FUCK YOU 2012

Our absolutely beloved, adored cat left this planet on Thurs, Feb 16, 2012. He was the best of the best, a sweet, loving, social kitty, without a bad bone in his body. While we knew he was older, we thought we still had 3-4 more years with him, and it hurts so fucking much that we didn't.

I had taken Max into the vet in December, and he had been cleared for everything except possibly something wrong with his brain. We didn't run the tests at that time, because I didn't want to know about it if he did have something wrong with his brain, and also, he had gone blind so I contributed a lot of what he was going through to that. Well folks, guess what? He had something wrong with his brain.

I came home from work on Wednesday, and noticed that he was lying in bed, but kind of propped up on 1 leg. He's not normally an in-bed cat (unless we were all in bed together) so I immediately knew something was up. I started to pet on him and he just looked really out of it - his head wouldn't turn to follow my voice, etc. I got changed out of my work clothes and went out to ask Blondie how long Max had been acting funny. When I turned around, Max was at my feet, so I picked him.

Max let me hold him all night. We tried to get him to drink some water out of my water glass, which he normally loves to do, but he wouldn't. He put his head in the glass, but didn't drink - I don't know if he forgot what to do, or was just too tired to drink. We put some soft food out, and while normally he would go to town on it, he just drug himself in a circle in front of his food plate. I think I knew then, it would be his last night.

We also happened to notice that one of his pupils was back to normal sized. Normally both were fully dilated as he's blind. But one had shrunk back down to a normal cat sized pupil. I called my mom and she mentioned stroke, so Blondie looked up stroke, and sure as shit, we knew immediately Max had stroked. We decided to keep him comfortable (it was late at this point) and call our in-house vet in the morning as soon as she started her office hours (she works from the building and comes to your unit).

At 2:30 am, Max seized. He was still in my arms and it woke me up. It was minor, about 30 secs long, but his breathing was rapid for 5-10 minutes after. He seized again at 4 am. And at 5:50 am, he managed to pull himself out of my arms, and seized against my feet. Blondie came out early and I started crying as soon as I saw him b/c I knew in my heart that Max was going to have to be put down. Blondie held him while I showered (around 7 am) and Max seized while I was in the shower. We made the decision at that point just to go to the vet's office as we knew our in-house vet wouldn't be able to do the proper diagnostic care. We called at 9 am, the vet could see us at 10 am, and at 9:10 am Max seized one last time - it was the worst one. Every seizure was worst than the last, and at that point, we don't know when he ate/drank last. He was completely out of it, I just kept hugging on him and telling him I loved him.

We got to the vet, gave him our papers that had the seizures tracked, and the look on his face was on one of "guys, this is BAD". He sad that a cluster of seizures, getting worse in intensity, meant his brain (see the December visit) was the problem. There was nothing they could do - they could try to get the seizures to stop (no guarantee on anything), if they could get the seizures to stop they could run MRIs to see what was the problem (no guarantee on anything), and if the MRI run was successful, there was no guarantee that his problem would be curable.

Blondie and I made the agonizing decision to give our Max a peaceful send off. We stayed with him and loved on him until it was done. He had no idea what was being done to him, the only time he lifted his head from 5:50 am seizure until he died was when the put the needle into his leg to sedate him - he pulled his head up at that point and tried to look down his body and then immediately put his head back down. He died around 10:10 am.

The pain that I feel is intense. I'm absolutely heart broken. My fuzzy buddy, with his mean mother fucker face (persian cat, he always looked angry even though he wasn't), isn't here to get his loves and pets. He's not here to talk with me (he was the chatterbox of the 2 cats), or snuggle with me in bed at night. I keep thinking he's going to walk on up, and when he doesn't, it makes the heart ache even worse.

Tigga knew something was going on. He knew since December when he started keeping his distance from Max, and by default, anyone that loved on Max. On Max's last day, around 6:30 am, he sat down about 5 feet from us, and stared at Max until we left. He didn't hiss or growl (his normal thing to do to Max) but just watched. And since we came back without Max, he's been a loving caring cat, he's the one who wants the loves now (he gets them) and he's the one that constantly has to be on someone. He knows Max is gone, and he knows that Blondie and I miss him terribly. I predict Tigga is going to rapidly become the most spoiled cat in the world.

The other news from the week is that my PA friends and their 2 kids came into the city on Friday. We went out with them all day long, which helped my head a little as I couldn't cry in front of them. We saw the Intrepid Air and Space Museum - a huge aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. The boys loved it (the boys = the 2 kids and Shaun). Afterwards, we walked up to Times Square for ice cream, before catching the subway to FAO Schwarz. We saw the giant piano from Big (only $250,000), I got my picture taken with a full-sized replica of Johnny Depp from Pirates done as legos, and then I saw an old-timey Play-Doh Barber Shop set! My mom hated that set b/c you had to poke out the hair holes with a toothpick when you were done playing, and us kids always managed to "be busy" when it was time for that. After FAO Schwarz, it was back to Times Square to see M&M World, before hitting up our fav mexican joint for dinner. Then it was home to bawl my head off as I had held everything in all day. Saturday, I refused to leave our house, and then yesterday, we went to see "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark" on Broadway - 70 million dollars worth of suck. Blondie and I can't figure out how they needed 70 million to make the play, but I will say the flying scenes with Spidey and Green Goblin were pretty cool. Afterwards, we went for cajun before coming home to watch TV in bed.

I have today off, and I'm going to spend the day drinking, missing Max, and crying. If you have a pet you love, give them extra special hugs and kisses from us today. If you don't have a pet, then give someone you love extra special hugs and kisses from us today. And if everyone can just tell 2012 to go fuck itself, I would be really grateful.

To my buddy Max - wherever you are - I miss you so fucking much. I hope that you have no breathing problems where you are, that it's full of milk and tuna juice, and that you've found Murphy, Bianca, Bad Cat, Baby, Geechy Toes, Bee, Harry, Sassy, Bella and all the other pets that have gone before you to play with. I love you.

--K

The good and the bad

Super Bowl Sunday ended up being a good day. After Blondie took off for his guy meet-up prior to the SB, my bar friends texted. They had gotten a new puppy and were up in my building friends apartment, so I went upstairs to meet the puppy. I hung out there for a bit, before going back to my apartment to get ready for SB. I ended up at the bar first out of everybody, and just relaxed until my friends started to get there.

The Giants won, which was nice. Go NY team! But the best part was that Blondie and I bought into a pool before the game started, and ended up walking away with a 32" flat screen TV! I've been wanting to get a TV in the bedroom for months now, so this was perfect for us.

That was the good. The bad happened on Monday. I was waiting to cross the street to head into my office bldg on Monday morning. Stepped down off the curb, straight into a pothole (the same pothole that's been there the entire 2 years I've gone to work), and twisted my ankle something fierce. If it wasn't for the van parked along the curb that I fell into the back of, I might have broken my ankle. As it was, I hit the back of the van so hard that 5 people stopped to make sure I was okay.

I caught my breath, the entire time thinking "oh shit you dumbass, now you've done it". I tried to put some weight on it, and it just f'ing hurt. I hobbled into my bldg, got to my desk, and peeled my sock off to find absolutely nothing. It wasn't swollen, it wasn't black and blue. It just HURT. All day long I was in misery, and finally I took my sock off again around 3:30 pm, and sure as shit, it had puffed up BIG TIME. I went home early, and the 7 minute walk from the subway took over 20 minutes as it was shuffling steps. Blondie helped me get it iced, but it was too late - the next day when I woke up, I could hardly walk and the ankle was swollen and completely bruised.

Because of that, the week was definitely low key. It started feeling better around Thurs timeframe, but it's still swollen today. I took the week off from working out (Mon-Wed, I couldn't have done anything anyway, and Thurs-Sun, I was scared to do anything b/c of how swollen it is). I felt like I could've worked out today, but woke up really tired and the last thing I want is to step wrong on this again. So I'm going to work out tonight when I get home from work, when I'm awake and alert.

Blondie and I really didn't do much of anything this week. We mostly took it easy, watched TV, and stayed in. We did a massive grocery shop online on Saturday, before going out for perishables. We watched it snow Saturday morning for a little bit - I like to watch the snow as long as I don't have to go out in it. And that's it. Lame. Everything's lame man.

Keep your fingers crossed that this workout tonight goes okay. And that I can start running again tomorrow morning. A week off of my half-marathon training program is a bummer for me, especially as my runs the week before I did this were so good.

--K

Good One

Isn't it a pleasant surprise when I have a good week? As opposed to my typical "shitty", "bad", "craptacular", "any other adjective that is the opposite of good". It was a good week - a long week, but a good one.

Blondie's sis came back to stay the night last Sunday. She got in, and we putzed around for a bit, but then headed out to our favorite mexican restaurant - I love this place. It's a tiny little place, you walk by it and don't even know it's there. She and I both had some sangria, and we all ate the hell out of our food. BTW, you can add cactus to any meal there - we tried it one night when we were both a little blotto - and so good. We add it to everything. "Carnitas in red sauce with cactus please", and "Chicken in chipotle sauce with cactus please" - those are the orders we always give.

Monday was off to work again - things are starting to slow down with my sucky project, but it's still suckity suck. Just like last week. Blondie and I cooked an excellent meal at home that night - chicken, brussel sprouts, and rice. We eat out so much, that I crave home cooked food - and that meal did it for me. Hit the spot.

Tuesday, work again, but then we headed out to the bar on Tuesday night. They had drawn the Super Bowl squares and we wanted to see what numbers we had gotten - 1 and 6 (I can't remember what team has what number). But keep your fingers crossed that we see that at some point. We ate dinner there, had many drinks, and caught up with our bar friends and our bartender. A really good night.

Wednesday was low key. We cooked in again - made fajitas/tacos, and beans with chorizo. We shoveled it all in record time. When we left TX, we swore we'd never eat at chain restaurants again. Then we moved to SF, and there were no chain restaurants, so all we craved was, you guessed it, chain restaurant food. And now in NY, what I find myself truly craving is food cooked by us. I never thought I'd get tired of eating out, but it happened.

Thursday was a bad/good day (only 1 of these in a week is a good thing). Things blew up for my project on Thursday night, but it turned out some of my coworkers were around late, and we were able to talk through what happened and come up with a pretty good solution to the problem we were having. Also, I work with teams cross country for this project, and I've been feeling pretty shitty about how I'm doing in this role - my boss ended up forwarding me an email on Thurs night that the SF team had sent to her telling her how much they appreciate my work, and how hard of a worker I am.

