidays.
--K

Blah

This weekend I hated the following: Santa, Buddy the Elf, elves in general, anyone wearing fishnets, anyone wearing tutus, Rudolph, and Xmas trees. More on that to come.

Work last week was about what was expected. Very busy due to my project, but then 2 early days which helped my mood because my other days were so swamped. We got let out early on Wednesday for the overall company holiday party. I decided to skip the party because last year the space was so crowded you couldn't move, and I spent the party trying not to sweat on people. My besties and I were going to skip together and just hit up a bar, but they both decided to go last minute to the party. So I headed home. And got texted from them both about 30 minutes later that they had already left the party because (shocker) it was so crowded. And hot. At that point, I was already home in my pajamas so I told them I was skipping on more festivities.

Thursday my bar friend texted to come play trivia. But the weather that night was bitter cold. So being a big giant baby, and being totally against my blog post a few weeks ago about how I never say no to invitations during the holidays (god, 2 paragraphs, and I've said no twice - go me), I declined the invite. I just wasn't feeling it. It turned out that her dad had flown into NYC to surprise her for a short weekend, so I missed the whole shindig! I was so bummed when I heard, and totally wish I could've been there to see her face when her dad just showed up in front of her. I learned my lesson about saying no, and will now stick to my "just don't say no" plan.

On Friday, we had my immediate work group party at the office - we did a massive gift exchange and I ended up with a nice set of wine gear - corks, pump, (haha - sounds filthy!), and 2 servers. They had brought in a massive spread of food also, so we spent the afternoon just chatting, picking at food, and swapping gifts. Not a bad way to end the week. When I left on Friday, the weather was pleasant also so I decided to hoof it back to my hood - and I'm glad I did. Everywhere I looked is lit up for holidays, and crossing 5th Avenue was amazing (home to Saks, Harry Winston, Bulgovi, etc). When I got home that night, Blondie and I decided to stop in at our local for dinner and to see if my bar friend was there with her dad. They weren't there, but we ran into a ton of other people we knew, had some dinner, and just hung out into the evening. Which made my nice-week-ending even nicer.

Saturday brings us to the first line in this blog post. Santacon invaded NYC. Now, they do this every year, but this year it happened to start one block from our apartment, so Hells Kitchen bars were the starting point (and honestly, mostly the ending point too) for these "festivities". What is Santacon you ask? It's an excuse to get drunk off your ass, and dress up like Santa. Or Buddy the Elf. Or elves in general. Or wear fishnets. Or wear tutus. Or wear a Rudolph costume. Or dress like a Xmas tree. The problem was that there were about 10000 people who participated, and they just overran our neighborhood. I watched a guy (in an elf costume) cross the middle of the street, against the light, blowing a whistle to get cars to stop, and watched 3 cars in a row have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him. And his friends fucking cheered him on.

My friend from TX was also in town on Saturday so unfortunately we had to head out into the mayhem to meet up with her. We managed to find a nice bar at the very edge of our neighborhood that only had a few respectful Santas in it. We sat with her for a long time there, eating and drinking, and just finding out on the last 6 years of each other's lives. After several hours, we headed back down into the fray to show her our local bar. We walked into madness. The place was trashed - it literally look like the Santas had a beer bottle throwing contest - the floor was covered in broken glass. You couldn't hardly move in the place. We only lasted a few drinks there before calling it a night.

Sunday I headed out early afternoon to meet up with my bar friend and her dad. We met at Pony bar, and the bartenders there filled us in on how bad it was at Pony and their sister bar during Santacon. After we heard the news and shared our stories, we spent rest of the afternoon just hanging out and watching the Packers roll to NFC North champs! Goooo Pack!

Plans coming up: Wisconsin, Blondie's bro coming to visit, poker night at our house in Jan, launch of my major project late Jan, Spokane/SF late late Jan.

Workouts (sucked):
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 6, 2 mins level 11, 5 min cooldown; 7 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 5 mins running at 5.5 mph (wanted to see how my neck felt).
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run in 35:44; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thurs-Today: none. Shame rattle. Shame rattle.

--K

Hanging in Jersey

Tis the week of sickness and throwing out of backs.

I ended up having to take it easy last Sunday - because while I was busy shovelling lunch down my throat, I managed to throw out my lower back. Yes, that's right. Apparently I eat with such gusto, my body can't handle it. So last Sunday was spent babying my way-getting-old body. Loads o' fun.

I woke up on Monday and was still incredibly achy, but decided to go ahead and work out anyway. I took a load of laundry down also, and threw that in the washer while I worked out. I felt a lot better when I was done, still creaky but moving around much better than before. Afterwards, I headed out and got my roots done. My hair looks so much better - he fixed my (unintentional) ombre hair, and trimmed it up - lurve it! After my hair, it was back to the bar to down a few beers and eat some nachos for lunch. I sat at the bar, and eavesdropped on conversations around me, and just generally enjoyed having absolutely nothing to do.

I stopped on the way home from the bar and got some gummy bears, and then treated myself to an afternoon of bad reality TV and sugar. And some napping. All in all, one of the best days I've had in awhile. I also realized that if I had won that crazy powerball lottery, basically the rest of my life would look like last Monday did. Sigh. Perfect day.

On Tuesday it was back to work. Which is insane right now. Blondie was working crazy hours too last week - almost 60 hours for him in 5 days. Wednesday I woke up and felt a bad cold / sinus thing coming on - I powered through Wednesday and Thursday but felt crappy both days. We ended up doing a group lunch on Thursday which was nice, but I felt weird about being away from work with how much I have left to do for my project.

Thursday night my bar friends texted, so I drug my increasingly sick butt to the bar to meet up with them for a few, and get caught up on each other's week. I decided my body needed alcohol to kill the germs, so it was straight into a bunch of scotch. Blondie texted around 8:30 pm and headed over to meet us for a bit. Afterwards, we went out for mexican and just enjoyed our evening.

Friday, if I had to give it a 1 word description, would be "Pbbbbbbbttttt". I went into work just feeling horrid - in addition to the cold / sinus which was in full on agony, I had been sleeping in a funny position because of my lower back and had thrown out my neck. My boss stopped by my office about an hour after I got to work, to lay 2 pieces of news on me - one was that I had been put on a committee that requires me back in SF in January; the other was I was being sent home sick. I had only gone in because I had a ton of meetings, but she helped me pawn them off on other people, and then by 11:30, I was home, in bed, feeling miserable. And pissed off about the committee.

I passed the day watching TV off of netflix, blowing my nose, and trying desperately to get my neck to stop hurting (literally, this is all I did all day - Blondie didn't get home from work until almost 1 am, so until almost 1 am, this is what I did). If I had to give myself a 3 word description on Friday, it would've been "barrel of fun". Saturday was more of the same - just trying to get better.

Then came Sunday - our bartender lives in Jersey, and he is a local at a bar there and had been asking the "bar crew" to come over to visit him on a Sunday to watch football and hang at his local. We decided to make the trek on Sunday. Blondie and I were a last minute decision b/c of how crappy I was feeling, but decided 20 mins before we had to leave to catch the bus to go.

5 of us walked up to Port Authority and caught a transit bus over into Jersey to our bartender's bar (it was about a 30-40 min ride). And we had a blast. I kept laughing because I felt like "wow, who does this? Takes a bus out of the city to go to a bar?" But our bartender was so happy to see us, and it was such a fun day. Everyone was in great moods, and the Jets actually decided to win a game. Beer was flowing, the bar tab was cheap, and it was great seeing everyone in a different location. Partying in Jersey? Absolutely.

We got home last night around 5:30 pm (we had gone over at 10:45 am), and I managed to stay up for 45 minutes, before crashing for the night at 6:15. And it was exactly what I needed, as I feel about 80% back to normal today from my head cold. My neck is still rotten, but everything else is on the mend.

Plans for this week - leaving work early on Wednesday as my holiday party is then, early day on Friday as we're doing a holiday swap in the office, possible trivia on Thursday, and good friend from TX landing on Friday night. Next week is my immediate office group party, before leaving for the Land of Cheese for a few days. Then it's NYE and Blondie's bro is visiting for a week. Then it's back to SF with a possible stop in Spokane to visit my cray cray aunt and uncle.

Workouts were not great - due to cold and neck, it was a struggle
Sunday: 40 mins on Precor, 2 min level 6, 2 min level 11; 5 min cooldown; 10 mins on treadmill - 6 mins running at 5.5 mph, 4 mins walking at 4.1 mph.
Monday: Bunch of weights, 20 mins walking on treadmill at 3.2 mph up 8% grade hill
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 30 mins walking on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph on 5% grade hill; 2 mins 4.1 mph on 0% grade hill; 5 min cooldown
Thurs-Today: Nothing
Tomorrow: Something - I promise.

--K

Jam Packed

There is something about the holidays that for me, makes me want to busy all the time. The rest of the year I'm fine with turning down invitations, but holiday season, I can't say no. We had a pretty busy week to start off with, and the next few weeks are going to be the same or worse. But I'm looking forward to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHUGS! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Last Sunday turned out pretty nice. I drug myself up to my nail place and got my toes done. I picked an orangey color for fall, and it looks pretty good. Afterwards, it was over to Pony Bar to meet up with my bar friend for many drinks. We wasted the afternoon away there, and met some pretty cool new people. I got home that night and Blondie and I decided to have one last bad meal for T-day weekend and ordered in a ton of chinese food. Then we watched the Packers "play" the Giants - and just groaned at such a horrible end to the weekend.

