Shoes 2, Trixie 0

While in New York I stopped at a Nine West store. I needed a new pair of brown shoes for work, and I found a pair of shoes I really liked.

Heel's a little high, but nothing I can't handle. I have another pair of Nine West shoes that are almost this high and I absolutely love them. I tried these shoes on, and my right foot kept popping out of the back of the shoe. The very helpful salesgirl gave me some pads to put inside, and that seemed to help. So I bought them and brought them home, and I couldn't wait to wear them.

The first day I wore them I didn't do so well. I've learned that even though I sit behind a desk, I need to bring a backup if I'm breaking in a new pair of shoes. I was so confident in the fit I didn't do that. Which means by 10:00 I was taking them off. All of my weight was concentrated in the front of the shoe, so the bottom of my feet really hurt. Plus, the front of the shoe seemed tighter than I remembered. It was so bad I went home for lunch to change shoes. My old shoes are getting pretty ratty, but boy were they comfy after that!

Yesterday I decided to try again. This time I used a second set of pads in the front of the shoe, and took out the pad from my left heel. Walking around at home, it seemed pretty good. Just to be on the safe side, I brought my ratty old shoes with me. Good thing too. The adhesive from the pad started rubbing my foot on the walk in from the parking lot (I have about a block walk), and I literally got in the door and changed shoes. I mean literally-I walked in and sat down in the stairwell. I now have a blister on my foot about the size of a quarter.

When this blister heals up, I am going to try again. This time I will check with my foot doctor, Dr. Scholl, and see if he can recommend anything. I have a pair of Doc Marten sandals that turned my feet into bloody strips the first few times I wore them, but now are ridiculously comfortable. But just in case, I'm going to find another pair of brown shoes......

Things I loved about New York

In no particular order:

-Dinner at Perilla
-Finding out our luggage arrived (was contemplating not getting out of bed if I had to rewear my clothes!)
-Lots and lots of walking (so I didn't feel guilty about all the eating!)
-Central Park on Sunday morning
-Sunday morning brunch (mmmm...crepes.......)
-Watching the Packers beat the NY Giants
-Power shopping!!!! (although I didn't buy too much as our luggage space was limited)
-NYC brick oven pizza (mmmmm......sliced meatballs and fresh mozzarella.......)
-Madison Square Garden and all of it's history
-Seeing Rush at MSG
-Finding Labatt Blue on tap at MSG
-Upgrading to first class for the flight home

I'm sure there's tons more I'm forgetting, but the main point is we had an awesome time!

NYC, Baby!

Well we finally made it to the Big Apple. It was starting to look a little touch and go, since the first leg of our journey didn't get off to a great start. When the plane that we were going to be on landed, the pilot did his visual inspection and found a puddle of hydraulic fluid on the ground next to the right rear wheel. Not a good thing! After much of what looked like nothing getting done, a couple of mechanics came out to take a look at it. They disappeared after a while, and we were told that there would be further delays while they got parts. After what seemed like eternity, they came back and got everything fixed. We knew it was a good sign when they started loading our baggage! So I don't know exactly what time we left, but it was late enough to miss our connecting flight. Luckily another one was there and we managed to get on board just in the nick of time. We ended up in the back next to the engines, but at least we were there! All in all, we got to NYC only 45 minutes late, which wasn't too bad.

Of course when we got to LaGuardia we found out our bags didn't. No big surprise there. We had reservations at Perilla, which is owned by Top Chef season 1 winner Harold. The food was terrific, the atmosphere was wonderful, and the service was outstanding! I started out with an appetizer of crab salad, while Mike had the special-diver scallops. We were both really impressed with our dishes. My main coarse was spinach truffle ravioli, yum! Mike had fluke with a butternut squash puree, and that looked really tasty as well. We shared a side of risotto, which was made with a whole grain rice and just melted in my mouth. Dessert was a dark chocolate tart with peppermint ice cream. The mint was real mint-you could almost taste the leaf! A thousand times better than mint flavoring.