Friday was a long day - I didn't feel right when I woke up, and couldn't shake the feeling all day. I felt like my eyes were swollen to little slits (they weren't), and I couldn't stop sneezing/yawning. I must've had 5 cups of coffee on Friday to no avail. I drug my ass home on Friday night, we ordered food in, and then we somehow found the strength to rally. We headed over to our bar and met up with our bar friend, before catching a cab to the West Village to see my other bar friend in her cabaret/burlesque V-Day show! My friend is such a good singer and performer. And I love seeing her troupe come together for these shows - these guys have a dream, and they are actively pursuing it. It makes me so happy to see them fighting to do what they love.

Saturday was a blah day - I felt pretty hung over. As tired as I was on Friday, I still managed to put down a Manhattan and 6 beers. And Blondie and I are trying to eat right again, so our meal on Friday was small and healthy. I made the decision to move my long run to today, and just did a regular workout on Saturday. We ordered in a late breakfast (egg whites, turkey, brocoli, and tomato omelet; fruit salad) and then made a very healthy dinner (pork chops, sauteed spinach, potatos) while watching Fast Five. I like the Fast and the Furious series pretty well, but Fast Five sucked. The "pulling a safe" scene at the end had me rolling my eyes so hard I'm sure people in Jersey could see me.

Today I woke up, felt uber tired (I can't seem to shake this) but made myself go down to the gym anyway. I made it the entire 4 mile run without stopping to walk (SQUEEEE!), and then headed out to run errands (cashing checks, pedicure). Blondie met me after my pedi, and we headed to a local argentinean restaurant for lunch. We split a roasted chicken, and beans, and I had tuna ceviche and Blondie had empanadas for appetizers. We're home now, relaxing before we head over to our bar to watch the Super Bowl tonight. I'm rooting Giants, just so I can go to a ticker tape parade. But honestly, I don't care who wins - which means I will really enjoy the game as I'm not freaking out like last year that the Packers wouldn't pull it off.

Everything else is good. Blondie is actively working out again since his neck is healed - which is awesome news. Max is blind as a bat, and follows me around like he's a dog always wanting attention. He gets it. He rides with me everywhere when I'm in the apartment - I pretty much carry him around at all times. Tigger is an ass - I don't know what crawled up his butt, but he pretty much hates everyone and everything. I like making him mad by resting my head on him (not full force, just putting my head lightly on his belly) - he hates when I do this, and just lays there rumbling and growling. It makes me laugh.

Workouts this week were GOOD - 14 days down, 70 days to go. It's still a pain in the ass to get myself out of bed in the morning, but know I feel better when I do workout, so I've been trying to just remember that when the alarm goes off.

Monday - Strength Day - P90X Shoulders & Arms
Tuesday - Run Day - 3 miles in 39:16 (shamefully slow - walked part of it)
Wednesday - Run Day - 2 miles in 23:52 (ran it all, 11:xx min miles!!!! Below 12 min miles is awesome for me right now) + weights
Thursday - Run Day - 3 miles in 38:15 (walked only 2 mins of it) + weights
Friday - Rest Day (knocked this one out of the park)
Saturday - Cross Training Day - Insanity Pure Cardio disc
Sunday - Run Day - 4 miles in 49:32 (RAN IT ALL!!!!!!!!! Still very slow though) + weights

--K

Literally spent

Last Sunday ended on a down note as all of my teams (except the Giants) got knocked out of the running for the Super Bowl. At least it was fun as I met up with my bar friends for many drinks while watching the 49ers/Giants game. Blondie didn't come out, but we made sure to text him frequently so he knew what kind of fun he was missing.

Monday started half marathon training, and somehow, I managed to find the strength to do all my assigned workouts this week (I'll post them at the end of this). I'm not sure how I did it, but I drug myself through week 1 of training. Yay, 7 days down, 77 days to go. :) My thing about running is that I want to love it so much it's not funny, but I just don't. I love races, but I don't love the training required to be able to run races. Blah.

Also, on Monday, Blondie's sister showed up for a week of running around NYC. She's here for a conference, but came in a few days early in order to have some business meetings before her conference. Monday was a long day at work for me, just trying to get caught up from having the previous Friday off, but then I met up with Blondie and his sis on Monday night for Ethiopian food, before we headed over to our bar to introduce her to everyone. It was a good way to end a Monday.

Tuesday through Thursday work (I had Friday off again) was the same - it's killing me right now as we're trying to get this project ready for launch. My business partner for this project is "not good", so I've been having to do their role in addition to mine (writing reqts, making sure reqts are solid, comping out what we want the experience to look like). So I'll leave work talk as follows - SUCKITY SUCK. If that changes, I'll let you know.

For the fun stuff, Tuesday night was dinner at Colicchio & Sons (I had beef tartare and a prosciutto pizza - soooooo f'ing good; oh, and many whiskeys). We caught a cab back to our place afterwards and crashed out watching movies.

Wednesday we hit up Capizzi - a pizza place in our hood that we love. Blondie's sis and I split an eggplant parmesan pizza (holy crap - one of the best pizzas I've ever had), and we all split a big bottle of wine. Afterwards, we stopped by our wine store and stocked up, before heading home to order ice cream. You read that right, we have ice cream delivery. Does it get any better? Unfortunately though, ice cream is not my cup of tea, so I skipped the ice cream and just had a little bite of Blondie's. If there were gummy bear delivery in our hood, I would be the fattest person alive. Seriously. Literally.

Thursday was my last day of work, and around 4 pm, I just started counting minutes down. When I got done for the day, I headed out and met Blondie and our bar friends for trivia night at a local bar. We lost, thanks to me - I was sure I knew the final question, everyone else agreed on 1 answer, I insisted on another - and the answer everyone agreed on but me was the right answer. WOOT. Oh well, we gave it a good try.

Friday it was pouring rain, and I've not been so happy to not have to commute. I drug Blondie to the gym when we got up, before we ordered in BBQ and took it easy watching TV in the afternoon. We got into our wine stash on Friday night, and before I knew it, we had hoovered through the stockpile we bought on Wednesday. Oops. We ended up ordering in sushi as we were starving by then, and stuffed ourselves to end our evening.

Yesterday it was back to the gym, before we went and did some grocery shopping. We got Subway for lunch and then took naps in the afternoon. And FINALLY, we made a home-cooked meal last night - we made steak and onion stir fry, and put it on mashed potatos. Dumped some A1 on top and mixed it all together - holy crap, so good. I've been craving home cooked food lately, and it just tasted so good. We ate a ton of fruit for dessert (dehydration from running makes me crave fruit like crazy) and then watched Friends With Benefits and laughed our asses off.

Today, the week caught up with me. I woke up around 8 am and chatted with Blondie for a bit. But between getting up early to workout, being out every night this week, and have Max howl all night long so even when I'm sleeping I'm not truly sleeping, I was done in. I headed back to bed and didn't wake up until 11:40 am. I got in a workout, and now we are waiting for lunch to be delivered.

Plans for the week include Blondie's sis 1 last night tonight - dinner out most likely. We are off to our bar this week for the drawing of the Super Bowl boxes, and then my bar friend has her Valentine's Day burlesque/cabaret show on Friday. Sunday is Super Bowl (Go Giants!). Then it's low-key time for a month, which is good because training will be full-force come early March.

So workouts - here you go:
Monday - Insanity Cardio Recovery disc (ha, my first day training, and I do Cardio Recovery)
Tuesday - 3 mile run (40:27 - walked a lot of it)
Wednesday - 2 mile run (25:44 - ran it all)
Thurs - rest day (wasn't supposed to be, but since I had Friday off and that was my rest day, I decided to flop them around)
Friday - 3 mile run (37:56 - ran it all)
Saturday - 4 mile run (53:02 - walked a small portion of it)
Sunday - Insanity Core Cardio and Balance disc

My speed is sloooooow right now - 13 min miles anyone? But it was never like I was a fast runner to begin with. If I can get it back down to 12 min miles, I'll be happy with it for my half.

--K

Kicked some ass, took some names, goaled

What. A. Week. PHEW. I am tiiiiiiired right now. It's a good tired though, not the tired that comes with lazing around all day, but the tired that comes with being on the go for the week.

So last Sunday brought the unthinkable as the Packers rolled over and let the Giants win. It was not a good afternoon in our house. The only bright spot (and Blondie sure as sh*t doesn't see it this way) is that if the Giants win the Super Bowl, we can go to a ticker tape parade! So I'm trying to focus on that. Blondie is focusing on forgetting football is still on.

A lot of people had this past Monday off for MLK day. I was not one of those people. However, it was really nice. Some of my office had taken vacation, so it was pretty quiet. And also, the subway was dead that day due to it being a holiday. I got texted around 4:30 pm that my bar friends were headed to the bar in the evening. I called Blondie and he didn't want to go out, so I went over by myself after work. I only intended to stay for a few, but ended up there for almost 4 hours. Blondie was asleep when I got home, so I ate a subway sandwich and watched some of my TV shows that Blondie hates (Glee, RHOBH, etc).

Tuesday was an okay day at work - the days are running together right now as my shitty project is gearing up for launch in February. The thing that stands out about Tuesday was that it launched the final bit of my good project (last year's, year-long, project) for my old division. I cheered that on, and then cleaned my whiteboard (which had everyone's names, dates of releases, what we were releasing when, etc). While I was doing a bit of a cheer on Tuesday, my 2 BFFs from work came by and wanted to grab drinks after work. I decided to go, and that ended up being a late night, but a fun one, as the bar had a singer with a guitar and we decided to "help" him with his vocals (i.e. sing along, loudly).

Wednesday was off to dinner with the girls - we headed down to East Village to go to Apiary, and it was so good. I had a steak and creamed spinach (I'm having a slight spinach obsession right now - steamed, creamed, sauteed, raw - can't get enough), and split a few bottles of champagne with a friend. It was so good getting to see the crew as most of them have moved on to different companies, and getting caught up on their lives.

Thursday was yet another drunken function - we are in the process right of switching CMS tools for my company, and on Thursday they brought down the old one and we now freeze for 3 weeks while we transition. Everyone that worked on the old system was ecstatic, so we headed out for many drinks to celebrate. Afterwards, a friend of mine and I headed back to my hood and met up with Blondie for a few more drinks. Ugh.

Friday I was hungover. And hurting. And not sure how I didn't get sick. But it was okay b/c I had the day off! I had 2 vacation days left and have to use them by February or I lose them. So I took a long weekend, and will have another one this week. I recovered during the morning on Friday, and then Blondie and I went to lunch for Mexican. We stopped on the way home and bought some beers, and junk food, and came back and crashed.