The week itself was one of those weeks where it feels like it's over before it even started. I swear, I woke up Monday morning and it was already Friday evening. I have a project we are trying to get closed out on, and taking care of that every day made each day FLY by. It was nice having the week go so fast, but it's extremely nerve wracking trying to get this project done (which we didn't do). And Blondie is also extremely busy with work - he's been working 12 hour days on his project and making great progress on what he has due.

Monday night, our bartender and one of the usual patrons of the bar both texted. We ended up going over as Blondie had won a little bit of money on the weekend's games. We only intended to stay for an hour, but that easily turned into 2 hours with a lot of talking and laughter.

Tuesday night, I went out with my friend group from work - we hit up our normal bar by work, and just got caught up on everything. We always have very weird conversations - and this was no different. We actually discussed (seriously I might add) that if you worked from home, and got an unwanted blowjob from your significant other, would that be sexual harrassment. What was supposed to be a few quick drinks at 5:30 pm ended up with me showing up at home at 9:30 pm drunk.

Thursday afternoon, my bar friend texted that trivia was a go for that night. I couldn't decide if I should go or not, as I was really tired. I texted Blondie and he said he had to stay pretty late at work that night, so I ended up deciding to go. Our team name was "Taint nothing but a G thang". We started out extremely sucking - and all of us admitted that trivia that night was making us feel stupid. Then, out of nowhere, we ended up coming from 8th place all the way to 2nd place in the final round (when you ask a bunch of 20 year olds questions about music from the 70's, you automatically give the lone almost 40 year old in the group a very big advantage). We actually ended up winning a $20 gift certificate to the bar.

Friday was also a good day - my BFF wanted to go to lunch, so we took off around 1 pm for some bites. And then we seriously took our time as it was Friday. It made my day fly by even faster than it had been going. Friday night was the only night Blondie got home on time - we ended up ordering BBQ for dinner, and then deciding to hit up 7-11 for some junk food to eat while we watched movies.

Saturday I made Blondie get up super early so we could get to the gym - afterwards, we cleaned up quickly and then headed up to Times Square so we could see the early showing of Skyfall! ($7 tickets before noon). I LOVED this movie - I have a major crush on Daniel Craig as it is, and the movie was just so good on top of it. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at a cajun restaurant before coming home and crashing out for afternoon naps (the weather was cold and cloudy yday - perfect for napping). We had some groceries delivered last night, and then watched some TV to end the day.

Today I have on tap a workout, and then meeting up with bar friend at Pony Bar. One of my old coworkers is in town today so he's also going to join us at Pony. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I will be doing some laundry before getting my roots touched up. Then I'm going to hit up Landsdowne to get some of my favorite nachos in the world and a few beers for lunch, before back to the office the rest of the week.

Workouts were good except for Monday:
Monday: Rest day. Not intended but so full from our chinese food binge I had no choice.
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins at level 6, 2 mins at level 11; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 30 mins hill repeats - 2 mins walking 4.1 mph on 0% grade; 2 mins running 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: 30 mins speedwork - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph; 2 mins running 6.2-6.6 mph; 5 min cooldown
Friday: Rest day. Planned.
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 35:19; 5 min cooldown

--K

Catch up

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from blogging. I love having my "diary", but it's sometimes hard to make myself sit down every week and fill it in. When I have those weeks where I don't do an entry, I always enjoy it - until I do sit down to recap and realize I remember nothing about what had happened. Yay for me. 3 weeks of recapping, from what I do remember, starts now.

Well, almost now - first off, happy birthday to The Sheriff, my mom, and BFF TT! Love you guys!

I left off last with the week of Sandy hitting. I met my bar friend that Sunday for many drinks at Pony to have 1 last day of celebrating my birthday. We met up with our musician friend there and got to see how he came through the storm. It was a nice way to end the week - and again, so glad everyone I know came through okay.

Monday through Friday it was work - I walked to work on Monday because even though my train was back up and running, Bloomberg had said that transportation would be jammed b/c not all lines were running, and the ones that were running were on limited schedule. But my friends that also ride my line told me at work that day that our train was pretty standard (i.e. not that bad) so I took my train the rest of the week.

Also, Blondie started his new corporate job on that Thursday - Blondie's company that he owns is now moving into contracting, and he's back to a commuting with me daily. Blondie loves his new job, which makes me sooo grateful.

I remember that I worked out every day that week except for Monday which was a rest day. I did a 3.1 mile run on Tues, 30 minutes of hill work on Wed, Insanity Cardio Recovery on Thursday, and 3.1 miles of speed work on Friday.

And then, Saturday morning, bright and early (4:45 am), Blondie and I took off for the airport. We headed to SF for a few days - I had to work that week and Blondie came along b/c we needed a vaction. (Blondie had his trip planned before he got his job, and they okayed him taking off a few days). We got to SF, and landed in beautiful weather - it was sunny and gorgeous out. We took a cab to Shelbs and Bbbb - and the cab went along the Great Highway, so we literally spent most of the ride along the ocean, watching waves crashing and just being like "omg. so f'ing beautiful!"

We spent most of the day being lazy - we toured their house which is all kinds of awesome (and with a killer view of the Pacific). We hung out with their new dog, who took a shining to Blondie and wanted to make out with him pretty much non-stop (I wanted to steal Thunderdog I loved her so much). We went for an outdoor lunch. We pissed around in the Mission. We drank beers in Dolores Park. We hit up Toronado. And finally, we picked up pizza and split it with wine at their house.

Sunday was pretty much the same type of lazy-day activities. We took Thunderdog up to Land's End and strolled all through the park and out until we could see Golden Gate Bridge. We went for tacos and margaritas for lunch, before shopping a bit in the mission. And then we picked up some beers and food to grill out, before stopping to eat a Honey Pot in Outer Richmond. Shelbs had told us about this weird desert thing - which was honey bread covered in gelato - and Blondie had to have some. So we stopped for that. Then we went home, crashed out on their back patio and watched the ocean. And then grilled out for dinner.

Monday we hit up Say Cheese and ate in our old dog park for lunch, before Bbbb drove me and Blondie to our hotel in Union Square. I headed into the office for a meeting, but then met up with an old coworker of mine for many drinks. Blondie and my 2 BFFs from the NY office (who also happened to be in SF for work that week) also joined us. Then Blondie and I headed over to meet up with my old gang for mexican and margaritas into the night.

Tuesday I said goodbye to Blondie who was headed home that day. Off to the office for many meetings, before going to lunch with one of my old teammates (from the first group I was ever on at my company). After work fesitivies involved hanging out with a woman who I work with now quite closely. We went for appetizers and many drinks, and just got caught up on life. I've worked with her on several projects over the past year, but mostly as peripheral teammates - but in the last 6 months we've had to work closely together, so getting to know her better was quite fun. After drinks with my coworker, I hit up Irish Bank for CChu and her bf TDawg. We had dinner, many drinks, and were just generally snarky about people we don't like.

I woke up Wednesday in misery - from when I went to bed on Tuesday night and when I woke up Wednesday morning, I had come down with a massive head cold. I sucked it up, showered, and headed into the office as Wednesday was lot of meetings. I also went to lunch with a part of the team that I work with now - it was a lot of fun, and getting to know people outside the office is always nice. I decided that I needed some booze Wed afternoon to hopefully kill the cold germs, so I took off a tiny bit early and met up with Sweetie J! We drank our way down to the Embarcadero where she met up with a friend, and then I headed back up to Union Sq area to meet up with KT and KevB! We had a blast having many more drinks, before heading to dinner for mexican and margaritas. It was soooo good seeing everyone, but honestly, the drinks just made everything worse with my head cold.

Thursday I packed up, checked out, and stowed my bag at the hotel before heading in for my final day at the office. Lunch was with my BFF from the NY office and his gf (who had flown in that day). Then I was expecting low-key to end my day - but it wasn't; we had our final release of the year and caught something major that stopped us from proceeding. I couldn't stay on the call though b/c I had to meet 1 last group of people for drinks (ran in, had a quick whiskey, ran out), and then it was off to the airport.

Normally I love the red-eye back to NY as I sleep well on planes anyway. But this time, with this head cold, it was horrid. I got maybe 45 mins of sleep and was then just awake, with a snotty achy head, the rest of the time. Got home on Friday, and went straight to sleep - but woke up 2 hours later just miserable. I spent the day with the cat, weepy, and finally showered which helped break up some of the snot. Blondie got home that night, and lo and behold, he had the same cold I had. And then we noticed the cat was sneezing like crazy too.

The weekend was spent hunkered down trying to get better. Finally on Sunday, I met my bar friends at Pony simply because I was tired of hanging out in the apartment. Getting out felt pretty good - I think I just needed to move. It was pretty cool because our bartender overheard me talking about the SF trip, and she mentioned that the other bartender who was coming into work in a few mins used to work at Toronado (my fav beer bar from SF). When the other bartender came in, we talked for a long time about SF, and she bought us a shot Fernet. All in all, a good day.

This past week was of course, a short week. But a weird one. I'm on a project that is not going well - our lead developer quit, and now it's up to 2 new developers (both are good but they were brought in last minute) to finish this job. I wanted to move our timelines some, and take a bit longer to finish this project, but their boss didn't agree with me. And we got into it on Tues. Their boss also happens to be 1 of my 2 BFFs in the office. We had to actually say "5 minute break! We are getting nowhere" and walk away from each other at one point.

The day ended okay though, because at around 6 pm, their boss walked back into my office and was apologetic as hell. But it was hard to hear him because I was so busy trying to apologize to him also. He also told me to swing by his office before I left, so I did, and he had a bottle of scotch out. So once everyone was gone, him and me and my boss, had a few drinks and crackers and cheese to end the night.