We wandered back to our hotel, stuffed, buzzed, and sleepy. American still had not called us about our bags, and they were not waiting for us when we returned. Luckily we had our toiletries in our carryon, but the only clothes we had were what we were wearing. So plan B was to go shopping first thing in the morning. However, when we got up this morning Mike decided to call the desk and sure enough, our bags were here! So now it's off to wander the Big Apple, and thankfully in fresh clothes!

Guys, is it so hard to follow the beat?

I've been going somewhat regularly to kickboxing classes at the gym, and it's pretty much the same people all the time. It's mostly women, but there are a few guys that show up semi-regularly. These guys drive me nuts. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not always that coordinated. Sometimes I zig when I'm supposed to zag, and when the instructor tells us to shake our groove things while pretending to hit a speedbag, well, my groove thing doesn't shake that well. That being said, I look like the picture of grace next to these guys. Fellas, it's not a contest to see who can punch the fastest. Stop and listen to the beat. One, two, three, four. Not onetwothreefour and wait a couple beats to catch up the rest of the class. It's pretty distracting to see your limbs flailing about like a drunken octopus. I understand if the internal metronome may not be working properly, but you do have eyes and you can watch what the rest of the class is doing and follow along. There's one guy in particular who is the worst offender, and I was near him today because I came in late. A couple of times, he was racing ahead of the beat and turned around to wait for the rest of us and almost was introduced to my fists.

If they're this uncoordinated and are hurrying to finish during kickboxing, I feel sorry for their significant others.

mmmmm.....cupcakes............

So I learned from one of my coworkers that there is a new bar opening in downtown Champaign in October. It's not your typical downtown bar though-it's better. It's a CUPCAKE bar! How cool will that be? I can taste the frosting already........

Look in, to the eye of the storm

Tuesday morning, from the employee parking lot.

Feeding Frenzy!

I thought feeding Hershey and Bootsie was bad until I saw this.

Sheesh!!!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

So I had a hair appointment this weekend, and I decided it was time for a change. No more long hair, no more red. I dyed my hair back to close to my natural brown color, and had it cut real short. Meet the new Trixie:



It's taking me some time to get used to this-right now it feels like it's in a pony tail but without the tail. Washing it this morning was a little weird too, I'm used to being able to grab my hair and wring it out, but I can't do that anymore! I guess with all the money I'll save on shampoo and conditioner I'll spend on styling products.

Warning on a sunshade

"Do not drive while sunshade is in place"

Seriously, you gotta tell me that?

Idiocracy isn't too far off!

Home Alone

Mike's off in Detroit Rock City for a few days, so it's just me and the cats right now. I'm going to indulge my inner nerd-I netflixed the new Battlestar Galactica. I heard it was pretty good, and I don't have any baggage about the original show, so what the heck? Word of advice if you do the same-get the miniseries first and then get disc 1, etc., because the miniseries is really disc 1 and disc 1 is disc 2. Huh??!!???

Got my car back yesterday, and she's 90% fixed. She's still missing a running board (it'll take them a couple of days to get it), and the open door sensor is permanently on (will be fixed when running board is installed). It felt really good to drive it again. I liked the Jeep, but it felt really big and it was kind of a gas hog. The best feature was the way the seats folded down-one tug on a strap and done! Much easier than taking out the headreasts, pushing the seat out, and folding the back down.

Temporary Wheels

A few weeks ago I was in a car accident. I was going down Springfield Avenue in the left lane and a girl in the right lane sideswiped me to avoid hitting the car that supposedly stopped suddenly in front of her. I didn't see anything, only felt and heard the impact of my passenger side being hit. We both pulled over at a nearby parking lot and I called the police. Champaign's a small enough town that if you tell someone "I'm in front of Pia's on Springfield Ave", they should understand. Not the dispatcher at the police department. He kept asking for an exact street address or the cross street. This is on a stretch that's probably a good three blocks long with no cross street, and we were smack dab in the middle of it. He finally got it figured out. If I would have told him we were in front of Carmella's Donuts someone would have been there in five minutes!