But not for long. Because folks, I had agreed to play with an indoor soccer team on Friday night with my bar friends in Murray Hill area. It's been 20 years (I was 17 when I played my last game, now I'm 37) since I had played, and I was nervous. Luckily, the other team never showed, but we got to play for an hour just against each other for fun. I had a blast - I worked up a horrid sweat, had my heart rate blasted, and just had fun kicking the ball around. AND I SCORED. Against a really good goalie! The ref who was supposed to ref our game decided to play with us, and he was really good. Really really good.

Afterwards, my bar friends, Blondie and I headed back to our hood to hit up our bar for some drinks and dinner, before Blondie and I headed home for drinks on our own and to watch Hangover 2. I'm an achy wreck right now - can't believe how sore I am from one soccer game. I'm thinking about joining up with the team - but for now can just drop in as I want. I never thought I'd play soccer again, as I didn't have the best time playing it growing up, but I'm so glad I bit the bullet and did it.

Yesterday we woke up to a beautiful snow happening. The streets were coated and it was just so quiet and peaceful. It snowed most of the day, and Blondie and I just stayed in and watched TV. Today I headed out to run an errand, and now we're watching the football game (go Ravens! VU - if you read this, it's nothing against the Patriots, but I'd like to see the Ravens win). I'm heading out soon to meet my bar friends for the Giants / 49'ers game (oh man, I would love to see a ticker tape parade, but I'd also love to see my old city go to the Super Bowl).

Tomorrow officially starts half-marathon training. I thought it started last week, but when I matched up my training calendar, with the actual calendar, I realized I was off a week. I'm just dreading this. After I do this race, I'm just going to throw in the towel for running. I don't mind 5K's or 10K's and will try to maintain a 3-5 mile base for my running ability, but anything more than that, f it. I'm going to admit it here - running blows. After this half, I'm going to figure out some things I truly like (swimming, dancing, maybe soccer???) and stick with those.

News on the home front is good - Blondie's sis arrives tomorrow for a week of kicking around in NYC. We have reservations to Colicchio & Sons on Tuesday, and am looking forward to that. Blondie and I also have tickets (2 for 1) to see Spiderman on Broadway in February. Blondie's cousin arrives in March for 4 days (tickets bought), and then Mr Pooh (and maybe Mrs Pooh) arrive sometime in May or June timeframe.

The cats are good - Tigga hates everyone, and Max can't see, but other than that, they are good. Max still howls all night, but he's so loving and sweet right now, it's beyond cute. Tigga is a major shithead, but you can't help but laugh your ass off when he gets so pissed.

Off to rehyrdrate before I dehydrate. Go Ravens! Go Giants! Go 49'ers!

--K

It got cold

It's been a good few weeks. Which is a nice change. I normally loathe January and February (with February being the worst month for me). It's the dark in the morning, and the night. It's the temperatures. It's everything about the months. Boo. Hoo.

New Years week was fast - which was nice. Only 4 days of work of course, and that makes me happy. I worked out on Monday and Thurs of NY week. I'm having the worst time getting up in the mornings right now, due in a large part to not sleeping through the nights. I'm not an insomniac, but I can't stay asleep at nights. I'm up and down 20 times a night for various reasons. It's particularly bad right now because Max is fully blind now, and he howls all night long. Loudly. The only thing that seems to help is if I get up and get him some milk - usually after his milk, he can fall asleep for awhile. So anyway, the howling is contributing to my lack of sleep.

Due to my exhaustion, and coming off of hard core drinking over NYE, we took the NY week pretty easy. The only thing we did do was hit up our bar for drinks and dinner one night, and got caught up with our bar friends.

Last weekend, I worked out both days - I did the Max Cardio and Max Plyo discs from Insanity set. They are my least favorites. They take everything out of me - I'm left as a shaky blob after I'm done with those discs.

Last Sunday, I went into an emotional tailspin. It was ridic. I was sitting here watching TV, and craving gummy bears. So I decided to go get some, and Blondie decided to walk with me. As I was putting on my coat, my mood just sunk. Fast. I had a moment where I realized that everything is always going to be the same - I'm always going to be too fat for my height, I'm always going to want way too many gummy bears, I'm always going to have a job I hate that I have to go to everyday, I'm always going to hate Sunday nights because that means Monday mornings, etc (1st world problems anyone?). All that started spinning around in my head, and I couldn't cope (could you guess I'm almost 40?) I bawled my head off for about 15 minutes, and then put myself to bed. At 6 pm. I fell asleep almost immediately, and it was like being in a coma. Blondie tried to wake me up for dinner, and I couldn't pull myself out of sleep. I slept 14 hours that night, waking up at 8 am on Monday, and honestly, could've slept easily for 8 more hours.

The sleeping didn't help my mood at all, I was still in the same emotional spot when I woke up. Monday at work was a long day - I had a ton of stuff to do, and didn't get out of work until after 8 pm. Around 7 pm, Blondie texted and said he was off to the bar - my good news for that day was that our bar friend went "legal". His work visa came through, so now he can start job searching (he's ecstatic). I met up with the group around 9 pm at the bar, chugged a couple of double scotches, and then we did a shot of bourbon to celebrate the visa.

I worked pretty late all week, except Thursday. And that's because on Thursday, I was at work at 6 am. The last project of my program from last year launched, and I've not been so excited about a work thing since last August, when the major piece of the program launched. The launch went super smooth, and my project looks fantastic. I left work around 3:30 pm (after literally sitting in my office blabbing to my friends for the last 1.5 hours of the day), and met Blondie to celebrate at our poison bar. After the poison bar, we took off to our regular bar, bought everyone some shots, and then stopped to pick up greasy chinese food for dinner.

I went into work on Friday seriously hung over. And had to work my ass off all day long - no break. I got out of work around 7 pm, but it was okay, because my day ended on 2 really high notes (2 good things happened between 5:45 and 7 pm that made the 7 pm end time okay).

Yesterday we lazed around, before meeting up with our bar friends and our building friends at our local bar. We had many beers, before heading out for Ethiopian and a couple of bottles of wine. Afterwards, it was back to our building to hangout at our building friends apartment, drink a lot more wine, and play Just Dance on the Kinect.

Today, it's like -12 degrees outside. We scrapped our plans for the day (which honestly was just to drink heavily anyway) and I'm now just lazing around, eating gummy bears (does this surprise anyone?) and trying to rehydrate from yday's binge.

Tomorrow starts half marathon training officially - I'm signed up for a women's only half in April in Central Park with my PA friend. I printed my schedule out today, and immediately just sighed. I'm so tired right now, all the time, and just looking at the miles (which really are not a lot at all) makes me mentally burned out. I don't think I can beat my half marathon time from last year, simply b/c this half is in Central Park which is rolling hills (half marathon last year was pretty flat for the most part). I do intend to run outdoor training runs a lot more than I did last year, so maybe that will help.

Also, I've officially accepted a new job at my company (yet again - 5 job changes in 5 years, the resume of someone who can't settle down). I start that role on 3/1, so I still have to finish up the program I'm on. But at least there's an end in sight from this role I'm in now - hate. hate. hate. I'll have a new boss in the new role, and a senior/manager title, and will maintain bonuses, etc. So it's all good.

Okay, off to cheer on the Ravens. Or the Texans. I like them both, so I'm not going to decide. But FOR CERTAIN the Packers. However, if the Packers lose, then I will cheer the Giants to the bitter end. But really, the Packers. GO PACK!

--K

2011 Recap

Highlights of 2011:
1) Travel - I managed to hit up the following places in 2011:
San Francisco x 4
Las Vegas
Barbados
Lexington
Atlantic City
Philadelphia/Northern PA
Atlanta

2) Killed my previous half-marathon PR - my half in May was one of my favorite parts of the year

3) Ran 2 races with family - Mr Pooh and Blondie for the half in May, and then 2 weeks later, Mr & Mrs Pooh and Blondie for our 5K in Lexington.

4) Saw a ton of plays - Seminar, Sister Act, Avenue Q, Priscilla Queen of the Desert - to name a few

5) Made friends that aren't work friends - I love my work friends, but I also love having friends that know nothing about what I do during the day

6) Made status on my airline - it's never happened before - but all those work trips finally put me over the edge this year.

7) Crossed a ton of stuff of our "Do This in NYC" list - ice skating, football games, etc.

8) Walked in the T-Day parade - an experience everyone should get.

Happy Holidays!

San Francisco was an okay trip. I flew out on Sunday morning and everything went well - no delays, no headwinds, etc. I got to my hotel without traffic, and proceeded down to the gym to do a workout. It was horrendous. I did 6 minutes of running, hit a wall (seriously - 6 mins and I hit a wall), then did 16 minutes on the bike. And then threw in the towel. I drug myself to Walgreens afterwards and bought some pretzels, and chowed down on those while watching TV in the afternoon. Then I got to meet up with my good friend KT! I took the train out to my old hood, and met her for nachos and margaritas for apps, before we headed to Vietnamese for soup and noodles. It was really nice getting to see her and catch up on her life.

Monday, true to form, my stomach revolted. When it finally settled down, I went to the gym and did 3.1 miles on the treadmill, before getting ready for work. Work sucked. I wasn't happy that I had to be there (the week before Xmas), and I hate the project I'm currently on. So yeah, not a happy camper. The good parts on Monday though were meeting up with CChu for lunch and shopping, before heading back to Sunset for dinner and many drinks with Shelbs and Bbbb! They had just closed on their house, so I got to take a look at the outside of it, before we broke in a bar in their new neighborhood.

Tuesday, again, stomach problems - and another run on the treadmill after. Lunch was with an old coworker of mine - we used to be on the same team, but have now switched teams a billion times since then. We then hit up the Macys store for awhile before heading back to the office. I managed to triple book myself on Tues night for plans, so had to skip one set of plans. But I did make it out for drinks with an old group I used to hang out with, before meeting up with the team that I worked with last year for drinks and dinner. Afterwards, on a whim, I stopped by a bar that I know a lot of the office hangs out at, and lo and behold, ran into my old buddy KevB who quit the company last January. I got to laughing when I saw him, and we blew away several hours drinking whiskey and catching up on each other's lives.

Wednesday I couldn't handle the stomach thing, it just wouldn't stop. So I blew off my workout (and didn't workout again until today - yay for holidays). Drug my body into work, before heading out to lunch with the team that I'm currently on (finishing up in January - not my crappy project). Then I met up with someone on my crappy project for many drinks, before calling it quits for the day and heading up to Chinatown to meet up with the sistersC and Sweetie J. We ended up in the Richmond, eating Korean, and having a blast.

And Thurs, yay, that was it. I went to lunch with CChu again before heading out to a team outing (the project I was on over the summer had a party) at a bowling alley. Many beers later, and I was done. I picked up my bag and went to the Castro to meet up with OP and another friend of mine. We had a crazy good dinner (holla Brussel Sprouts!) before we stopped in at Lucky 13 (a fav of Blondie and me when we lived there). A tall boy PBR later, I caught a cab to the airport and flew home to see Blondie.