Wednesday was a short day - my boss and I walked up to Momofuku Milk Bar and got some thanksgiving croissants - which was basically a hot pocked stuff with turkey, stuffing and cranberries. I bought that and a compost cookie (my fav cookie - loaded with chocolate chips, coffee grounds, pretzels and potato chip crumbs) and then headed over and met Blondie to see "A Christmas Story: The Musical" on Broadway! While waiting in line to get in, we had our snack of croissant and cookie, and then I got a whiskey in a sippy cup once inside.

The play was pretty funny - they even had dogs (real dogs) play the part of the dogs from the movie. They chased the actors across the stage and even stole the turky in the end scene! And the kid who played Randy (Ralphie's brother) was spot-on. And they had this cute little kid (a boy) in one of the scenes who had on a hat, and I was all "OMG! It's TCKITWv4.0" - not that the boy looked like my little niece, but he had the same type of grin - all teeth - that my niece has, and it really showed up when he had his hat on. We came out of the play just laughing hysterically - seriously, the dogs alone made it worth seeing.

Afterwards, it was off to poison bar to meet up with my bar friend. 3 shots and about 5 beers later, we headed off to our local to meet up with everyone. Blondie headed home early but I stayed and just got trashed. So awesome on my part. Thursday we were lazy - I felt fine when I woke up (surprisingly so), so around noon we headed out to buy a pie and do some grocery shopping. Everybody and their brother was out, and since the parade had ended, traffic was a bitch. After shopping, we met up with my bar friends again at Landsdowne for lunch and beers - we hung out for a few hours watching football, and then headed our own way for the rest of the day. Blondie and I ordered in food from our diner for dinner that night, and then spent the night watching movies.

Friday I woke up and felt completely exhausted. I was supposed to go with my bar friend to shop, but I couldn't get myself moving. Finally around 3 pm, Blondie and I headed out for some food. I felt a tiny bit better afterwards, so met up with my bar friends again at our local for a few beers. While I was on my way to our local bar, Mr Pooh texted, and he happened to mention that of his 3 favorite bars in the world, 2 were in NYC. And if he had 4 favorite bars, 3 would be in NYC (poison, Landsdowne and our local). I got to laughing b/c I realized in the last 3 days, I had been in all those bars.

Saturday we didn't do anything - we finally got some real grocery shopping done and then I crashed out watching Freaks and Geeks on Netflix while Blondie worked. And today, well, I'm up and showered at least. I have to go get a pedicure and hopefully meet my bar friends at Pony, but that's it.

Workouts - well, the head cold took me down and out for about 2 weeks. But I started up again yesterday:
Saturday: 3.1 miles on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 2 mins running at 6.0 mph - 37:25 mins
Sunday: 3.1 miles flat out running - 36:04 mins*; weights

* Completely shocked about this time - way faster than I expected; and I felt great the entire time. Normally if I hadn't tried to flat out run in 2.5 weeks, I'd be a heaving mess within 3 minutes, but not today.

--K

Thankful

Full recap of the last few weeks to come this weekend, but in the meantime, here is my list of what I'm thankful for this year.

1) Blondie and Tigga - I'm beyond grateful that Blondie and I made it to 9 years officially married. I'm thankful he's stuck it out with me, and packed up and moved with me everytime I flipped the fuck out and declared we needed a change. I'm thankful that 2 months after we started dating, he adopted Tigga. I'm thankful Tigga has turned into a love bug this year because god knows I needed it.

2) 11.5 years with Max - while I'm so not thankful Max is no longer around, I'm glad that I got to spend 11.5 years with him. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him at some point - he is truly truly missed.

3) Mr Pooh and Blondie's sis - I'm thankful that they both came to visit twice this year alone. I'm thankful their families held down the fort at home so they could come see us. I'm thankful that I've gotten a chance to connect with them both in a city I love. Honestly, the reasons they are visiting might have more to do with NYC than us but hey, I'll take it ;)

3) Which leads into NYC - of course. I love NYC so much I want to make out with it teenager-style.

4) Theater / Shows - From Broadway, to off Broadway, to Fringe Fest, to my bar friend's cabaret/burlesque show, to the Disney Drag Queen show - my year has been crammed full of theater and musicals, and I love it. I'm about 4 hours from meeting Blondie today to see "A Christmas Story" on Broadway, and have a list of about 8 plays that I still want to see.

5) Blondie again - I'm proud of HOW FREAKING WELL Blondie's game did! An independent developer launching a game without marketing or advertising *and* landing in the top 10 list on Google Play??? GOOOOO Blondie! I'm also thankful that when Blondie decided to go back to a corporate job, he was head hunted like crazy and had his pick of a ton of different opportunities. I'm also thankful that Blondie loves his new job!

6) My family - I don't see them hardly ever, but both my family and my family-in-law are pretty cool. Life without them would be boring.

7) My bar friends - I need to stop calling them that, but for now, that's what they are titled. I'm thankful that at almost 40 years old, I made some incredible new friends. I'm thankful for Sunday Funday too.

8) My 2 BFF's have had great years - while my year might have been crap to the extreme, my 2 BFF's have been rocking it out - and that makes me so so happy for them. Slick switched jobs into something he loves loves loves and got married to an awesome woman this year. And TT's family expanded by several with the adoption of a daughter, and the fostering of 2 other daughters. She finished her master's degree this year also.

9) Beans - I'm honestly thankful for beans this year. I've had cravings for beans for like the past 1.5 years. If beans didn't exist, and I had a craving for them, what would I do?

10) And last but certainly not least - I'm extremely thankful that Blondie and I came through Hurricane Sandy without any issues. The storm wreaked havoc on the city, causing tremendous amounts of damage and loss of life, and without a doubt, we recognize how truly lucky we were and are grateful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
--K

Sandy

This past week was spent dealing with Sandy and Sandy's aftermath. Last Sunday is when things started. I joined my bar friend at Pony Bar, where we ran into one of our friends who is a musician, and who has lived in HK area for years. We chatted a bit about what to do when Sandy hit, and he had some good places that he shared with us for us to go if we needed information (i.e. what bars in the area were likely to be open with patrons who had transistor radios inside). The weather at that point was windy, but not raining.

They started shutting down all public transportation on Sunday evening. It felt a little like it did when Irene came through the city last year - like you know something is coming, but there was no panic b/c Irene was supposed to be huge and nothing happened with it. My office announced on Sunday night that we were all supposed to work from home on Monday.

Monday day was pleasant. Windy and a little rainy, but nothing major. I was taking care of my building friend's dogs while they were out of town so I headed up to their place during the day to make sure the dogs were okay. Their view faces a different direction than ours, so I sat up there for awhile and just watched the clouds go by. I also happened to notice that Pony Bar was open for business (they posted on their FB page). So I texted my bar friends, and we all decided to meet up for a few beers there. Along with about 75 other people. The bar was packed - again, nobody was taking Sandy seriously (including me).

My bar friends and I headed home around 6 pm that night, and the wind was a lot worse at that point and it was raining but it still didn't feel dangerous. That night the storm hit big time. My bar friends talked about watching transistors blow in Jersey and then whole sections of Jersey would go black. Power outages started rolling up Manhattan getting to within 2 streets of us before they stopped. The wind was crazy - it tore the roof off the space shuttle Enterprise hangar on the Intrepid. But Blondie and I got crazy lucky as our building/neighborhood was spared the brunt of what happened.

Tuesday my office was closed again. But nobody was working from home as people either had no power, or had power and were glued to the TVs as footage of the destruction came rolling in. Staten Island, and parts of Brooklyn and Queens were completely wiped out. The lower half of Manhattan sustained a lot of damage. Upper half of Manhattan and Bronx were okay. The day was spent getting the latest on the storm news, and also spending some time with the dogs to make sure the weren't too freaked out.

Wednesday my office was open if you could get there. All subways were still down, but buses were running. I was going to take a bus to work but as soon as I started out of my house, I saw gridlock. So I walked the 2 miles over instead. Some of my coworkers carpooled in together from Brooklyn, and the 7 mile trip took 3 hours. It was crazy on the streets of Manhattan. Everyone who came in got sent home at 4, and HR bought pizza for lunch so it was nice. I walked back home that night, marvelling at the mass number of cars on the street. Bloomberg put HOV restrictions onto cars coming into the city starting Wednesday evening, but it didn't really help the situation.

I had vacation already planned for Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, my bar friend joined Blondie and me to do some shopping. Blondie needed some clothes, so we headed up to Times Square and then down 5th Ave almost to Central Park to various clothing stores. We decided to hit up a bar in our hood for lunch, so we walked back over to our area, still marvelling at the gridlock. We passed a gas station a few blocks from our apartment, and realized there was a massive amount of people/cars lined up to get gas. As we stopped to watch (TV crews were there too filming, and cops had streets and the gas station itself blocked off), a cabbie leaned out his window and told us this was the only gas station in Manhattan that still had gas and power. People were waiting in 10 hour lines to get gas.

After lunch, Blondie headed home to crash out and I went with my bar friend to our local bar. We hung out there into the evening, made sure everyone who worked there was okay and didn't have damage to themselves/their property. Blondie came back over early evening to sit and chat with everyone for awhile. It was a nice way to end the evening. The crappy part of the evening came when we heard from Bbbb, my SF friend, that he had cancelled his trip to NYC for this weekend - he knew NYC had been hit hard, and thought postponing his trip made sense.

