12 hours

I stumbled across a blog the other day while looking for photos of the Hammond Trail. The blog is called 12 hours in photos and the idea is to take a photo every hour on the hour for a 12 hour period. The pictures are to represent us – our life in a 12 hour period. I contacted the blog author and am excited to say that I’ll be starting my 12 hours soon.

just a little something that made me laugh

Facebook

I caved and am now back on Facebook, I lasted close to 4 months without the drama but boredom overcame me last week and I logged back in. There is no real reason as to why I continue to log off and back on again. I guess the gossip mill just gets the best of me and I feel compelled to see what everyone has been up too. After a few months I begin to realize that most of these so called friends aren’t really friends anyway and I can’t understand why I invest so much time in their personal lives when I really don’t care. Nor do they care enough about mine to keep in touch once I’ve signed out again. Those aren’t friends but merely acquaintances, so what do I care if I can’t see their aunt patties 50th wedding anniversary pic’s? I don’t know aunt patty and aunt patty doesn’t know me. Now some of you might think – how is Facebook any different then BlogSpot ? – truly it’s not much different but I feel a deeper connect with blogging then I do with comments – I wish more of my friends and family would blog – I love reading their thoughts and ideas appose to just seeing their pictures. I guess it’s a lot like going to someone’s house and seeing the slide show of their last vacation. It’s exciting for them but doesn’t really mean much to you. We’ll see how long I last this time :)

money money

Brian and I meet a little over 10 years ago this year. Although it hasn’t been a consistence 10 years of dating we’ve been in each other’s lives for a very long time. I wanted to do something over the top for our anniversary this year but with the Yellowstone trip coming up we can’t afford to take off before hand. Kind of like my 30th birthday in January when I wanted to spend it on a nice deserted beach but we had just gotten back from Costa Rica and there was no way we could afford to leave again. Anyway I had a point to this story and that point is that I found a smokin deal on trips to Las Vegas. For the next couple of months they are offering flights out of Santa Rosa with 4 nights hotel anywhere from $211 for a 2.5 star all the way up to $338 for a 4.5 Star and since I can’t go I thought I’d let all of you know in case anyone else is interested.

My answer to the Interview

What word or phrase do you use the most?

Ya ya ya.

This is a really bad habit of mine. If I agree with what someone is saying I tend to cut them off by saying ya ya ya. It drives Brian crazy but he’s almost broken me of the habit by repeatedly teasing me any time I use that phrase.

Of all the places you have traveled to what is your favorite place and why?

Salzburg, Austria.

This is funny to me since Austria has never been on my list of places to visit and let me tell you that list is huge! It was a fluke thing that we even ended up there. We originally only planned to visit Germany and maybe cross over the border into Switzerland. Brian had already been to Germany twice when he was younger and one of the things he remembers most was the Salt mines in Berchtesgaden. Berchtesgaden sits on the border between Germany and Austria. I knew we would be tired from exploring all day so instead of driving all the way back to Munich. I thought it would be best to grab a hotel close by. That’s how we ended up in Austria and had I only know how beautiful the city was I would have spent half of our trip there. It’s straight out of a fairy tale book.

Salt Mines

If you could be the opposite sex for a day what would you do?

Hell yeah I would. I tell Brian all the time I wish that I had been born a boy. There are days where I feel like if I had been born a man everything would just fall into place. Plus I’d really like to know if they do think about sex 20 times a day.

If your house was burning down what would be three things you would grab?

I’m assuming that Brian can manage to get out of the house on his own so I won’t put him on the list, which means Tucker would be my number one pick. Second would be the HP back up disc for the computer. It contains all of the photos from every trip we’ve ever been on. It would be much easier to grab that then to attempt to collect all of our photo albums. Third? This is a hard one. Everything else in the house is a material possession and it’s hard for me to place a value on any of it. Would it be the tea pot that’s over 100 years old? Or the quilt my grandmother hand stitched? The box of keepsakes I keep hidden in the closet, that contain everything Brian has ever given to me? Maybe the grandfather clocks from Germany that were given to us by grandpa jack? I might just end up dying in the fire surrounded by all my stuff.



What period in history do you like the most/best fits with your personality?

The period in history that I like the most is that made up one you read about in romance novels. Where the brave warrior sweeps the damsel in distress off her feet and saves the day. I think every little girls dreams about being a princess and living in a castle but I imagine had I grown up during this time period I would have been a peasant girl slaving away in the fields

Happy St Patricks Day

Did you know that in Chicago they dye the river green today? How weird would that be?