The flight went on time, and except for the row of friends beside me who got so drunk that one of them actually lost his shoelace (?!???!?!) and had to call the flight attendant to help find it (?!?!??!?!), it was a good trip home. I slept a lot on Friday, but managed to rally and we hit up our bar to see our bartender. Saturday, we pissed around most of the day, but did eat at McDonald's for lunch. Around 5 pm, we headed up several flights in our bldg to hang out with friends for Xmas Eve.

Xmas day, we cleaned our place for a bit, before heading back up to our friends apartment for lunch/drinks/etc. They have a crazy good view (better than ours) and we just enjoyed not travelling for Xmas, being with each other, and celebrating our life in the city. I also pulled a "pass out at 7 pm on their couch" move, which is awesome. Blondie was happy that day also b/c the Packers won, which gave them their home-field advantage for Super Bowl.

Monday, I had off and we decided to hit up a bar of ours for lunch. Literally, that place is poison b/c we *always* end up drunk. Even when Mr Pooh visited, him and Blondie stopped in for lunch and were still there 5 hours later when I showed up. So many shots and beers later, we went to see the new Mission Impossible - SOOOO GOOD. You have to see this! I'm a big fan of the Mission Impossible movies to begin with, but this one blew them all away.

Tues-Thurs it was back at work, but it was nice b/c we were given permission to leave early each day. I did work a full day on Tues, but then Wed, I was out early, and Thurs, a bunch of my friends and I headed to the bar early. My BFF from work and I decided to walk to Grand Central after the bar on Thurs, and we must've spent an hour running around in there - buying tons of food, and checking out the "whisper station" in front of the Oyster Bar (the roof curves and you stand on opposite sides of the hall and whisper into the corner, and the person on the other side hears you like you are standing right beside them). After we got done in Grand Central, I walked back over and met up with Blondie at our bar for many beers and making plans for NYE.

Friday I was a mess, but luckily it was a half day. Blondie met me for lunch at my fav mexican restaurant before we ran some errands. It was back home to collapse for a nap, and then our bar friends called so we went back to the bar and met up with them. It was an early night though b/c we were up and at 'em early on Saturday. We caught a 1:45 pm bus out to the middle of New Jersey to hangout with our bartender and his friends for NYE. It was a blast - many drinks, a ton of food, solid laughter, just a great time.

Sunday was a mess though - we all spent the night at our bartender's house, and then we hit up his local bar for drinks bright and early Sunday morning. We finally made it back to the city around 2 pm, and immediately showered and headed back out to meet up with our bar friends at the "poison bar", where sure enough, all of us got hammered. I love our waiter there - he ROCKS. It was back home to pass out for the night.

Today I woke up at 9 am and went back to bed at 10 am and got up at 1 pm. I finally started working out around 2:30 pm and feel much better now - I did an Insanity disc and a Wii cardio disc. It's back to eating right tomorrow, but for today, I'm going to finish off the rest of the crap in the house. Blondie is gearing up to watch Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, and a pizza is on it's way.

Happy Holidays everyone!

--K

Celebrity Sighting, kind of

Forgot to mention that on our cab ride from 1 bar to the other last night, we drove past the theather where we had seen Seminar. The cast was out signing autographs for people, and so we got to see Jerry O'Connell, Hamish Linklater and ALAN RICKMAN. Granted, we had seen them 2 weeks ago, in the same play. But it was cool seeing them just hanging out on the sidewalk.

Give it up for NYC!

--K

1 more time with 2 Blondies

This week was a shit show. Completely. I'm in dire need of a break to recover from everything that went on, but there is no time... because I'm off to SF tomorrow for work. UGH.

Last Sunday we went out and met up with my SF friends at Kettle of Fish in West Village area. Kettle of Fish is the Packers bar in NYC, and it was a blast. Everyone was extremely friendly (midwesterners - enough said), and everyone completely loves the Packers there. We only stayed for 1 quarter as it was uber crowded, but we were there for an hour before the game even started (also, a huge thanks to the lady passing out free cheese curds).

After Kettle of Fish, we went across the street to a bar where we could sit down - and we finished watching the game there. Sweetie J passed out at our table early on, and that's when we decided to cancel the plans to go to Brooklyn for dinner. It was a great night though - it was so good seeing Dirty Sanchez and Sweetie J again, and then watching the Pack stomp the Raiders...

Monday ended up being a bad good day. I had a really crappy morning and early afternoon, and then decided I just had to not be at work for the rest of the day. I've only ever done that 1 other time, just taking off mid afternoon, but based on my mood, I needed out. I ended up going in and getting like a foot of hair chopped off and having it highlighted back to blonde. I lurrrrrve it. I want to make out with it. It's noticeable but not crazy.

After I got home, we decied to stop by our bar for dinner and some drinks. Our bar friends were there also, and we got caught up with them while watching parts of the MNF game. My bar friend even asked where I got my hair done, and wanted the name of my hair guy.

Tuesday we did nothing. It was needed. Wednesday we got to leave work early again, but this time it was for my work Xmas party. They rented out a club in midtown Manhattan and started the party at 3 pm. It was open bar, which was nice. The club also happened to be the same on where Plaxico Burress shot himself, which was interesting. I wanted to take a picture but thought it might be weird. I left the party early, as it was very crowded - to the point where you couldn't walk, and was home around 5:30 pm. Blondie cooked me some food, and then I fell immediately asleep for a 2 hour nap (work stress, yet again, leads to not sleeping at nights when I should).

Thursday was a disaster. I went with some of my coworkers to another coworkers photography show. We had some wine at the show, and then decided to head out for mexican. 2 margaritas and a shot of tequila later, we decided to head on home (10 pm ish). However, I was going to share a cab with 1 of my coworkers and we couldn't find one anywhere, so we went ahead and hit up a bar in the area. And then it was 3 bourbons later and 1:15 am. I literally felt like we had just sat down at the bar, and then 3 hours were gone. But I was glad I went - I had a blast talking with my coworker, and it's been a long time since I've been awake past 11 pm for fun (I'm awake past 11 pm a lot but it's usually b/c I can't sleep due to work stress).

Friday I was hungover. But I sucked it up because we had another coworker's birthday to celebrate. Blondie came over to the east side of Manhattan and we met up with a big group for many drinks and dinner. Afterwards, another coworker of mine and Blondie came back over to our hood, where we hit up our bar until 12:30 am. We walked my coworker back to the train, and then Blondie and I went to CVS for junk food (bad idea).

Today I actually slept until almost 10 am (unheard of). It was fantastic. I did a workout when I finally got up, and now am just relaxing. We are going to decorate our baby Xmas tree today, and then I have to pack b/c it's back to SF tomorrow for work. I'm just flat out dreading this trip. I want it to be Thurs night, when I get my red-eye back to NYC, so bad I can't stand it.

Workouts this week were good - not great. Last Sunday I ended up doing P90X legs&back. Monday I took as a planned rest day. Tuesday became a rest day b/c that's when my legs and back went haywire from the Sunday work out - I felt like I had been pummelled repeatedly in the back and thighs on Tuesday. Wednesday I did a 3.1 mile run (it was slow b/c I was still in pain) and Thurs was an Insanity disc. Friday was a rest day (yay for hangovers!) and today I did P90X Yoga disc. I'll be treadmilling it everyday for the next 5 days as that's what I do in hotel gyms, so gave myself a break from my 5 mile run today.

--K

Go Pack Go!

Last Sunday about gave me and Blondie both heart attacks - that Packers v Giants game was cuh-razy. We left the house around 12:30 pm last Sunday and started walking towards Penn Station - on the way, we got a slice of pizza b/c we were both starving and didn't think we could make it to Meadowlands before we ate. We bought tickets for the train, and realized we had 1 minute to make the next Secaucus train or we would have to wait for an hour in Penn Station for the next one (the pizza stop was so not worth it). We bolted and managed to make the train, but had to sit separately.

The train ride over was interesting b/c it was loaded with Giants fans who obviously hate the Packers. Blondie and I kept quiet, but still made fun of the guy who decided to call the Packers, the Butt Packers. Oh really. How interesting. How totally *unique* you are, mr funny man. :)

When we got to the stadium, we realized how mind-blowingly awesome our seats were. I don't know what our bartender did, but we were literally 14 rows off the sideline, right by where the Packers ran out of their tunnel. It was insane. We got to see all of the Packers up and close and personal (Rodgers, Cobb from Kentucky! Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, Donald Driver) - I must've hyperventilated like 25 times.

Finally, the game started. Blondie and I started pounding down beers because we realized almost immediately that the Packers weren't on top of their game that day. 3.5 sickening hours later, they pulled a win out of their asses, and we were left as big blobs of jello as our nerves finally gave out. Amazingly enough, the Giants fans in the stadium were pretty nice - other than the jackasses on the train ride, nobody gave us shit about our Packers gear. We also had a guy next to us that loved his Giants, but he cheered them on (very loudly) without being derogative towards the Packers. So Go Pack Go! And please don't ever scare us like that again!

Monday night, Blondie and I headed down to the NYU area (West Village) to see our bar friend in her holiday Cabaret/Burlesque show. They were amazing - we laughed so hard at some points, and sang along, and just had a great time. My favorite song was "I got an STD for Xmas". After the show, Blondie and I headed to our bar to make sure to thank our bartender for those incredible Giants v Packers tickets, and also to just be a little loud about how great the game ended up being (only because the Packers won did it end up being a great game).

I woke up Tuesday hung.over. I drug myself into work, and realized I was going to be faced with some of the SF office in town that week - I had forgotten they were coming, and so I looked/felt like shit (probably smelled like it too with all the beer coming out of my pores). I sucked it up big time though and went for drinks with them that night. I didn't last very long before I had to call it a night, and also, my liver now HATES me.

On Wednesday, Blondie called towards the end of the day and wanted to go out to eat, but I had to tell him I just wanted to crash out. Between Monday and Tuesday, I was dead on my feet. We ended up getting some street meat for dinner and then watching TV all night.

Thursday and Friday were more of the same - Blondie had done some grocery shopping on Thursday so we had great meals for both of those nights. We had marlin po'boys on Thurs and sauteed spinach with salmon for dinner on Friday. Both tasted awesome.

Yesterday I got up uber early so I could get a run in before we left our house around 10 am to head to Brooklyn for awhile. We met up with an old coworker of mine and his wife and kid for brunch. They recently moved to NY from TX, and it was really good reconnecting with them. Afterwards, Blondie and I came back to the city and did some more grocery shopping, before we cracked a bottle of wine around 5:30 pm. We started watching some movies, and before you knew it, we were 3 bottles into the evening.