Friday was my birthday. Pbbbttttt. I started the day with a workout, and then did our laundry while Blondie met with an accountant for his business. Around 2:30 we headed out to grab lunch. We went to our local little mexican restaurant for food, and then crossed the street to the new tequila bar in our hood for margaritas. This place is owned by Angelo Sosa (Top Chef fame) - we never liked Angelo Sosa when he was on TC - he honestly acted like a dick on the show. We sat down with a margarita, which was awesome, and then got to ragging on AS - saying things like "well, we don't like you but you make a mean margarita". We also had a discussion on whether AS actually worked / ever worked at the restaurant and I was adamant that he didn't. And then we looked up from our table (we were sitting in front of the windows), and AS came walking by and into the restaurant. We laughed our asses off, and then bolted.

After margaritas, it was down to Dunkin to grab a bunch of donut holes and then over to the local bar. We met up with my bar friends, and downed a bunch of drinks and shots to end the night. Turning 38 sucked, but at least it's over!

Friday was also memorable because Bloomberg reversed his decision on the marathon and cancelled it. I thought holding the marathon was a horrible decision, especially seeing what residents of Staten Island, Queens, BK, etc are going through. But he was adamant that the show must go on. There was a monstrous backlash going on throughout the city about the marathon, and I was actually starting to get worried that runners were going to get hurt. So cancelling it was the right thing to do - and should've been done almost a week ago.

Saturday I met my bar friend for a late brunch at a new bar about 3/4th of a mile away from our apartments. The food was awesome - I had a tuna nicoise salad that rocked my world. And the playlist was awesome - it was early 90's music all day and we couldn't tear ourselves away from the bar. Also, the bartender was trying to kill a bottle of Bushmill's so my bar friend and I became proud recipients of free shots. We finally pulled ourselves free about 3 hours later, and then we did a little bit of shopping on the way back from the bar. And then we met up with her husband at our local bar to end the day. More shots ensued, and then I was ravenously hungry so headed home to order in food with Blondie.

Today will be spent doing something. My train is supposed to come back up tomorrow morning, so getting to work should be a little easier tomorrow. I work this week, and then we leave Saturday for SF - me for work, Blondie because I insisted he come with me this time. And then it's time for Thanksgiving!

Workouts:
Sunday: 40 mins on Precor, 2 mins at level 6, 2 mins at levels 11-12, 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Monday: P90X Legs&Back, P90X Shoulders&Arms; Insanity Cardio Abs
Tuesday: 3.1 miles (39:22) hill intervals - 2 mins at 4.1 mph on 0% grade, 2 mins at 5.3-5.7 mph on 3% grade, 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance; 2 mile walk to work, 2 mile walk home
Thursday: 3.1 miles (36:23) speed intervals - 2 mins at 4.1 mph, 2 mins at 5.9-7.0 mph, 5 min cooldown
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Saturday: 3.1 miles run in 36:42*, 5 min cooldown

* I was massively hungover when I did this run. I also did this run on shitty treadmill - there are 4 treadmills in my gym, and 1 of them is keyed higher/faster than the other 3. I use this shitty treadmill on my Tues/Thurs intervals, but avoid it at all costs for my run days. On Saturday, it was the only treadmill open. And running it all, while massively hungover, on shitty treadmill - even though it was a minute slower than last week - totally made my day.

--K

Avoidance of the Gym

Right now, I'm doing exactly what the title of this post states. I managed to get myself out of bed around 9:30 am (which is honestly about 2-3 hours later than usual), drag myself out to the living room, plop my ass down, and not move for the last 45 minutes. I'll definitely work out today, but finding the motivation to start is going to take awhile apparently. Also, the cat is sleeping on my legs which are a little sore from yesterday, so it feels really good - and is definitely contributing to the "why do I have to move?" feeling I've got going on.

Last Sunday was my typical Sunday. I went and got my workout on, and then drug myself up to get a pedicure. I normally LOVE my pedicures - but this time I got a new lady (I think she was new). She was extremely rough, forgot half the steps - which I had to remind her about, and just generally made it so that the hour I was there was not a good hour. My toes look good though - but everything else just drove me nuts. After the pedicure, I was supposed to meet my bar friends for lunch, but I was extremely hungry at that point and they were still deciding where to go, so I just went home and ordered in food with Blondie. And then took a long nap. And then finally headed back out and met up with my bar friends at Pony Bar for several drinks.

Pony Bar was awesome last Sunday - when we came in, we immediately ordered beers, and before we had gotten half of the beer down, the bartender told us next rounds were on a gentleman in the back part of the bar. Apparently, the Walk for the Cure had happened last Sunday, and a bunch of walkers had taken over a large part of the bar (I was oblivious, and it certainly didn't feel any more crowded than normal). Anyway, one of the walkers asked the bartender to buy all the regulars a round on him. To quote our bartender: "You guys are in here every Sunday, sooooo drinks on that guy!" I love that I'm a regular at 3 bars around my house, whereas in SF and TX, I wasn't a regular anywhere.

The week was an incredible week to be honest - every day flew by. It was one of the fastest weeks I've had in a long time (except for Friday from about 3:18 pm onwards - 3:18 pm is when I happened to glance at the clock, and then I swear time ground to a halt). On Thursday, we had our last major code launch of the year, and it went fairly well. Afterwards, my BFF from work and I headed to lunch to celebrate being done. It's been a long year - and 2012 has been kind of shitty, so finishing up the last major code launch felt like a ton of weights lifted off my shoulders.

I took off early from work that day and took a bunch of cupcakes from my favorite bakery home to Blondie. We decided to take some of the cupcakes to the bar (as I truly bought a lot), so we headed over to spend the evening at our local spot, and just got caught up with everyone and enjoyed the evening.

Yesterday was spent doing nothing. I went to the gym in the morning, and then we watched TV all afternoon. Today we are waiting for our groceries to be delivered. And I might head to Pony Bar. And I might not because it's supposed to start raining in a few hours - the start of Frankenstorm Sandy.

This week should be a good week. I have to work Monday-Wednesday, but I'm curious how things play out because they are already talking shutting down MTA in the city. Which is how I get to work. Frankenstorm is supposed to nail us starting Monday night. We're watching our building friends' dogs this week also as they are both out of town - so it's up to their floor a couple of times this week to make sure the dogs are all good (a daschund and a chihuahua). And I have Thursday and Friday off this week - more on that to come, stop back by later on this week for details. SF trip is in 2 weeks, and we get a visit from Bbbb starting this coming Saturday! A lot of exciting plans!

Still keeping the workout train moving forward:
Sunday: 46 mins on bike - 2 mins level 6, 2 mins level 12, 5 min cooldown; weights
Monday: P90X Legs&Back
Tuesday: 30 min hill interval - 2 mins walk at 4.1 mph on 0% grade, 2 mins run at 5.3-5.7 mph on 3% grade, 5 min cooldown
Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance
Thursday: 3.1 mile speed interval - 36:23 - 2 min walk at 4.1 mph, 2 mins run at 5.8-7.0 mph, 5 min cooldown
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 35:43 (not on downhill treadmill!), 5 min cooldown; weights
Sunday: does sitting on my ass count as a workout? Either Precor or Yoga but haven't decided

--K

Good Day To You

Last Sunday didn't quite go as planned. I took my time being lazy after writing my blog post, and didn't get out of bed in time to go get a pedicure. So my feet looked like crap this week. But at least it's getting cooler so I kept my toes covered all week. Instead on Sunday, I finally got my ass out of bed, and drug Blondie with me around 1:30 pm to meet my bar friends at Pony. We spent the afternoon eating, drinking and chatting, before Blondie took off to get a nap in. My bar friends and I then moved down the street to another bar, and spent a few hours shooting darts there before calling it a day. I got home on Sunday night, said hi to Blondie and went straight to bed. Not a bad way to start/end a week.

My week was a weird week to be honest. Some good parts, some not good parts, some "what the fuck" parts.

Monday was "eh". I had a side system launch I had to be on a launch call for - which took 6 hours out of my day. The call went okay, but 6 hours on a headset really does a number on you. I felt stiff and sore by the time the day was down, but really happy that everything had gone okay. I didn't even get to catch up with my friends at work because of being on the call all day - so while the day went fast, it was super boring.

Tuesday was "good". Tuesday is one of my busiest meeting days and normally I hate it, but I had an unexpected break on Tuesday when one of my meetings cancelled, so my friend and I went to lunch (I'll be honest - I also blew off a non-cancelled meeting to do this). We spent about 1.5 hours out of the office, generally snarking on whatever came to mind. When I got back to the office after lunch, I also went ahead and booked my tickets out to SF. I had been going back and forth about whether I should go, but finally decided I would. I also managed to convince Blondie to come with me for a few days, so we'll be heading out on a Saturday in November, hanging with Shelbs and Bbbb for the weekend, seeing our SF friends on Monday, saying goodbye to Blondie on Tuesday, and then I'll be coming back on Thursday. It will be a nice mini-vacay with the Blonde One and I'm truly excited for it.

Wednesday was "what the fuck". One of my favorite people (not one of my BFFs, but just a good guy - awesome developer) gave his notice. It was a really sad day because he announced it very first thing in the morning. It took the wind out of my sails. And then I had to get back on a launch call for another 6 hours to finish up the launch from Monday. So I sat at my desk, a little depressed, on an extremely boring call for 6 hours. What the fuck indeed.

Thursday was "not good". The day started off with a meeting where someone announced that a problem we've had for awhile, that the technical teams didn't think was customer facing, was in fact, customer facing. So we spent the morning trying to figure out how to deal with that. They left it up to me to break it to the business that this was the case, which made me angry. Topped that off with another meeting which left a bad taste in my mouth, and still feeling blah about the person who had given notice on Wednesday, and I locked myself in my office for the afternoon for all my calls (normally I take calls with my office door open, but not on Thursday). I finally came out late afternoon after my calls were done, hung out in my BFF's office for awhile, and then called the day a disaster and left.