The weekend

The weather was absolutely perfect over the weekend. Mostly sunny skies and a crisp 58 degrees which I know isn’t exactly shorts and tank top weather but for March it was perfect and truly even in July you can’t wear shorts in Humboldt. We started off the weekend with dinner at Tomo’s since Brian received a nice bonus check with all the Toyota recalls and I insisted he take me on a date. I’m addicted to Tempura Yams (thanks big jess) and would eat tomo’s every weekend if it wasn’t so freaking expensive. For the 60 dollars we spent Friday night we could have eating Mexican food for a week but that’s the price you pay for eating creatures of the sea.

Saturday Brian went into work while I spent time with my sister and her family. We walked the Hammond Trail and took the kids to baseball practice. I finished off the day grocery shopping. I know – really exciting eh?

Sunday was a little more eventful yet frustrating at the same time. Brian once again went into work to finish up his truck even though he promised me we’d hang out on Sunday. I wasn’t too happy but at the same time couldn’t bitch about it because I know he needs to get it done. To appease me he offered to pay for me to do the Foggy Bottom Run with Carly and Derek. It took place in Ferndale and the turnout was pretty amazing. The entire down town section of Main Street was packed with joggers. Now carly and I aren’t runners so our placement was less than spectacular but I wasn’t really out there to win a race but more so for the new experience. I brought our camera to capture the event but the damn thing wouldn’t work – that might have something to do with the fact that it took two dunks in the lake over the summer. I called Brian in hopes that he knew some magic trick that would fix it. He said to take the battery out and put it back in. So that’s what I did twice and NOTHING! Of course, Monday morning it was working perfectly. Although I was bummed I didn’t get any photos I wasn’t overly worried since the event takes pictures and post them online. I spent a good hour yesterday looking for our photos yesterday but once again NOTHING. I guess that’s what happens when your finish is less than spectacular.

Derek finishing in an impressive 40 minutes. Of course he got his photo taken

so far not a fan

Its been three days since I started the Ab circle and I have this funny feeling its not going to work. At this moment I don't feel like I've even worked my abs once I've completed the 12 minute video. The only thing I feel is aching knees and a tight back. I'm going to give it a couple of more weeks and if I don't notice a difference between working out at the gym and the ab machine I'm going to pass it to the next fool in the family.

just one more

Long lost cousin willie sent me another photo today. A picture of my grandmother when she was a child. I love this photo and am so glade he got in contact with us.

Tummy Tuck

My new work out machine! I'll let you all know how it works. Don't worry I didn't pay for it so I wont be to upset if I don't get any results.

Tax Man

Today is one of those days that if I could run away from the world I would. Everything around me has started crashing down and each time I try to pick it up and put it back together another piece falls. It’s frustrating and overwhelming and at this moment I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I prefer running away but as a grown adult I know that that’s not the right answer. Between finances, vacations, and the day to day stuff I have to deal with. I'm at my max and then this morning I received the call I’ve been dreading for the last three years but knew was inevitable.

The Tax man is coming! We have a date for May 10th to go over the last three years worth of Sales Tax that I prepare for my company. I’m nervous and this is weird to say but slightly excited at the same time. Excited to see if I’ve been doing it right and nervous to find out if I haven’t been. I imagine the next couple of weeks or maybe even months I will be pulling old binders and organizing like I never have before. Yuck! I am so not looking forward to this!

5 Honest Things about ME

1. I gossip too much and can be extremely judgmental. Even though I have this character flaw, I despise people like this.

2. I’m constantly planning on how I’m going to spend my millions when I win the lottery. My future house is gorgeous and my family well taken care of. I don’t even buy lottery tickets.

3. I can’t stand a dirty house and find myself constantly cleaning – I can’t keep up with the work load even though there are only two of us living there. I’m not sure how people with children do it.

4. I flip-flop back and forth between being extremely giving and completely self-centered. I’d like to find a happy medium between the too.

5. I have an addiction to food. I think about it constantly and really have to fight my inner demon when I’m on a diet.

The Interview

Instructions - if you would like to be interviewed

1. Leave me a comment saying "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Priceline

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve used Priceline but I’ve always had good luck with them and today wasn’t any different. Most of you know by now that I’d headed to Charlotte N.C for my friends wedding this up coming spring. I’ve budgeted myself a certain amount of money to complete the trip with and so far I’m right on target thanks to Priceline. Today I managed to score a 3 day car rental for $13.00 per day and a 3.5 star resort located right by the airport for $42.00 per night. I was interested in finding out how much I would have paid had I booked directly through their sites. Hertz – which is the car company that accepted my winning bid was $22.00 per day on their lowest model. That’s a $27.00 savings over the course of three days. The hotel that accepted my winning bid averages $140.00 per night and I can’t tell you how happy I am that I managed to scoret it for $42.00. Brian and I have been discussing the dangers of being a lone female traveler and he insisted that I not stay at anything under a 3 star which was fine with me but I didn’t really want to pay three star prices. Thank You Priceline!