Today, a friend of mine from SF is in town and we're off to meet her for drinks this afternoon before heading to Brooklyn again this evening for dinner. I need to get a pedicure, so I might do that today also.

Plans for this week include my work holiday party on Wednesday, a friend's photography showing on Thursday, and a coworker's birthday on Friday. I have to pack on Saturday because I'm being sent back to SF on Sunday for a week for work. The week before Xmas, and here I go travelling. For work. All kinds of awesome people. All kinds of awesome.

Workouts this week were again on track - last Sunday, I did an Insanity disc, with Monday being a P90X disc. I took Tuesday off, but went running on Wednesday (3.1 miles - they hurt, it was SLOW and ugly). Thurs was another Insanity disc, and Friday was a 30 Day Shred disc and Insanity Abs disc. Yesterday I did 65 mins on the treadmill - I didn't feel as good as I did last week, but felt infinitely better than Wed - I was about .06 miles less than last Sunday, but I'm feeling good about where I'm at with my running right now. Today I might take as a rest day, but if I don't, I'm most likely doing a P90X yoga, Kenpo or Legs&Back disc.

--K

Calm Between The Storms

Holidays in NYC always lead to super busy weekends for the Blonde One and me. So we usually take the weeks to recover and get ready for our weekends. This past week was no exception.

It was back to work on Tuesday and the day felt like it took forever to get through. What's it about short weeks that make them feel soooooooooo long? Wednesday was the same way. Just a drag. Thursday though, my core group from work went to the bar after work. We had many many drinks and many many plates of food, and just enjoyed catching up and blabbing to each other about what was going on in our lives. And Friday was just another drag of a day.

Yesterday though, was good. I didn't think it would be, but it turned out ok. It started with a trip to the vet. On Friday night, Max's eye went "haywire". When I got home from work on Friday, he was fine, and then within about 5 minutes, I noticed his eye had completely filled with blood. I panic'ed, and Blondie loved on Max while I frantically looked up emergency vets and googled his symptoms to see if I could figure out what was going on. We decided against the emergency vet, simply because Max didn't seem to be in pain and also because I didn't want to have to leave him overnight in a strange place.

I slept like shit on Friday night, and must've been up 20 times to check on Max. Around 6:30 am Saturday morning, I threw in the towel and just got up. By then, Max's eye was almost back to normal - there was a bit of blood in the bottom, and a "film" over his eye but NOTHING compared to Friday night. I took him into the vet anyway, and it was just a busted capillary - it happens. They now think I'm a freak at the vet. But I'm so relieved it wasn't more!

Then on Saturday, around 1:15 pm, Blondie and I headed up to see a Broadway play - a real play, not a musical. When we were walking to the Rockettes on Monday, we had passed one of the theaters and happened to notice the play there had a bunch of famous names in it. So we went to see that one - it was called "Seminar" and we LOVED it. It starred Alan Rickman (Snape from Harry Potter, Die Hard, Dogma), Jerry O'Connell (Vern Tessio from Stand By Me) and Hamish Linklater (Christine's brother on New Adventures of Old Christine). The play rocked, and Alan Rickman is a fantastic actor.

We left the play just giddy - Blondie said it was his favorite of all we've seen so far, and he loved Alan Rickman. We stopped at House of Brews for a few drinks and some food before heading on home to crash out.

Today we have on tap the Packers v Giants game this afternoon, and tomorrow it's off to see our bar friend in her cabaret / burlesque show. Tuesday, it's a going away party for a friend from work (everyone is quitting!), before we slow down and break before heading into next week - which is off to Brooklyn both days to hang out with various friends.

Workouts were again on track and good this week - I did a Insanity disc on Tuesday and Thurs, a 3.1 mile run on the treadmill on Wed, took Friday off, and did a 65 min workout on the treadmill yesterday (which was about .24 miles more than last Saturday!) My run yesterday felt great - like I had clicked back into the habit of running, and I'm excited to start training for another half.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

--K

Another beautiful week off

Ahhh.... No Sunday dread this week, because I made Monday my Sunday. So now I'll have Monday dread. Or maybe not. Because we crammed so much into this past week that work might be like a vacation for me.

This past Sunday, we met up with our bar friends at our 2nd bar (our 1st bar isn't open on Sunday). I managed to drag Blondie out with me as his neck is starting to feel better. We had a great time catching up with them, and just relaxing and having many beers.

Last Monday, we hit up our bar to hang out for the evening. We had to pick up our Giants v Packers tickets for next week, and we wanted to see our bartender before T-Day holiday. It turned out that he had to work on Friday, so while we were at the bar on Monday, we made plans for Friday to head back to the bar.

Tuesday was our only "off" day - we kept it low key as we knew the rest of the week was going to be a shit show. And it was. Blondie met up with me and my coworkers for lunch and many drinks on Wed afternoon, before we decided to go to Bryant Park to ice skate! We had a blast, and it was fairly cheap to rent skates. We were both really wobbly (Blondie from his neck, me from my whiskey) so we only skated around 45 minutes before calling it quits. Afterwards, we shopped at the Christmas Stores in Bryant Park before hitting the Dylan's Candy Bar pop up shop. On the way home from that, we stopped in to buy some Jets hats for our game before crashing out for the remainder of the day.

Thurs the alarm went off at 5 am, and we were out the door by 5:45 am - we had to head to midtown to pick up our jumpsuits for walking Pikachu in the T-Day parade! We waited in line from around 6 am to 7:20 am, before we got our jumpsuits. We were on the bus (which took us from midtown to UWS) around 7:30, arriving at the Museum of Natural History around 8 am. We enjoyed some donuts, and Blondie got to meet a few of the coworkers of mine who were also on Pikachu.

It was really exciting. The best part was the actual walk as the kids LOVE Pikachu. They were screaming and hollering at us as we went by. The 2nd best part was getting to see Johnny Weir. He was waiting on his float as we walked by and I was like "woot!" Blondie had no idea who he was though. We had a great day - walking the balloon was fun, and then afterwards, we stopped in for some beers and snacks. After our beers, naps were in order, before we made a big dinner (chicken, potatos, gravy) and then passed out again.

Friday we headed out for Mexican for lunch before heading over to our bar to meet up with our bartender. Our bar friends were also there and it was fun hearing about everyone's holiday. Saturday was another low-key day. I took Max into the vet, and felt tremendous relief that I did it - he's sick, but it's fixable. I went in almost crying b/c I didn't want to make a decision on whether he needed to be put down, and thankfully I didn't. After the vet, we went for brunch and found a $20 all-you-can-drink mimosa or bloody mary place, and the day went downhill from there.

Sunday was an awesome day - we were out the door by 9:20 am and caught a train to Meadlowlands Stadium. We met up with a group of ours from the bar, and tailgated the morning away (literally, as soon as we got off the train, we popped open some beers and drank them as we walked to our tailgate). I enjoyed my first Coke in about 2 years - I gave it up in spring 2010 because of stomach problems, and made the deliberate choice to have Long Island Ice Teas at our tailgate (which are made with Coke of course). They were tasty goodness, and I'm glad to say I had no stomach pains. I don't intend to drink more pop, but it was nice having those.

After tailgating, we headed into the stadium and cheered our Jets onto victory. Along with cussing them out everytime they made a bad play (which was often). Our train back went pretty smooth, and we stopped for some Taco Bell at Penn Station before meeting up with our bar friends at our 2nd bar. Blondie lasted for a few drinks before he had to come home for some pain meds, and I stayed out a bit longer.

And today, I had off - we went this morning and saw the Rockettes (they rocked!) before checking out the Rock Center Christmas tree, and then heading to Olive Garden for lunch (we both had a bit of a chain-restaurant thing going on today). Now we're relaxing, and I'm getting ready to enjoy a beer.

Workouts this past week have been really good. I took last Monday off, before doing 30 Day Shred and Bob's Bootcamp on Tuesday. Wed was a 3.1 mile run (about 3 mins faster than last time!), and Thurs was a 4.35 mile walk around the city while hauling a giant balloon around. Friday was an Insanity disc and Wii workout, and Saturday was a 65 minute workout on the treadmill (and .20 miles more than last time!) Sunday was an off day (but where the train drops you at Meadlowlands to where we tailgated is about .75 miles, so we did that walk x 2), and today I did another Insanity disc followed by a short Wii workout.

Tomorrow it's back to work, but this coming weekend, we are back to the Meadowlands for the Giants v Packers game, followed by my bar friend in her cabaret / burlesque Christmas show on Monday! Blondie missed her Halloween show b/c of his neck, so we're both really excited for this one.

Happy Holidays everyone!

--K

What I'm Thankful For

This post is like 4 days late, but whatevs. A list of what I'm happy for this holiday season (in no particular order whatsoever, except #1 is my most grateful):

1) My Immediate Family - Blondie, Tigger and Max. I'm grateful that Blondie is feeling better and that surgery probably won't have to happen. I'm grateful that I took Max into the vet on Saturday and while some of my fears were realized (he's going blind), they weren't fully realized (he's not fully blind). Max has a bad ear infection and something else going on - they are running blood work right now, but the options all sound very treatable. And just with the drops for his ears, he's acting much closer to normal than before. I'm grateful that Tigger is his normal self and tries to beat the shit out of Max because he smells like vet (he tries to beat the shit out of me also because of the same situation). But at least there is nothing wrong with him.

2) We Live In NYC - OMG. A thousand times grateful for this. The city is alive, and it brings us such joy to live here. I can NOT believe we got this opportunity, and we intend to enjoy it to it's fullest for as long as we can can. From ice skating in Bryant Park, to football games, to golfing over the Hudson at Chelsea Piers, to touring Brooklyn, to eating tons of pizza, to BROADWAY... why live anywhere else?

3) Food - Okay, this might be silly. But I'm grateful we live very near the bestest of the best farmer's market, seafood market, and grocery - our tiny little hole-in-the-wall shops have given us consistently the cheapest and tasiest food. I don't know what we'd do without our stores. We went on a seafood binge last week, and for around $50 had scallops and pepper, portabello and onion stirfry; sauteed spinach and salmon; corn and black bean salad and baked tilapia; and spicy tomaty seafood soup. It's about 7 minute walk from us, and it's da bomb.

4) Our Bar - this includes primarly our bartender and our bar friends. But seriously. A home away from home. The city (see #2) feels so much more personal to us because of our friends at the bar.

5) Extended Family - To the crazies living in KY and Washington, to the in-laws in the Land of Cheese (and AK and IL), we love you all. A special call out to TCKITWv.1-.8 (and soon to be .9). Our nieces, nephew, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles - we love you all. Thanks for supporting us, and our dream to move around the country at will. Although, NYC is most likely it for us (again, see point #2).