Friday was "eh". The weather was completely shitty on Friday (pouring down rain, not chilly but completely humid which made you sweat like crazy) so just trying to wake up on Friday morning was horrific. And the day went slow. The good part was that I found out that both of my BFF's will be in SF the week that Blondie and I are in SF. So work at least will be fun. The bad part was I just wanted my bed. Friday was a 3 cup of coffee day. I came home on Friday night, and Blondie was out (he had been at an all-day mobile gaming convention and had stayed out with some people he had met there), so I just watched my crappy TV shows, ate some eggs, and then crawled into bed.

Saturday made up for Friday big-time. It started with me getting on the scale - I've been super good about watching my food and working out, but I still dread weighing myself. I talked myself onto the scale on Saturday, and saw a number which is extremely low for me - making it around 30 lbs I've lost since August. I came dancing out to the living room in my underwear (yay for Blondie) and was just generally happy. I then headed to the gym and spent about an hour down there, before coming back up to the apartment to finish my workout. Blondie spent the afternoon working on something, and made HUGE progress, so around 4 pm, we decided to take the rest of the day and just enjoy it. We ordered some food, cuddled, watched TV, made a junk food run (pretzels, frozen yogurt), saw a girl puking in our lobby after our junk food run, watched more TV, and went to bed around midnight.

Today Blondie is going to finish up what he was working on yesterday, and I'm about to head to the gym. I will be getting a pedicure today as my toes are disgusting. And possibly I'll meet up with my bar friends at Pony this afternoon.

Workouts:
Monday: P90X Shoulders&Arms
Tuesday: 30 min hill run; 2 min walking at 4.1 mph on 0% grade, 2 min running at 5.3-5.5 on 3% grade, 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Wednesday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance
Thursday: 3.1 mile speed work run; 2 min walking at 4.1 mph, 2 min running at 5.8-6.5 mph (37:22), 2 minute cooldown
Friday: Insanity Max Cardio Recovery
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 36:03 (not on downhill treadmill!), 5 minute cooldown; little bit of weights; P90X Ab Ripper X
Sunday: ??? Headed to the gym - not sure if I'll bike it or elliptical it.

--K

Officially Official

I felt my age this week. Which is "almost 40". Actually, I felt about 20 years more than my age this week - so I guess "almost 60". Allergies combined with the let-down of no visitors after 2 weeks of visitors knocked me flat on my ass this week. Yay. Yay for getting old.

Tuesday I woke up with the sneezes. And when I get the sneezes, it happens like 20 times in a row before settling out. As soon as I started sneezing, I knew I was in for a bad week. Tuesday itself was okay, but I felt completely drained for the most part. I also get this feeling sometimes that my eyes are swelling shut - they aren't, they look completely normal, but I feel like I can't keep them open because glue is pulling them together - I had this feeling on Tuesday also. So yeah, it was a 4-cup-of-coffee day which I haven't had in awhile.

Wednesday I woke up and felt worse. No energy at all, sneezing, just flat out blah. I decided to take a sick day, texted my boss to tell her, and promptly went back to bed for 2 hours. When I woke up I felt better so I did a workout. And then crawled back in bed with Blondie to watch TV the rest of the afternoon.

Also, Wednesday was our official anniversary - making 9 years officially official. I wish I would've felt better but it was still a nice day. While we were watching TV in bed, Tigga joined us so basically we had a family afternoon being lazy. After a bunch of TV, we made dinner - Blondie grilled up some filet mignon and then did a big pot of mushrooms and onions. It was sooooo tasty! I inhaled my plate and immediately claimed the leftovers for lunch on Thursday.

Thursday it was feeling no worse (no better) but it was back to work anyway. The day flew by - I felt like I barely got to work and it was over. Not sure why, because I didn't have a lot of meetings or anything, but it was one of those "blink and it's over" days. I got home that night and Blondie suggested our local bar for dinner - I was totally in as it had been almost a week since we had stopped over to visit. Blondie had shepherd's pie for dinner and I had caesar salad and whiskey. And we got caught up with both our bartender and the weekend bartender who happened to be hanging out. Our bartender wanted to know where Mr Pooh was, and when he would be back - which tickled me because everyone in NYC who has met Mr Pooh loves him.

Friday made up for Thursday in that it felt like it took forever. Blondie was going to come meet me for lunch at 1 pm, and then my BFFs decided to go to lunch at 12:15 pm, so I decided to hang with them until 1 and then meet Blondie. But Blondie loves these guys so he came over early and all 4 of us went for sushi and then fro-yo. Blondie loves the fro-yo place as it's self-serve; he kept saying "I'm so glad we don't have one of these by our house!".

The weather was kind of crappy and chilly all day on Friday. When I finally got done on Friday, I decided to walk home - something about that kind of weather made me want to saunter 2 miles through the city. It felt like walking weather. I actually thoroughly enjoyed my walk home, made even better by an older gentleman (late 50's, early 60's) who started a conversation with me as we made our way past Pony (close to my apt) about the song Down Under - he just came up and said "have you ever had a really bad song stuck in your head?" and it went from there. He was walking my direction slightly, so we talked for about a block before he struck off. After that, for the rest of my trip, all I could think was "vegemite sandwich".

Friday night and Saturday were lazy to the extreme. We ordered in mexican for dinner on Friday, and then got in bed and watched The Dictator - which made us both laugh until we about peed ourselves. Saturday I did a long workout in the gym, finished up in the apt, showered, got back in bed and was still lying there about 2 hours later watching TV. We spent most of the day watching episodes of "Once Upon a Time" off Netflix before ordering in pizza for dinner.

2 days of downtime was needed though as I'm feeling a bit better now - more energy anyway. I'm off in about 10 mins to get a pedicure, and then it's meeting up with my bar friends and possibly my building friends for Sunday Funday.

Workouts! Woot, everyone's favorite:
Tuesday: 30 mins hill run; 2 min walking at 4.1 mph on 0% grade hill; 2 min running at 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill; little bit of weights
Wednedsay: Insanity Max Cardio Interval (60 minutes of hell)
Thursday: 3.1 mile speedwork run; 2 min walking at 4.1 mph; 2 min running at 5.7-6.5 mph - 37:42 mins
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery; 2 mile walk home
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 36:22 (did my first mile in less than 11 mins; was NOT on downhill treadmill!); weights; P90X Ab Ripper X
Sunday: P90X Yoga

--K

WHEW! THANK YOU TO THE SUPER V's AND MR POOH!

Last Sunday took a turn when my bar friends texted around 1 pm to come meet them at Pony Bar. Blondie was waiting for his sis and her family to show back up, so I went up without him to hang out. We tried out some new items on the Pony Bar menu (fish donuts = suprisingly YUM), and enjoyed several frosties. We had just tabbed out to head to another bar when Blondie texted that his sis was there. So I took my leave of my bar friends and headed home to hang with the fam. We spent the evening catching up on their weekend, playing with the nieces, and enjoying some Ethiopian food before heading to bed for an early night.

Monday was a crazy day. I had taken the day off from work, and so we headed out around 11 am to go to Lombardi's for pizza. We all split a salad (crazy good) and breadsticks, and then Blondie and I got sausage and mushroom pizza and The V's got prosciutto and tomato pizza. Um, shame face, but I also had a sangria with my lunch. After Lombardi's we headed over to show The V's the Freedom Tower - we were going to wait for them to tour the memorial but it was a 4 hour wait for tickets and none of us wanted to hang out that long.

From Freedom Tower, it was back up the island to go through FAO Schwarz. I was in heaven almost instantly as this time I found the candy, and they had a gummy bear as big as my head. I took my picture with it, and sent it to my SF friends who know my love of all things gummy. Afterwards, we played a lot with the nieces on some train sets and the giant piano, before sneakily buying the 2.5 year old niece a Hello Kitty I Love NY doll. FAO Schwarz is almost directly across from Central Park, so after the store, we headed into the park to crash out (adults) for a bit and play (kids) for a bit. The day was beautiful so we found a nice patch of lawn in the sun, and watched the kids run around. We then cut all the way back across the park to the John Lennon Memorial and Dakota complex, before catching a train back to our hood. Dinner that night was at our peruvian restaurant, complete with a couple of glasses of sangria.

I had to go back to the office on Tuesday but it was all good - I got completely cleared from the cervix scare in August (everything healed and looks fabulous) so that made my day aok. I met Blondie and The V's for dinner at a local italian place that night, and afterwards we bought a bunch of sweets to end our night. Wednesday it was a goodbye to The V's - they headed back home. It was soooo good seeing them - their kids are dolls, and they rock themselves! Work that day felt a lot longer - I was sad to say goodbye, but then also looking forward to Mr Pooh arriving. So just a really long day.

Thursday sucked. My role at work is an amalgamation of a lot of different pieces, and another one got dumped on me on Thursday. I spent the morning talking to my friends about it, trying to decide if I would say yes or not. I ended up talking myself into a shitty mood, so the 3 of us (my 2 friends and I) took off for a long lunch. Where I also talked myself into saying yes. Pbbbtttt....

Friday was WAY BETTER than Thursday. It started off with a 2.5 hour work out in the gym, and then Mr Pooh was here! I showered up and then me, Mr Pooh and Blondie took off for Lombardi's - yes, we ate there Monday and Friday. We split a salad again, and then a large pizza with sausage on it all, and spinach on half and meatballs on half. Mr Pooh and I downed a pitcher of Stella also. After lunch, we walked over to NYU and hung out in Washington Sq Park for awhile. We listened to a brass band play some songs, made fun of the naked hairy guy, and cringed at Pigeon Man (a guy covered in pigeons). Mr Pooh tried to convince Blondie to take a picture with Pigeon Guy but Blondie didn't go for it.