The girl who hit me got a ticket for improper lane usage (DUH!), and we were both sent on our merry way.

Like I said, it really wasn't too bad. Neither one of us were hurt, just shook up a little.


Her insurance agent turned out to be very helpful and nice. I just had to take my car in for an estimate and have the shop send it to them, and once they approved it I could make arrangements to get my car fixed. They also offered me use of a rental car if I needed it, which I do! Mike and I have had enough of sharing a car! So I spent my lunch hour one day getting an estimate, and before you know it the insurance company got back to me and gave me the okay. About 10 minutes after talking to the insurance agent, someone from Enterprise called me wanting to know when I had the repairs scheduled-he had an SUV ready that day if I needed it! So I called the repair shop, and got an appointment for today. I called Enterprise back, and in the small world it is, found out I was dealing with the husband of someone who works at one of the Bloomington branches whom I've worked with many times on customer issues. Nice to know he'll probably take good care of me! Plus, the insurance agent had already mailed out the check for repairs, so it's sitting in the savings account earning a whopping 1/2% interest for the next week.

So I dropped the car off this morning and Enterprise picked me up at the repair shop. How awesome is that? Ever notice that all those guys who drive the courtesy vans for the dealerships are retired? Same with Enterprise. Sure beats working at Walmart! So this gentleman picks me up in a silver Jeep Cherokee Laredo, which sure enough, turns out to be what I am now driving for the next week. I think it's a little excessive-I would have been happy with anything, but I'm not paying for it! And truthfully, it's not too much bigger than the Tribute, it just seems like it. It has a very nice ride and is pretty quick to accelerate. And it's four wheel drive, so if I get the urge to go off-roading I'll be ready!

Wild Wedding Weekend

This is long-if you don't feel like reading it here's the summary-Laura and Dave got married, and everyone had a lot of fun!

Thursday morning saw an early start with breakfast at the Original Pancake House. We were probably the youngest people there-we saw a lot of gray hair and couples sitting together reading the newspaper. Looking around, I couldn't help but wonder if Mike and I would be here 40 years from now, regulars having breakfast on a weekday morning. After breakfast, we hit the road and headed to Milwaukee.

The drive up was fairly easy, and we only made one stop for gas. We hit town about 1 o'clock and checked into our hotel room right away. After a brief pause, we went to Southridge to get Mike's tux. There was some concern about the abilities of the lady who measure Mike for the tux, but she got the measurements close enough and the tux fit ok. We also ran into Mike's dad as he was leaving. Actually, we heard him before we saw him-he was talking about his surgery. Next, a tour around the mall to find new shoes for Mike and a new dress for me. I've had so much trouble trying to find a dress that fits, and when I walked into JC Penney I found two right away that were perfect, and both were on sale. Gotta love "big city shopping"! Mike found a pair of shoes (that had to be returned later-defective!), and a couple of shirts. Then we went to his parents house, and Laura and a couple of her friends from out of town came over. Ron threw some burgers and brats on the grill and we had a nice cookout. We went back to the hotel, where Mike chilled out while I went out with the girls. The first stop was Brian's Cocktail Lounge, which is known for it's frosty drinks. You tell the bartender what flavors you like and he whips something else. I had a Peachy Keen, which was quite tasty. The decor is very 70's and the place was pretty quiet. I guess on weekends it gets pretty crowded. After that, we went to the Safehouse, which is a really cool spy theme bar. It's so secret that we couldn't find it-Mapquest directions are not very good. We ended up calling Mike at 11 pm to get better directions-yay laptop and wireless internet! Laura, Rachel and I knew the password, but the other three girls didn't, so we got in and made it to the bar in time to watch them gain entry. If you don't know the password the "guard" makes up something humiliating that you have to do. In their case, they had to make bunny ears with their hands and hop around until the guard let them in. The best part-they still weren't told the password! There was another bachelorette party there, and to put it nicely they were pretty snotty. Guess they didn't like the competition! After a slow start (and difficulty getting served), things got going and the night got interesting. The only detail I'll mention is the guy we met who could take off his boxers without taking off his pants. He did, and Laura got a souvenir (which made it's way to the nearest dumpster upon leaving!). Then it was off to George Webb's for breakfast. I dropped everyone off (the out of towners were staying at the same hotel we were, and you can fit four girls in the back of the Tribute if someone sits on a lap) and went to bed. By the time I fell asleep it was 3:30.