6) Turd Ferguson, "Would you?", shirtless wrestling, the international buffet, "get into the kitchen and order me some breakfast". Enough said. A million times thanks for all the support this year.

7) A Job - Ugh. I hate my job. But I am grateful I have one. I'm grateful my job allows me to support us while Blondie chases his dream. I'm grateful my job moved us to NYC (see point #2, yet again).

8) The Ability To Work Out - this is another Ugh. But (knock on wood), I have no physical impairmment that stops me from working out. I have laziness. But nothing physical. I'm grateful that I can run, that I can yell at Shaun T while busting out a crazy sweat with Insanity, that I can lift weights, that I can tell my Wii trainer to f off at will. I'm grateful that I've managed to overcome the laziness before it got bad again.

9) Booze - I'm sorry, but it needed to be said. There's nothing like ending a bad day with a scotch, or a really bad day with a double scotch. There's nothing like drinking a beer while cheering on your Jets to victory. There's nothing like taking margaritas onto your patio while watching NYC shut down for a hurricane.

10) I've Realized My Calling - yes, it's only 35 years too late, but Broadway is my dream. I won't live my life never knowing what I want to do with it. It's a good feeling.

Snot Nose Kerri

First off, a HUGE HUGE HUGE congratulations to Mr Pooh for completing his first Tough Mudder yesterday! From what he texted me, it was a real bitch, and the ice bath is the worst thing. Ever. I'm excited to try one next year (and nervous). WOO HOO! Go Mr Pooh!

Last Sunday night, my bar friends called and they were headed out for the evening. I ended up going out and joining them sans Blondie as he's still not fully healed. I met them at our "hot apple pie" bar, and had many drinks (including the "hot apple pie") as we caught up with each other on our weeks. When I got home, Blondie grilled up some sausages and we finished up our night watching football.

I woke up Monday morning and knew I was in a for an awful week. My head was throbbing, my nose was raw and running (a great combination) and my energy level was non-existent. I called in sick, and slept most of the morning away. Then I headed down for a 65 minute workout on the treadmill to see if that helped my snot factor any (it didn't). It did help my headache, but as soon as I stopped sweating, the headache came roaring back. Blondie also went in that Monday to his doctor to get his 2nd round of steroid shots (keep your fingers crossed as it's seems this round is helping his neck, and we might only need PT to get him back to normal!).

I woke up Tuesday and felt better (no headache), so I drug myself to work. Work has felt like everyday has taken 50 years to complete, and it's because I've been doing the "T-day countdown" for the past 3 weeks. Only 11 business days to go! Only 10 business days to go! Only 2.5 business days to go! Also on Tuesday, the SF office started arriving - my coworker came into town that day and I got to go to lunch with him and a bunch of my friends.

Wednesday, the rest of the SF office arrived, and we all left early to go have our party. The president of the company threw us a party for the project we launched in August - and our sister company flew in some of the people who assisted on the project from SF. The party was kind of lame unfortunately. It was just hanging out in a bar (which I love, but which I also do all the time anyway). No speeches, no "thank you", no nothing. Just "here you go, open bar". I'm definitely not trying to complain about the party - I'm grateful they threw one for us - it just seemed a waste to fly in the SF office for it.

Friday night, Blondie and I made some dinner and then we split a couple of bottles of wine. Then we were both still hungry so at 10:30 pm, we headed over to the bar to eat a ton of bar food. It was all kinds of awesome. We got to catch up with our bartender though - so that was good. And yesterday, we took it easy - we did our grocery shopping and then crashed out for the afternoon. Last night, I got sucked into a "Hoarders" marathon which made me realize I've got to do a closet purge. Because of this, while Hoarders was on commercial breaks, I cleaned up our bedroom and threw out like 9 pairs of shoes that I never wear. It brought up a lot of dust though, and my nose is in full-fledge agony again.

This week my workouts were again on track and good - Monday was a 65 minute workout on the treadmill, Tuesday and Wednesday were Insanity discs, Thursday was an off day, Friday was P90X arms and shoulders, and Saturday was another Insanity disc. Today, even though I feel like asshole, I went down and did another 65 minutes on the treadmill. I'm now relaxing, doing NOTHING.

Plans for the week include: 1) half day on Wed and potential Broadway play (if Spiderman or Book of Mormon have good deals); 2) walking Pikachu in the parade on Thursday followed by snacks at the bar and then cooking a good meal for ourselves; 3) meeting up with our bartender on Friday as he's stuck working; 4) Jets vs Bills on Sunday night - I was excited about this until last weekend's craptacular loss to the Broncos; 5) next Monday off and we have tickets to see the matinee of the Rockettes on Monday at Radio City Music Hall! Before the Rockettes, we're going to see the Rock Center Xmas tree, and after the Rockettes, we're hitting up the Red Lobster in Times Square. Much excitement on deck!

Now just to survive 2.5 business days...

--K

Visitors, Birthdays, and Working Out (yet again)

Halloween week was ok (good, not good, which averages out to ok). Being back at work really kind of sucked. And since the first day I was back was Halloween, there was candy *everywhere*. I didn't even eat real food that day, just the candy that was lying around. It was disgusting. NYC at Halloween is kind of cool though - everywhere I went that day (subway stations, different parts of town, etc) there were a ton of people dressed up in costume. Blondie and I didn't go out that night b/c Blondie had a doctor's appt the next day.

The doctor's appt was an MRI - his primary doctor sent him on b/c they can't get a grip on what's causing the pain in his neck and arm.

Wednesday was my birthday and as soon as I woke up, I knew I wasn't going to be in the right mood for the day. From looking in the mirror and seeing a blob staring back, to the grey hairs that have invaded my head, to the fact that I loathe the job (at least I know now what I want to do - Broadway - but I still have no clue how to break into anything like that), I was a wreck. I did my best to be quiet and not wake Blondie so I could get out of the house without crying, but he caught me on my way out.

I kept my mood at work upbeat that day but felt like I was dying on the inside. It wasn't until I got home that night, and Blondie took me out for mexican, and then we went for several drinks and I talked to my BFF in the world TT, that I started to feel normal again.

And then on Thursday, Dirty Sanchez (he of crazy Vegas luck experience - see Feb 2007 blog posts) showed up!!! He's into a metal group who had a concert in NYC that Saturday so he decided to come up for the weekend. He came in early that day and him and Blondie toured around the city, and I met them along with my bar friends for trivia and dinner that night. I'm proud to report that team "Occupy Your Mom" came in 1st place, winning a $50 gift certificate to the bar.

Friday, Blondie and Dirty Sanchez went touring again, and I met them that night for drinks and dinner (at the bar, yes again). Many drinks later, we came home and crashed out to movies. Saturday it was lunch at "5 Napkin Burger" before drinks in our hood. We came home and lazed about the afternoon, before the guys took off for "MetalSuck Fest"! I had my own evening, and met my bar friends for some drinks before enjoying the rest of the night watching crappy TV and eating buffalo chicken dip.

And on Sunday, it was off for brunch before mixing many mimosas and then sending Dirty Sanchez on a train to Newark Airport. We took the opportunity to eat a shit-ton of Taco Bell since we were in Penn Station.

Monday I woke up, and as I poked my belly, I realized that all my talk about working out again was leading nowhere, and I just needed to pull my head out of my ass and DO THIS. So I did. It's not been easy, but I've forced my way through workouts this week - it usually takes about 2-3 weeks for me, so I have a couple more "ugh" weeks facing me but then should be back in the groove.

On Monday, I started out the week by doing one of my Insanity discs. The day ended up being a really long one (as in addition to working out, I also was trying to cut out the gummy bear fix I have - there is a free gummy bear machine at work, and I eat out of it 10 times a day 5-10 bears at a time). Also, I had a late meeting which was a disaster, and ran way over - and I got back to my desk to Blondie calling.

His uncle had lost his battle with cancer that day - I loved his uncle Steve. This guy was crazy, so much fun and always joking around. We didn't see him much, but when we did, it was always nothing but laughter. My deepest condolences go out to the G-Clan at this time.

Tuesday I did another Insanity disc (and thoroughly whipped my legs and butt into a frenzy).

And on Tuesday, Blondie also got the results of his MRI - which is a herniated disc in his neck along with the pinched nerve - fabulous combination. He's on rounds of steroid shots right now, as they try to figure out what the pain will respond to. Last resort is surgery, and we are hope hope hoping like crazy it doesn't boil down to that.

Wednesday I did a 3.1 mile run/walk (2 min run, 2 min walk) as I tried to ease my body back into running for the first time in 4 weeks or so. It went pretty well, and my legs, although uber sore, responded quite nicely to the movement. Wednesday I did lunch with a friend which made the day feel super fast too - always a good combo.

Thursday was a 30 Day Shred disc and then some Tabata interval training (where I completely kicked my shoulders, chest and abs into failure). And then Thursday night, a former coworker was back in town so we met her at Koreatown for soju, beer, and korean food into the night - a drunk me rolled home around 1 am, having only nibbled at the food while constantly pouring alcohol down my throat.

Which gave me Friday as a rest day ;) Work felt like it together forever to get through - I just felt drained all day long. I got home that night and Blondie cooked up some raviolis for me and we just crashed in front of the TV. And then he told me that he had talked to his brother, and his brother's family is expecting their 3rd baby in June. Congrats to D&MG! That will make us 9 for nieces and nephews across both families - looking forward to meeting TCKITWv9.0!

Yesterday I convinced Blondie to try a light workout, so he did Precor for 20 mins or so before hanging out in the sauna for awhile to try and ease his arm pain. I did a 65 minute workout on the treadmill - running and walking. It's going to take 2-3 weeks to get back to fully running, and I'm sad that I took all that workout time off. However, looking at the bright side of things, I'm glad I nipped this in the bud before it got any worse. I've only gained 10 lbs, so it's not bad at all - and already just watching my food intake and working out this week, my pants are comfortable again.

Today I have nothing - I did a P90X Precor DVD and some tabata, we had our food delivered for the week. I have to run to the drugstore, but that's it. It's overcast outside, so another low-key day for me.

Some things coming up for me: 1) TDay parade in NYC - Blondie and I are walking the Pikachu balloon, so watch out for us! 2) NYC Half Marathon in March 2012 (yes, this is a ways off) - Mr Pooh and I are still planning on running this, and I want to go below 2:30:00 this time (my PR was in May at 2:35:57). 3) Potential Tough Mudder in KY in October 2012. Mr Pooh is running his Tough Mudder next weekend (GOOOOO POOOOOOOOOH!) and if he likes it, we're going to look at doing the TM next year as a team. We need others to join (cough, Brother R, Blondie, Mrs Pooh, Shugs) to finish our team, so holler if you are interested!