After the park, we headed back to our hood and stopped at poison bar to waste the afternoon away. One of my bar friends joined us also, and we got pleasantly tipsy. It was then a trek over to our local bar to end the evening. Well, almost end the evening. The real end of the evening came with a stop at 7-11, and then eating junk food while watching Rock of Ages. All in all, a fabulous start to the weekend.

Saturday I convinced Mr Pooh to work out with me, and then we took a walk over to the High Line park and walked all the way down it. We did this because David Blaine was in town doing a stunt at the end of the High Line (Electrified!). Mr Pooh and I stopped to see him - it was free and nobody was in line. We got about 20 feet from him and then laughed for like 5 mins. It was pretty cool, but also pretty cheesy.

After David Blaine, we caught a train down to Chinatown and did some shopping before heading back to our hood and meeting up with Blondie for lunch. After lunch, we stopped for a few beers before crashing out for a nap and a movie that afternoon. Around 5:30 on Saturday, Mr Pooh and I headed out for another walk. We hit Hudson River Park and saw the Intrepid, and walked about 1.5 miles up towards Harlem, before cutting over to the west side. We made our way to Central Park, had a really long serious conversation about what we would do if we saw Alec Baldwin (and also a really long conversation about how fun it would be to drunk-heckle David Blaine at 4 am), and then wound our way around Columbus Circle.

On our way back to the hood, I mentioned to Mr Pooh that there was a whiskey bar I had been dying to try, so we stopped in there and had a blast. The bartender was awesome, he convinced us to try several really good bourbons, we had some great conversation, and we got "happy". We texted Blondie and he ended up coming out to join us, but he was starving, so it was a trip to an Irish bar down the street that had awesome fish&chips. And then we headed home, stopping of course at 7-11 for some tasty grub to finish the day.

Sunday we went for breakfast (bagels) and then were going to hit up Intrepid. But the line to get in was super long, so we decided to skip. We went back to the apartment and played a bunch of Fusion Frenzy before meeting up with one of my bar friends to watch the Packers (sigh. Seriously? Packers?) We cheered them on to no avail, got drunk, and ate some delicious nachos. After the game ended, Mr Pooh, my bar friend and I headed to Pony for a few drinks while Blondie headed home to relax/calm down after the shit show of a game. We eventually called Blondie to come meet us as we were going for fried pizza for dinner. Which ended up being not that great. The regular pizza rocked, but the fried pizza was too much like a doughnut and not enough like a pizza. After dinner, we caught a cab home, amused the fuck out of our cab driver with our drunk banter, and then said goodbye to my bar friend for the night. A drunk-face-time call to Mr Pooh's kids completed our night - they are SO adorable, and seeing their giggly faces made my night!

Today I walked Mr Pooh up to Penn Station - he's off to NJ for the week for work. It was hard saying goodbye - I know he would laugh at me if he saw me getting weepy so I basically just said "See you!" and ran. Work today actually went okay - I was very sad all day, but the meeting I was d.r.e.a.d.i.n.g turned out to have good news so that worked out well. I got home tonight and did a workout to clear my head once and for all. We ordered in peruvian for dinner, and now I'm ready to relax and do nothing for the rest of the night. And a big huge thanks to Mr Pooh for coming to visit also! We love you!

Workouts were still pretty dang good.
Monday: 45 mins on bike - 2 mins level 5, 2 mins level 9; 5 min cooldown; weights
Tuesday: 30 mins hill running - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk on 0% grade; 2 mins 5.3-5.5 mph run on 3% grade; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run - 37:42 - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 5.7-6.5 mph run; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: Insanity Cardio Recovery; P90X Ab Ripper
Friday: 2.5 hour workout - 3.1 mile run in 35:30*; 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; 10 min on bike - 5 mins at level 12, 5 min at level 13; 5 min cooldown; 10 min walk at 3.4 mph up 6% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; abs; stretching
Saturday: 28 min on Precor - 2 min at level 6, 2 min at level 10; 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Sunday: 20 mins on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 5.7-6.5 mph run; 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Monday: P90X Legs&Back

* = I felt great on my run, loved it - felt SO EASY. Then when I was riding the bike, I noticed that the treadmill I was running on didn't look flat. So I took a look after my bike ride - and realized the front of the treadmill dips down a little, so it was like running downhill the entire time. No wonder it was so easy.

--K

Lazy Fuckers

Alternate titles: "Lazy Fuckers - the Tigga edition"; "Shaking Boobs Time"; "It's Shake-n-Boobs and I Helped!"; "Blondie, I don't have a title today".

Lazy fuckers is an apt description this week. Again. Lazy.

Monday was my last launch day for the year. Well, not quite. I have a side-system launch in the next 2 weeks, and then the final launch for the year is at end of October (the NY office isn't involved in that launch but I'll still have to be on the call in case anything arises). Monday was kind of bad - the release got off to a very late start (3 hr delay due to issues the team that deploys was having). Then we started testing and the testing itself went okay - BUT, we found a problem after we put the code live. So I had to stay involved in that - they found the problem and came up with a resolution, which is when I took off for home. I dialed back in around 10 pm that night and we finished up the call/release. Putting the total release call time at 10 hours for the day. However, as whiny as I sound, I'm just glad it's done. DONE.

Tuesday my boss gave me permission to come in late due to how over the call ran the day before. So I slept in, hit the gym for a long time, cooked breakfast, read a book, etc, and then trucked into the office around 11 am. The day itself was pretty uneventful as everyone was either tired from the day before, or not involved in the day before but giving the people that were involved a break.

Wednesday felt off to me - all of our code releases typically happen on a Tuesday, except for this one we just came off of. So 2 days after the code release, and it felt like a Thursday to me. But it wasn't. It was still Wednesday. I had the worst time trying to reconcile the actual day with what day it felt like. And it made the day feel like it took FOREVER.

Thursday was our anniversary. I had a bit of a hard time with it because I was missing Max like crazy. It's days like those that make me glad I have an office with a door that shuts (and locks). I had a little cry at my desk, and then got a grip on myself to finish out the day. I left work early that day because Blondie and I had 6 pm dinner reservations at a steak house between our apartment and the play we were going to see. The steak house was really good - I started with a beet salad and a bourbon cocktail, and then had a 8 oz filet (rare - always) with a side of mushrooms (all different types of mushrooms - not just button - sliced then and sauteed - and INCREDIBLE); and finished with a slice of cake and a JWB neat. I only ate 2 bites of cake and then packed the rest to bring home because I was full as fuck at that point. Blondie had a lemonade and a side salad to start, and then moved to a 8 oz hangar steak (medium rare - blasphemy) with mashed potatoes and broccolini; and then had a slice of key lime pie for dessert. Our waitress rocked, and regaled us with tales of celebrities she had waited on at that restaurant - mostly because I had a bourbon cocktail on an empty stomach and then was rambling on and on about Johnny Depp and how I wished he would come to Broadway. Blondie got to laughing at me, and then started quoting "Lost in Translation" by covering his face with his fingers and holding up my empty bourbon glass and saying "I'll just wonder where the whiskey is". All in all, a great dinner to end my day.

After we finally left dinner, we headed over to see our play "Grace" starring Paul Rudd and Ed Asner. It was in the same theater as the very first play we saw on Broadway which was "View from the Bridge" starring ScarJo and Liev Schrieber. "Grace" was amazing - it started out by playing a scene backwards; which was breathtaking to watch. And they used the backwards trick 2 others times in the play - that is, they'd do a scene forward; and then stop and do the whole scene backwards (for example, you'd hear: "Hi, How are you?, I'm good"; and going backwards it would be "I'm good, How are you?, Hi"). Paul Rudd is an amazing actor, and we left the play with Blondie saying it was the best play of all of them that he's seen. (The play is still in previews for another week).

The plot of "Grace" is that Paul Rudd and his wife are evangelical christians, just moved to Florida, who are opening up a chain of evangelical hotels. Ed Asner is the exterminator who periodically sprays down their apartment. Paul Rudd's wife falls in love with their neighbor (Michael Shannon), has an affair with him, and then tells Paul Rudd's character she wants a divorce (this is after Paul Rudd gets fucked over by the investors in his hotel venture). The ending was not a surprise (because the play actually started with the ending, and then worked it's way back to the ending), but the ending/beginning blew my mind. Seriously. Go. See.

On our walk home, we started talking about the worst play we had seen (Blondie = Hair; me = Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark) and cut through Times Square. But Times Square was crazy crowded, so the first off street we could get, we turned down. And then, LALALALLALALLALA - we saw the marquis for what is coming to Broadway: A Christmas Story - The Musical!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, Ralphie and the lamp leg are coming to Broadway for xmas this year!

We got home that night in really good moods, and walked into the apartment to meet up with Blondie's sis and her family (husband, 2 daughters). We chatted with them for a bit, played with the kids; and then Blondie gave me a gift for our anniversary. Which is an awesome shirt that says "I love Sriracha" on it (to stress, I LOVE SRIRACHA, so it's totally appropriate shirt!). I crashed out around 11:30 pm that night.

Friday I said goodbye to Blondie's sis' clan and headed to work; it was a long day to get through, just felt really tired and ready for the week to be over. Friday night Blondie and I ordered in mexican and then watched TV all night. Saturday we took it easy - I did a really long workout in the gym, and then we went and grocery shopped. Blondie cooked burgers and a ton of vegetables and we ate those for lunch. After that, I logged in and bought us tickets for A Christmas Story (oh yes, we are going to see that the day before Thanksgiving). And then for dinner last night, Blondie made homemade chicken soup. And today we're taking it easy again. Blondie's sis' family will be back this afternoon for 3 days, so getting some downtime in before the 2 kids sap my energy. How is it that a 1 year old and a 2 year old have WAY MORE ENERGY than me?