Nothing like waking up at 6:30 to the sound of the guy in the room next to you slamming his door! I couldn't fall back asleep, and I had to get up at 7:30 anyway for our spa day. Thankfully I only had the peach drink at Brian's, otherwise I really would have been hurting. I met up with the other girls and we went to Starbucks to meet everyone else. After some coffee, we headed over to the Aveda school at the Vici Salon. I got a manicure and pedicure, and I almost fell asleep a couple of times, it was so relaxing! Mike picked me up from there, and we went back to his parents house for a little while to relax. Then back to the hotel to change for the rehearsal. I ended up wearing one of my new dresses, and I'm glad I did because it was pretty warm out. We had also learned that the reception building was a historical building and therefore did not have air conditioning. Nothing to do but make the best of it! However, the park was beautiful , and the setting by the river was perfect. We also had a long staircase to descend, which was very dramatic. After rehearsal we headed to Walker's Maple Grove for dinner, which was a lot of fun. At that point, Dave and some of his friends decided to have a guy gathering at his parents house, so Mike took me back to the hotel where I vegged out. I did pretty good for three hours of sleep but at that point I was done.

Saturday morning we received a phone call from Laura. All I could hear was Mike's side of the conversation, and it didn't sound good. Turns out the water was out at her parents house-nobody on their whole block had water due to a main breakage. So Laura came over to our room to shower, and then I went back with her so we could go to the mall and get our hair and makeup done. Of course, by the time she had come over the water was back on, but it was still probably a good thing she came over. We got to the mall and after straightening out a bit of confusion on the appointments (a couple of people cancelled and they didn't have that info) started on our hair. I was still indecisive about what I was going to do-I was thinking about straightening it but wasn't sure. I happened to turn around and saw one of the stylists, and the way she was wearing her hair was kind of what I was thinking of. As luck would have it, she ended up taking care of me! Since mine was pretty simple, I was done first, so I took pictures of everyone else getting done. Everyone's hair looked absolutely gorgeous! Then off to Boston Store, where we split up-the moms went to the Estee Lauder counter while Laura and I went to Clinique. Another mixup here-Clinique didn't have our appointments and there was only one lady working. Luckily, she was very good and took great care of us. Because of this, we were a little behind on time but no worries-we made it back to the house in plenty of time to get to the park. Laura did something different which I really liked-we did pictures before the ceremony, so guests wouldn't have to kill a lot of time in between. The weather was a slight worry, and it did rain briefly at one point, but by then we were already inside. It also stayed cloudy which was nice because the sun wasn't beating down on us. Guests started arriving, and before you knew it, we were walking down the stairs and starting the ceremony. It was brief, with Laura's Uncle Fran officiating. There were tears and laughter, and then Laura and Dave were married! The guests then went on to the reception hall while the bridal party went to the room where we had changed and waited to be introduced. There was a bit of a delay while we tried to figure out the bustle on Laura's dress, but that got straightened out and the party really started! The rest was pretty much a blur-the food was really good, and the cake was excellent! We had a great time between dancing and talking with the family. It's been a long time since I've seen a lot of them.

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and went back to the mall to return Mike's tux. After that, we headed over to his parents' house for the gift opening. It was kind of an impromptu get-together, with Dave's parents and one of his aunts coming over. Les also came over, and she already had some of her pictures developed. Laura and Dave got some really nice gifts as well as some cash to take on their honeymoon. We hung out and ate tamales from El Rey (the best!), and then it was time to go home.

Laura and Dave, congratulations!