--K

Barbados

The alarm went off last Monday at 5 am - I hopped out of bed, into the shower, and was just giddy. I woke Blondie up around 5:30 am, and we headed out at 6 am to catch our cab to JFK. To go to Barbados (in case I haven't said it enough). I had upgraded our tickets to premium seating because it had more room and Blondie was (is) still feeling like complete shit due to his pinched nerve. When we got to JFK, it turned out the upgrade also included "Fast Pass" which basically expressed us in front of everyone waiting in line to go through security.

Our flight took off right on time, and I slept most of the way - waking up to the most beautiful words in the world: "If you look out the windows to the left, you'll see Barbados".

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Barbados is gorgeous. The water is incredible - crystal clear, bright blue - I've never seen anything like it. It looked like a painting. Our hotel was pretty nice - as soon as we walked in, rum punches were in our hands, and we sat overlooking the carribean while they got us checked in.

The hotel had 2 buildings - one was the spa building and one was the ocean building. The spa building was across the road from the ocean building, and it's where we ended up being. The spa building had the spa (duh), and the pool, and a bar. It was also only like 20 seconds from the ocean building, but it was weird having to cross a road everytime we wanted to go to the beach.

Our first day we just hung out at the pool - we literally changed immediately and booked it on down and into the pool. Tues and Thurs, we started the day off at the ocean in the morning, and then the pool in the afternoon. And on Wed, we took advantage of our complimentary spa passes and got a massage (Blondie) and facial (me) in the morning, before hanging out at the pool in the afternoon. We didn't do anything else - no touring, no snorkeling, no nothing. We ate almost exclusively seafood, drank a ton of booze, lazed on the beach/pool area, slept. That was it.

What I liked about our hotel: the complimentary booze in your room (you didn't even have to go to a bar to get a drink), the pool area was beautiful, the patio in the ocean building was incredible, they had drink service on the beach.
What I didn't like about our hotel: the 2 building setup, it was all-inclusive but with weird hours for dining, the bars weren't 24 hours, the beach vendors were invasive.

The water: I can't stress this enough - the water at Barbados is unlike any I've seen. You could see everything - it was like looking through glass. I would be in water to my neck and look down and still be able to see my toes. It was honestly my favorite part.

We headed back to NYC on Friday (after hitting up duty free for Barbados rum), left the 85 degree tropical weather and hit down at JFK to mid 40's. And woke up Saturday morning to a snowstorm. Yep, a raging snowstorm. In October. Less than 24 hours after we left Barbados. I drug Blondie to the grocery store where the checker asked me if I had fallen and hurt my face (because of how bad I'm burned). We spent Saturday just recuperating, watching a ton of TV, drinking some beer and rum, and taking it easy.

Today the sun is back, but it's still chilly. We did leave around noon to go buy some more beer, and then started to watch the Godfather trilogy. Around 4 pm, we decided we had to have pasta for dinner, which meant we had to have red wine for dinner. So I took advantage of our neighborhood and had our local wine store deliver 9 bottles of wine. We're stocked for awhile.

Plans for the week: work (BOO), Halloween, a friend from Texas lands on Thurs for the weekend.

Workout plans for the week: tomorrow starts my training for the half next March. I'm thinking also about buying some goggles and starting to use our pool 1-2 days a week for laps. I think that cardio would totally help my running, and would give my knees/legs a break.

Mostly right now, I want to get back into my eating right, working out plan so bad I can't stand it - I feel miserable, bloated and full all the time. I want to feel some hunger pains again. I want to feel my heart beating fast from a good run. It's time folks.

--K

Barbados biznitches!

So f'ing excited! This literally was the longest week ever (literally, seriously, literally). It felt like it took 3000000 years to complete. But complete it did. And tomorrow, finally, we are off for our first vacation in ages.

The week outside of work was good. Last Sunday, Blondie and I headed up to a local bar and met our friends for some drinks. The bar is under new management, and the new owner came through the bar with a free drink for everyone in there - it was called "hot apple pie", which made us laugh like crazy. It was complete liquor, no mixers. And it tasted like hot apple pie. And it fucked you right on up. We had several beers there along with the "hot apple pie", and then headed down to West Village area to eat some burgers.

The burger place was pretty nice. I think whoever first came up with the idea of putting a fried egg on your burger should be considered a genius. Also, this burger place had alcoholic milkshakes. OMG people - so good! I had a Jack Daniel / pumpkin, and it was soooo good.

On Tuesday, I woke up to Blondie - he has been having on and off arm pain for about 2 months, and had not gotten it checked out. It was feeling a little worse on Monday so he decided to lift weights because sometimes that's just enough to stretch the muscle a little and provide some relief. But whatever he did on Monday made everything 3 billion times worse. He woke me on Tuesday in considerable pain, and we debated going to the ER. We got ahold of his doctor who fit him into the schedule, and it turns out Blondie has pinched a nerve in his neck. No cure, just rest. He's been miserable all week.

On Tuesday night, I headed out without Blondie to see my friend from the bar in her cabaret / burlesque show. I tagged along with her husband, and we stopped at our normal bar first for drinks before heading down to Chelsea. The show was incredible! My friend is such a good singer, it blew me away. They did a Halloween themed cabaret, and had music from Rocky Horror and Sweeney Todd. The hubby and I stayed for their after party, and a drunk me rolled on home around 1 am.

Wednesday was disgusting. I went into the office still feeling miiiiiiiiiighty fine, and when I started down, the headache kicked in. Awful.

Thurs night, I was feeling beat - just tired, and worn out from the week. And I had a shitty day at work. So I skipped the going away party, and went home and had a good cry in front of Blondie. I was slugging down a scotch, and just feeling drained from the after effects of crying, when my friends from the bar texted again. They were headed out for trivia, and I went and joined them. We placed 5th out of 10, and just had a great night.

Friday I got stuck on a 5 hour emergency call for work - from 11 am to 4 pm, I was tied to my desk trying to get an issue on the site resolved. It sucked. But when that call ended, it was a happy happy dance as I realized, I don't have to be anywhere near that place for another 1.5 weeks! WOOT!

Yesterday and today were spent doing prep work for Barbados - pedicure and waxing were completed, so I can go and not feel awful while I'm there. Blondie has spent his days this past week flat on his back on the floor - if he's moving around he's fine, if he's lying flat he's fine. If he's sitting up, he's not fine - how in the world are we going to fly? We're not sure but he refuses to talk about cancelling the trip.

Plans for Barbados are as follows: drink, beach, sleep, repeat. Oh, and tour a rum distillery.

--K

The Real-versary

This past Monday was our official 8 year anniversary. Yay!!! We hadn't planned on doing anything as we're off to Barbados in a week, and we had celebrated our non-official anniversary 2 weeks prior. But towards the end of my work day on Monday, Blondie texted and suggested doing dinner. We headed to our favorite turkish restaurant, and split some spicy hummus and falafel. I had manti and Blondie had chicken and spinach. And then we stopped on the way home for gummy bears for yours truly. It was a really nice dinner, and glad I got to do a night with the Blonde One.

Work this week has been tiring. More than ever, I'm so exhausted from having to lead daily meetings - I never have a break (boo hoo). I just wake up every morning, and then immediately start thinking of the 5-8 daily mtgs I have to lead and it makes me weary; and then I'm done in before my day even starts. So pretty much every day this week was like that. I'm so much fun to be around, aren't I?

We also got our notice for our new rent - our lease is up in January, and they are jacking our rent $300/month and now we also have to pay to use the gym in our bldg (it was free the first 2 years). We're debating about what do - move to Brooklyn? Stay in the city but look for something cheaper? Renew our lease? Bite the bullet and buy a tiny ass studio just so we can finally have something again that's our own? We have until end of November to decide as that's when we would have to give our notice to move out.

Friday I met Blondie at our bar to relax and forget the week had happened. It was a good time seeing everyone. When they got wind of our plans to potentially leave the hood, it was non-stop "talk-us-out-of-leaving". It was uber cute, but it was also sad, because I would miss these guys like crazy. The bar, as weird as this sounds, has turned into another family for us. The regulars and our bartender are literally some of the nicest people we know, and I don't know how I would get through my weeks without seeing this group at some point.

Yesterday we put phase 1 of our "where do we live" plan in motion. Blondie and I caught the subway over to Prospect Heights, and met up with a coworker of mine. She took us all around her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods so we could see what it was like, and if we would potentially like living there. We had brunch, and then walked the parks for awhile, before hitting up Target (restroom break. Also, TARGET!) After that, we hit up a beer garden and then a last bar for the night. We got back to the city around 10:30 pm, having been out all day long. It was a great time, and we had a blast, but we're just not sure Brooklyn is where we are supposed to be.

I know I'm harping on this moving / not moving thing, but I'm torn. I hate the thought of paying the kind of money we're about to have to pay for this tiny ass apartment of ours. But I hate the thought of leaving Manhattan. I feel like we've gotten this incredible opportunity to live here in Manhattan, and we've only taken advantage of it for 2 years. We shouldn't have to leave yet. But staying anywhere else in the city is going to cost about the same - so I have to pay the kind of money we're about to pay for rent.

We're finally in a city where it feels like home to both of us, and I don't want to give that up. (TX felt like home to Blondie but not me, and SF felt like home to me but not Blondie). What to do? It's eating at me.

This week I did pretty good about working out. I ran Tues and Thurs, and did an Insanity disc on Wed. I took Friday off, and then we walked all over Brooklyn on Saturday. I'm taking today off too as I have some errands I have to run. I'll work out this week 3-4 days, and then B.A.R.B.A.D.O.S! When we're back from that vacation, it's hard core back into running as I attempt to break a 2:30 half marathon in March 2012.

Plans for this week include meeting our friends from the bar for dinner tonight, and then we're off on Tues night to West Village to see my same friend perform her Cabaret/Burlesque show. A coworker of mine has quit, so her going away party is on Thurs. And then when Friday comes, a happy dance. As work is over for 1.5 weeks. And vacation on the beach is on.

--K

Hodepodge o' stuff

Let me get it out of the way - today was my first day working out since last Sunday. Yes, yes, yes - even though I swore up and down in my last blog post that I was back on track, and I had my shout out to Mr Pooh for motivating me, I took a week off. I have excuses, not good ones. But I have them. So there's that.

This past Monday I slept in b/c I knew I had a travel day ahead of me. This was lame excuse #1, as my flight was only 1.5 hours. I went to work for a half day, and then caught a combo of train and bus out to LaGuardia. Our flight boarded on time, but then we sat for 45 minutes while they injected air into the strut (???) on the right side of the plane. Amazingly enough, we still landed on time in Atlanta - I don't know if we got an excellent tail-wind, or if they had counted taxi time in LGA and circling time in ATL into the original estimate, but we landed exactly right.