Plans coming up include hanging with Blondie's sis' family on Monday (day off); and then with Mr Pooh on Friday (day off). We have tickets to see Louis CK in person in October; and our Christmas Story tickets in November. I'm looking for ideas to do this weekend with Mr Pooh - Giants game? Broadway show? Taking it easy?

Workouts were again spot on:
Monday: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Tuesday: Started off trying to do hill interval; got 1.5 uphill intervals and just couldn't do it anymore (7.5 mins total). So then moved to just speed intervals: 3.1 miles at 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph and 2 mins running at 5.7-6.5 mph for 37:42 total + 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; abs
Wednesday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance
Thursday: Hill intervals - made them my bitch (didn't have to walk a single uphill one)! 30 mins at 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph on 0% grade; 2 mins running at 5.3 mph on 3% grade. 5 min cooldown
Friday: 28 min Precor - 2 mins at level 5; 2 mins at level 9; 5 min cooldown; weights; abs
Saturday: 3.1 mile run - ran it all without stopping in 38:08; 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; abs.
Sunday: P90X yoga

--K

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

9 years ago today, Blondie and I tried to make it official. It didn't take. But we still celebrate. And we'll celebrate again on 10/10 when it did take.

This celebration has an undertone of sadness to me though. I absolutely am 100% aware I'm about to sound like crazy cat lady, and I'm absolutely 100% aware that there of some of you reading this who are about to roll your eyes and think "christ woman, your cat died 7 months ago, get over it!", but I'm going to say it anyway. Our family consisted of 4 members almost since the get-go (me, Blondie, Tigga, Max). And this will be our first year celebrating without one of those members. And it breaks my heart

So today, I'm going to try to focus on the positive. Which is 9 years officially with Blondie (12.5 years including dating) - he stuck with me through the ups and the downs, and I'm grateful for that. I'm also going to focus on Tigga - he's an awesome cat and I'm thankful everyday he's with us. And I'm going to focus on Max - and hope that wherever he went, he knows how much he was loved and how we have big gaping holes in our hearts because he's no longer around.

And then I'm going to get through work today, and meet Blondie for a delicious steak dinner and possibly a whiskey. And then we'll see a play on Broadway (Grace) and we'll geek out over seeing Paul Rudd again in person (first time was at a taping of The Daily Show - Dec 2010). And then we'll go home and Blondie's sis and her family will be at our apartment and we'll get to catch up with them.

Sending love out into the universe today, for as much as I'm sad, I'm grateful for my life.

--K

Started good, ended not good

I want to apologize off the bat because Blondie and I were l.a.m-to-the-e this week. I'm dead serious. It was one of those weeks where leaving the apartment sounded like hell. And I don't know why because with the exception of Tuesday, it was a gorgeous week.

Monday was a suprisingly good day. The reason being that my boss was out sick. I know how that sounds - and I want to clarify that I ADORE my boss (really and truly - she is a good egg and honestly cares about me and if I'm happy at work). But it's nice when she's out as she's really good at what she does and I always feel like I'm 3 steps behind her on everything. I left a slight bit early that day because I had been too tired to work out in the morning, and wanted to get an easy workout in that evening before dinner. So all in all, a good Monday.

Tuesday was a blah day. Nothing special happened - my boss did call in sick again, but then I was worried for her because she never calls in sick - so taking 2 days off in a row meant she was really really sick. I also learned an important lesson on Tuesday. The lesson is "when there is a wind advisory for NYC, don't wear a dress with a full skirt".

Wednesday was a quiet day with the exception that my bar friends flew back from California that day! They texted around 6 pm to come meet them for drinks to get caught up, so I grabbed Blondie and we headed to our local to say hi. They had taken the red-eye back, gotten in that morning so it wasn't long before the husband headed home. But the wife stayed with us for a long while, just shooting the shit and laughing with our bartender. Afterwards, we headed over to check out a little bodega that had opened in her building (our buildings are kitty corner from each other). While in the bodega, she pointed out that a 7-11 was being opened in the first floor of our building. Which led Blondie and I to discuss the many disgusting things we could buy at 3 am. A text to Mr Pooh and he came up with the winner - which was a slim jim and a big gulp - and he pointed out we could buy this stuff with no shoes on as it's in our building.

Thursday SUCKED. We have a launch going out tomorrow, and on Thursday, the QA team found 2 major issues with the release. We heard about the first one and then immediately I had to start tracking down people to investigate, etc. While I'm in the midst of dealing with the first issue, QA mentioned the second issue - I gave that to another developer to investigate. Which he did - he found the issue, and then instead of telling me, he decided to try to fix it himself in the code which is a giant fat WRONG this late in the game. And he knows this. I went OFF on this guy - he's been around for 5 years, he knows how we handle issues found 2 days before launch. There was a lot of yelling on my part (his boss was out otherwise I would've left it up to him), and then I had to start tracking down people to deal with the checkin fuck-up. Both of these issues took all day, several angry phone calls to me (the anger was directed at the checkin fuck-up dev, not me, but I was the one communicating it all out so I got the brunt of it), and 500000 thoughts of "want.to.quit.so.badly". But by the time I got home that night (late), it was sorted out and we were still on track for Monday.

Friday morning was spent coming up with a plan for issue #1 from Thursday. Then Blondie texted that he wanted to come meet me for lunch - which was awesome sauce. We went for crack salad again, and just hung out for a bit. I headed back to the office, relieved there was only 3.5 hours left. Around 5:40 pm, I started packing up my desk and just as I was about to lock my computer, my IM went off. And it was the SF office with another giant issue. I rounded up my boss and my boss' boss and we joined a conf call to discuss the issue - which after an hour of back-and-forth, we halted our release. We sent out all emails to interested parties, decided we'd revisit on Monday, and then I took off. To get home to a text msg from my boss' boss telling me the issue was a false alarm and we were still a go for tomorrow.

Yesterday Blondie and I both woke up at 5 am - and then spent 30 mins talking, and then realized we were up for the day. Around 8:30 am, I headed down to the gym and spent 1.5 hours there. Then Blondie and I headed for peruvian food for lunch around 1 pm. Afterwards, we came home and crashed for a few hours - afternoon autumn naps are the best - and then ordered our groceries online. Last night we watched a bunch of TV shows - we had DVR'd the pilot for The New Normal and fell in love with it - so we caught up with all those eps On Demand last night.

Today I slept in a little better (7 am) and then headed down to the gym before finishing up the workout in the apartment. I'm meeting my bar friend in an hour for a few beers and lunch, but no other plans other than getting our groceries this afternoon.

Thursday this week is our anniversary - we have tickets to see "Grace" on Broadway. It's a play (not a musical - Blondie is happy) starring Paul Rudd and we got pretty awesome seats for it. We're also going to dinner beforehand. My release is tomorrow which is the last one I'm actively participating in for the year - woot! And the next 2 weeks will see Blondie's sis and Mr Pooh showing up for NYC visits! I also have to head to SF in November, so will spend 1.5 weeks out there so I can visit with Shelbs and Bbbb without work interferring. Big plans folks, big plans.

And it's officially getting cold here. Pbbbbttttt.

Workouts:
Monday: P90X Stretching, P90X Shoulders&Arms
Tuesday: 30 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 2 mins running at 5.3 mph up 3.0% grade hill - had to walk 2 of the 7 "uphill" stretches which sucked; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance
Thursday: 30 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 2 mins running at 5.6-6.0 mph; 5 min cooldown; weights
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery; P90X Ab Ripper X; tabata push-up interval
Saturday: 3.1 miles in 39:42 (hahahah - SO BAD); 5 min cooldown; ton of weights
Sunday: 45 mins on bike - 2 mins at resistance 5, 2 mins at resistance 9; 5 min cooldown; P90X Stretching.

--K

I felt like running this week

Hello from a city that is gearing up for fall! Our temps have started dropping and are now in the 70's for a high. That means it's time for 1 thing - autumn. Autumn is okay - not my fav season (summer), not my least fav season (winter). Just got to start getting the sweaters ready again.

Also, big shout out to Blondie! His game is #8 in Top New Paid A&A games, and #28 on Top New Paid Games in general on Droid! And his reviews are looking so good! Again, I'm sooooooo proud of him!

So this past Monday was good - after my workout, Blondie and I headed up to poison bar for lunch. Our normal waiter wasn't there, so we didn't get blitzed on our outing - which was nice. Instead, we both ordered salads, and I had a beer, and we called it quits. It was amazing. I don't think I've ever left poison bar without at least 2 shots. After lunch, we did our grocery shopping and then headed home to crash out for the day.

Tuesday it was back to work - the day went fast as I was desperately trying to catch up with everything from being out for 2 days. But it was over before it started. Wednesday also went fast - my BFF from the SF office was in town, so I got caught up with him in the morning. Then 1 of my BFFs from the NY office and I went to lunch - and neither of us had any meetings to get back quick for, so we took a bit longer. It was a nice break - even though I had just had 4 days off, Wednesday for me is a bitch to get through.

Also on Wednesday, we decided to hire a cleaning service for the first time ever (except for 1 time right before we put our TX house on the market and needed it sparkling to sell) - I came home on Wed night to a beautifully clean / clean smelling apt; totally worth the money we spent. We're going to try to do the cleaning service once every 4-6 weeks - our apartment is really f'ing tiny, but it's still a pain to keep clean. Both of us work long hours, both of us workout almost daily, and we have a cat who sheds like it's his job - I know a lot of people do all this and even more, and still find time to clean, but for us, it's worth it to have someone come in to help.

Thursday went SUPER FAST. In the morning, I was doing some testing for one of my projects and found a big bug. I called the developer in to help me debug, but (I'm a bit bitter about this even though I LOVE this guy) he insisted it wasn't anything he did/could help figure out, so he bailed to leave me to it. While in the midst of debugging, my SF friend came by and we decided to head to lunch where I got to meet my SF friend's new boyfriend. The 3 of us headed out for cuban for lunch, and it was just a fun time getting to chat, relax, and get caught up on life. Afterwards, we slowly meandered back to the office, running into about 5 of our coworkers on the way. I then started debugging the issue again, and about an hour later, found the problem in the code so had to call the developer in to show him. To give him credit, he was thoroughly embarrassed about it all - but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. I have a lot of different roles at my company, but one of them is not debugging code someone else wrote.

Friday was nice - it was my first full Friday back after summer Fridays, so I was kind of dreading it. But it was actually okay. To start with, Blondie came over to my side of town to get some blood work done - he was done around noon, so we got to meet up for lunch. We did crack salad (I told Blondie for about 2 years about crack salad, and then finally took him some home over the summer - and now he's addicted to it too. I swear this salad is crazy good), and then chatted for a bit, before Blondie headed home to crash out. On my way back into the office, I ran into my other BFF and he wanted to get out for awhile, so I headed out with him to sit while he ate some lunch. Afterwards, it was just counting down until the day was done. I got home on Friday night around 5:45 pm and Blondie was already in bed, and he didn't get back up until Saturday - he had hurt his neck a bit on Thurs night so didn't sleep well then - and made up for it on Friday night. So I spent Friday night watching my shows (Glee, Project Runway) and then dove into old eps of SATC. All in all, not a bad way to spend Friday. ** My bar friends are in CA last week and this week or otherwise I would've met up with them.

Yesterday I headed out and got a mani/pedi - I normally never get a manicure for 2 reasons - one is that I'm rough on my hands (always on a computer), the second is that I have ridiculously small fingers - no matter how much weight I gain, these fingers remain bony and small. It's weird. And manicurists have a habit of making comments about my little fingers so I tend to avoid any attention to them. ANYHOO, in Chicago last weekend, I got a manicure for Slick's wedding, and Blondie must've made 5 comments over the past week about how much he liked the manicure, so I've decided to get a mani each time I get a pedi. I felt great after the mani/pedi - all relaxed and enjoying my nails. Gave Blondie a call and we then went to do some grocery shopping, and then home to make lunch. We did nothing the rest of the day yesterday - just watched TV/movies, and went to bed around 9 pm.

Today we got up early so we could hit up the 10 am showing of Total Recall ($7 movies before noon). I actually really liked Total Recall - I didn't think I would but ended up getting totally into it. Afterwards, we hit up a street fair for a bit before heading to Southern Hospitality for lunch. Now we're home, relaxing - watching TV yet again.

Workouts were good again! I'm down about 15-20 lbs as of Thurs morning (I didn't look at my weight when we first started watching it in August but had a pretty good idea about how porky I was based on my how clothes were fitting). And for some reason, all I wanted to do this week was run - I didn't fight it, I'm just happy I wanted to do something. My runs were still really bad, but I still wanted to do them - so I did!

Tuesday: Wii Fit Island Workout - Hard level
Wednesday: 30 mins hill run - 2 min walk at 4.1 mph; 2 min run at 5.3 mph up 3.0% grade hill + 5 min cooldown + weights
Thursday: 30 mins fast run - 2 min walk at 4.1 mph; 2 min run at 5.5-5.8 mph + 5 min cooldown + weights
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 39:20 (EEK - SLOW!) + 5 min cooldown + weights
Sunday: 20 mins fast run - 2 min walk at 4.1 pm; 2 min run at 5.6-6.0 mph + 5 min cooldown + abs (had to get finished to make the 10 am movie!)

--K

Windy City

I luuuuuurve a short week. Coming back to work last Tuesday was more than fine, as it was 1 of 3 days that I needed to be at the office last week. AOK in my book.

Tuesday went fast - catching up from the long weekend took all morning, and then in the afternoon, it was back to the doctor. NOTE: I've debated about writing about this doctor's appt because I know you guys (the fam) read this - but finally came to the decision to write about it, simply because I do use this blog as a diary. Having said that, please do not freak out about this - I'm 100% FINE and don't want to talk about it anymore / ever again - I just want to write it down in case I have to ever remember when this happened.

Disclaimer noted - at the doctor's appt. 2 weeks ago at my semi-annual gyno appt, my doctor noticed a problem with my cervix. Test results came in on Tuesday last week and it was not cancer (PHEW); but they needed to go ahead and freeze out the offending bits. So Tuesday afternoon I headed in for the freeze - it only lasted 90 seconds, but it was like having the worst cramp of your life - and the cramp lingered around all day afterwards. Since then, I've been dealing with the aftermath of this - hint, if you freeze something, it eventually melts. And in this case, it's been melting for 7 days and can go on up to 3 weeks. FUN AND JOY. But, NOT CANCER! I'll take that anyday.

I went out with my BFF from work on Tuesday night after for a quick drink to celebrate the results, and then stuck a fork in the day and declared it a giant f'ing success! Wednesday I was on tap for another release call - which went on for (no joke) 10 hours. Non-stop. I ran the battery out of my phone and had to switch to a new battery at one point. Finally at 9:45 pm that night, the call ended. But Wednesday went fast because of it.

And Thursday, I took it easy - I finished up a bunch of tasks that I've been avoiding at work - they've been on my to-do list for a while, and it was a big sense of accomplishment to finally cross them off. I came home that night and got packed up, because Friday we took off bright and early for Chicago!

A note on NYC area airports - if you can, avoid JFK at all costs. I'm going to only ever try to fly out of JFK on my flights to SFO, or if we're going international. LaGuardia is so much nicer (smaller, less security lines, less taxi lines, etc) to get in and out of. We flew Delta Shulta to Chicago, and these shuttle flights rock. We figured out that the shuttles go between LGA and Boston, DC and Chicago - the planes are brand new - with 2 seats on each side of the aisle, and free bagels on the morning flights and free beer on the afternoon/evening flights.

We got to Chicago around 9:30 am Friday morning and cabbed to our hotel to drop our bags off. We putzed around in Lincoln Park for awhile before making the 2 mile trek (walk) to Gino's East. HEART! We split a small pizza and then cabbed back to our hotel and hung out/people watched in the lobby for awhile. After that, it was time for showers and then we met up with Slick and his dad in the hotel bar for a few drinks before heading over the rehearsal.

Slick and Mrs Slick (PFunk is getting renamed to Mrs Slick) got married on the lakefront in Lincoln Park - they had this old building that they used and the space was amazing. You had city views, lake views, etc. Overall it blew me away. The rehearsal was nice - it went fast and then they had a bartender and catered food for dinner. Afterwards, the other groomspeople and their spouses and me and Blondie hit up a bar in the Lincoln Park area. The bar had this giant bar jenga set (a jenga game made out of 2x4's) and we spent all evening playing that and drinking beers. The night ended around 11 pm and Blondie and I walked back (~1 mile) to our hotel and crashed.

I was up and at it early on Saturday - caught a cab out to Slick's neighborhood around 9 am and met up with Mrs Slick and the bridesmaids/moms for hair and nails. Around noon we went for a brunch before we caught our trolley over to the venue for the wedding. The trolley then went to go pick up the guys and bring them over, so I rejoined the groomspeople around 2:30. We spent an hour or so drinking beers and whiskey before we had to do our picture run. And then it was time for the wedding.

Slick and Mrs Slick are 2 of my favorite people in the world. And it took all my willpower not to cry during the wedding. They each had their officiant read a line about how they realized that the other one was "it" for them - and Slick's line was that "when he saw Mrs Slick smile, and he realized he wanted to be the one to make her smile for the rest of her life". OMG - the waterworks wanted to flow so bad at that point.

After the wedding, we did a few more pictures then it was time for cocktail hour and dinner. Dinner was awesome - they did a BBQ (pulled pork, chicken) and they had a ton of sauces on the side to put on them. After dinner, more cocktails and a lot of dancing. We were supposed to go back out after the wedding ended, but it had started pouring rain at that point, so everyone hopped the trolley back to the hotel, and then Blondie and I snuck up to our room, hit the bed, and zonked.

Yesterday was spent getting back to NYC - the flight went perfectly well, and we were in a cab out of the airport 10 minutes before we were even supposed to land (again, LGA - all the way). We ordered in Indian food for dinner last night and then I spent the evening watching crappy movies off Netflix while Blondie played on his computer.

I have the day off today (recovery) and have already spent a couple of hours at the gym, and Blondie and I have big plans to grocery shop this afternoon. It's gorgeous outside right now, so can't wait to get out and walk a few blocks in the sun.

Now it's time for workouts - but I have to say, that amazingly enough Blondie and I did not blow it in Chicago. We both keep our portions under control, and I even pushed away food when I was hitting the full feeling. It was sooooo nice to have the weekend, and not feel like I had to fart every 3 secs (what happens when I stuff myself). So kudos to us for keeping things on the healthy side this weekend.

Workouts:
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance
Thursday: 30 minutes on treadmill; 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph; 2 mins running at 5.6-5.8 mph; + 5 min cooldown + weights
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery (at 4:45 am) + 2 mile walk to Gino's East + 1.5 mile walk to bar and hotel after rehearsal
Saturday: None (wedding stuff all day)
Sunday: None (travel + lazy)
Monday: 1 hour running on treadmill - 4.62 in 60 mins; 4.93 after cooldown; 1 hour of weights

--K