I met my coworkers at their gate - they got in about 45 minutes after me - and then we took off for our hotel. On our way through Atlanta, I got to see the giant statue of the Olympic flame, so that was pretty cool. We did dinner and drinks that night, before I crashed out watching TV from my bed. I usually don't mind travelling - the thing I like the most is having a TV in the bedroom and being able to fall asleep with the timer on (Blondie and I ditched the TV in the bedroom about 5 years ago, and even before that, he hated when I would leave the TV on until the sleep timer went off).

Tuesday I woke up feeling like shit - completely drugged and out of it. I've been fighting some kind of allergy / cold for about 3 weeks and it's taking a lot of me. It was all I could do to get showered and down to the lobby to meet the guys for our trip out to work. I slugged down a monster sized coffee to no affect.

Work was okay that day - we were in all-day meetings, but it was good getting to put faces to names. I didn't have much to contribute, so got to keep quiet, and take notes. Also, my laptop refused to connect to the internet even though I plugged directly in, so I pretty much had the day off.

At one point I headed over buildings and met up with 1 of my good friends from the Atlanta office. We had a blast ragging on his cubemates, catching up on each other's lives, etc. He's someone that I trust with my work life - he would never blab anything I told him, so he got an earful about this new role I'm in.

That night, my coworkers that had flown in and I had dinner at our hotel restaurant - afterwards, I headed to our hotel bar with 1 of my coworkers while the other went to bed. We had a good time - we're both at hard places in our lives for different reasons. Mine is work related, his is personal, so it was good to have a sounding board for our issues - my personal life is on track right now, while his work life is on track. We talked and drank for so long that they had to kick us out of the bar. And yes, even that late and with that much drink in me, I still feel asleep to the TV on sleep timer. :)

Wednesday was travel back to NYC day - the exhaustion was beyond believable. When they started boarding my flight, I literally thought "I don't know how I'm going to stand in that line long enough to get to my seat". It took every last ounce of strength to get myself onto the plane (and in the middle seat, woot). I slept literally the entire way back, and caught a cab - and had amazing luck in that getting through NYC wasn't that bad.

Thurs I headed into the office, fought with laptop to get it going (4 hours later), and then left around 1:30 pm to head out with my team to go bowling! I still had the tireds something fierce but managed to chug down a gallon of beer and then drunkingly head out to get a burrito before heading home. Blondie that evening then suggested our bar, so I chugged some water before joining him for more beers.

And then Friday was a full day. It went super fast, mostly because I hadn't really been on email since Monday afternoon so I basically played catch-up most of the day. Friday night, Blondie and I took it easy - we watched the Brewers win their game and had a few beers. But we had to keep it low-key. And that's because...

We are now trained to be balloon handlers!!!! Saturday we were up and on an 8 am bus to Jersey (Meadowlands Stadium) where we got trained on how to haul the T-day balloons around! It was fun and exciting, and they literally brought in 3 of the balloons and inflated them, and we learned all the signals, how to raise and lower the balloons, how to take corners on the balloons, etc. We met a pretty cool chick from Brooklyn also, ragged on the uber-excited people, ate some free breakfast, and enjoyed our free gift of a slinky afterwards.

We were back to NYC around 1 pm, and immediately headed over to Southern Hospitality for brunch and beers. It was a gorgeous day - 80 degrees, no clouds whatsoever, so after lunch, we stopped at a local farmer's market (not our typical one) and then headed on home to nap for several hours. Balloon training took a lot out of me - we were on our feet and moving for over 4 hours.

Today I got up and after I finally stopped sneezing, I did my Cardio Max Insanity DVD. My legs were shaking so bad by the time I was done. I'm now lying in bed, wishing we had a TV in here, b/c the Packers are playing and I feel like lying in bed while watching them.

Tomorrow is our official 8 year anniversary - looking forward to that. And next week, we have a show that our friend from the bar is in. And then 2 weeks from tomorrow, we will be in Barbados! I hope to feel good enough when I wake up tomorrow to attempt a run, maybe some weights. Half of the office is off to the SF offices this week (not me), so it should be a bit more quiet than usual. Here's hoping the week goes fast!

--K

It's wedding season!

First and foremost, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Yours Truly and The Blonde One! We hit 8 years (unofficially) on 9/27. Our official anniversary is 10/10, but we kind of celebrate both.

So the past 2 weeks have been pretty hectic. We're dialing up my project slowly but surely. And it's starting to take off. Our numbers have just about tracked our legacy site, but in the last 5-6 days, we've started to outperform legacy. We *STILL* have something we have to fix which is frustrating as f*ck b/c the last time we fixed an issue, "they" swore everything would be fine. And it's not. So I'm having to fight my temper, and not do what I want to do which is scream at my program manager and my delivery lead. Not even scream any words, just a loud "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" right in their faces. Can you say mature? Apparently, I can't. ;)

So last Friday night, we took off to SF. It was Blondie's first time back since we moved, and my 5th time back. But it was my first time that didn't involve work. We got in really late Friday night and went straight to bed. Saturday we were up around 7:15 am, and decided to head straight to the bar. SF is awesome due to the fact that football starts at 9 am, and we decided to take full advantage of it.

We headed from our hotel down to the subway, and the entire time I'm ragging on Blondie about why he doesn't miss SF - "how can you not miss it here? how do you hate it here so much?" Non-stop, the entire 10 min walk. We get to the subway, and start down the stairs and this guy about 3/4th the way down the stairs in front of us, turns around and hollers "hey guys, watch it down here!" And that's when the smell hit us. Human sh*t, down the steps. Blondie turned to me and goes "And you wonder why I don't like it here!" It was pretty ironic. SF definitely has a homeless problem, and they don't know how to fix it (I don't either).

Anyway, while we were on our train, we texed Bbbb and Shelbs to come meet us at the bar. They had originally said that Bbbb would try to meet up with us around noon-ish, but Shelbs was headed to the airport. About 45 mins after we got to the bar, they showed up and surprised us! I almost spit beer everywhere I was so shocked. It was SO GREAT seeing them. We got caught up, were generally loud, and just had a blast.

Around 1 pm when we were leaving the bar, the waitress asked us what our plans were for the rest of the day, so we told her about the K's wedding that night. And it turned out that the couple at the very next table (who had already left) were going to the same wedding.

Blondie and I left the bar, laughing about the day - 3 pitchers of beer, tons of food, awesome company, back in SF. We headed to Say Cheese to get more tasty sandwiches, and crashed in our old dog park, chowing down like we used to.

The K's wedding was that night - they had a bus that took us from our hotel to the wedding/reception. We got to see Mr K on the bus, and as soon as we got to where the wedding was, we ran into like 50 of our other friends - the sisters C, Dirty Sanchez, Bring Your Own Cary, F&J, Double D - everyone who we knew and loved (minus Sweetie J) from SF was in 1 place at 1 time. It was a fabulous night. We saw the K's get married - she looked so beautiful, and he was so happy. We ate a ton more awesome food. We drank from the open bar. We danced our asses off. We enjoyed the company like you wouldn't believe. And we ran into the couple from the bar that morning who immediately recognized us, and we hit it off with and would've been friends with if we had still lived in SF.

The wedding was a crazy party - Blondie and I kept it under control, but someone puked in a urinal in the men's room, one of my friend's yakked at the reception, and one of the bridesmaid lost it on the bus back to the hotel - it was all kinds of awesome!

On Sunday, Bbbb picked us up from our hotel and we went to Sports Basement b/c Blondie and I needed new shoes. After that, we headed back to Bbbb's and crashed out for awhile before heading out for pizza, and to watch the Packers game. My good friend KT (who I used to work with in SF) came out and met up with us, and we had a blast that afternoon. Shelbs got home from her trip on Sunday night, and we rounded out the evening just chilling.

It was hard leaving on Monday - normally when it's time to head back to NYC, I'm fine with it. This time I wasn't - I think it was because I got to see everyone I love (and I didn't have to go to work), and it made it a billion times harder than when I've been at work all week. In the airport on Monday, I ran into an old friend from work who was headed to NYC for the week. He looked so good - he's lost a ton of weight, and when I asked him what he was doing, he mentioned he had just done a Tough Mudder in Northern CA a week ago!

Mr Pooh is signed up for Tough Mudder in Nov, so I took the opportunity to grill him all about TM. He said it was the hardest thing he's ever done, and he's never been so happy to finish something in his life.

This week was pretty long, which was weird b/c I only worked 3.5 days. It was trying to figure out when we are going to fix this last issue (which "they" promise will truly truly be the fix) and dealing with coming into lock for our next release. It was a very long, yet short, week.

And on Friday I left work early to head to our friends from the bar wedding - they got hitched in City Hall on Friday afternoon. He's here on a "fiancee visa" and they had to tie the knot fast, and will have a big blowout wedding next year. After the City Hall wedding, we headed back home and crashed for a bit before meeting up with the group at the bar for the reception. It was great seeing everyone, and celebrating our 2nd wedding in less than a week!

Some other stuff has gone on also in the last few weeks.
1) I need to call out how grateful I am to Mr Pooh - my body has just shut down over the past few weeks, and working out hasn't been happening. However, Mr Pooh has agreed to come back to NYC next spring and run the NYC half marathon. And he's been great about texting me 3-4 times a week to tell me about his workouts (which is motivating). Because of him, I've been full force this week at the gym - Wed-today I've been down to the gym for at least a 3.1 mile run, weights, situps, etc. I've also started watching what I eat again. I can already tell I'm down about 7-8 lbs since Monday, and I'm starting to feel "normal" again.
*** I'm not someone who gains a pound and freaks out. I'm typically a yo-yo'er. But in the past 1.5 years, I've had to admit to myself that I do NOT feel good when I'm not watching what I'm doing. Even knowing this, it's still like pulling teeth to watch it sometimes.

2) Blondie and I are officially in to walk balloons in the T-Day parade this year! We put our apps in, and go to "Balloon Training" next Saturday. They'll teach us how to deal with wind gusts, etc. We'll apparently be on the smaller balloons (think pumpkins, not Spiderman) but I'm very excited to be in the last parade going through Times Square! Set your DVR for T-Day morning everyone!

3) I also got stuck on a last minute trip to Atlanta, leaving tomorrow. I leave tomorrow afternoon, have all day meetings in Atlanta on Tues, and fly back on Wed. I'm pretty beat from the last 2 weeks, so I'm trying to pump myself up for this, but the excitement is not there.

All right everyone, that's my catch up. I'm relaxing after a 5 mile run today, waiting on Blondie to get back from the gym. We're going to order some food and watch the Packers play this afternoon.

--K