It's 10:30 on Wednesday morning, and I just got out of the shower. What does that mean? I'm on vacation, whoo-hoo! Laura (Mike's sister) and Dave are getting married this weekend, and we're both standing up in the wedding. So we're heading north tomorrow to start the festivities. I decided to take a few days off both before and after because I really need some time off, especially after yesterday's big announcement. We assumed that the branches would close, but to have to sell them as well as the accounts is quite shocking. There's also some really good people at those locations that I don't want to lose. But to be perfectly honest, there's one or two that I won't be sorry to see go.

So what's on tap for the rest of the day? Maybe a trip to the mall, but a really quick one. I want to spend some time outside soaking up the 90 degree sun. Picture a field of freshly fallen snow with the sun beating down on it. You know how white that is? Well let me tell you, my legs are even whiter! Something tells me while I'm sitting in the sun I may have to have a mojito or two to cool off. And JB's coming over after work tonight-she's keeping an eye on the cats while we're gone. And then running a few errands and packing. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post once we get back!

Guess What I Ate!!!!!!

Yep, I had my first crawdad yesterday at lunch. It looked pretty much like this, except it was bright red and dead. If it had looked like this I don't know if I would have eaten it. I wish I would have taken a picture but I didn't think about it until it was too late.

And where did I get this exotic creature? At the Chinese buffet of course. A coworker and I went to lunch at Four Seasons and they had a whole pot of crawdads. He's had them before and showed me how to eat them. First you snap the tail off, then you peel it and grab the meat out. Simple, right?

Messy is more like it. The first crawdad I tried ended up having a little bitty tail so it was really hard to get any meat out of it. Also, you know how shrimp have the "poop chute"? Crawdads have it to, and it's much bigger. The second crawdad I ate had a huge one, and I pulled it away from the meat only to get it stuck in my fingernails. So not only do I have the greasy juice from the stuff the crawdad was cooked in all over my hands, I also have crawdad intestine in my fingernails. I think I went through about twenty napkins to clean up. I ate a third one, and that was enough.

And the verdict? Eh, it was okay. The meat did taste like shrimp, so that was a plus, but it was way too much work for not a lot of reward. But as Lou pointed out, a real Southerner would have eaten about a dozen in the time that it took me to eat three. So I think those were my first and last crawdads. But at least I tried them! Next time I will stick to the potstickers and seafood delight.

Further evidence that the fortune cookie writers have completely given up. Lou's fortune was "You can't aim a duck to death". WTF?????? What does that mean? My fortune was "Your fortune is on the way". I'm still waiting...........

Into Thin Air

I just finished reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. This is an absolutely amazing story of his trip to Mt. Everest in May 1996. Jon was a journalist with Outisde magazine at the time of this trip, and his assignment was to write an article about the commercialization of Everest. Instead, he told the story of the death of five of his fellow climbers, including two guides.

I've caught Everest on the Discovery Channel a few times, and I was just stunned at the determination of these climbers. Often, these climbers would frostbite, sleep deprivation, and oxygen deprivation. They would also commonly pass the bodies of other climbers who didn't make it, or even worse, climbers who were still alive but with no way of rescue. Similar situations are described in this book, and there is no shortage of traumatic events on this climb.

Near the start of the story, Jon talks about the moment when he realizes just how high he is going to climb-the same altitude as the plane he is taking to reach Everest. That put the height of Everest in perspective for me, otherwise 29,028 feet is just a number. Jon also intersperses his story with a history of Everest, and this brings a lot more richness to the story. There were some knocks from Amazon reviewers who thought that the narrative was a bit scattered, but I didn't think it was hard to follow at all. In fact, it was really hard for me to put the book down. I wanted to know what drove people to climb this high, and how the disaster unfolded. It also made me wonder if I would have the drive to do something like this. I think it would be quite an adventure to go to Everest, but I don't think I'd want to go much higher than Base Camp.

Thanks, Motos, for putting this in your garage sale. It was definitely a worthwhile read.

Orange Juice and Disgusting Houses

Every week, I make orange juice for Sunday breakfast, and every week, I have leftover juice that we never bother finishing. We also have a freezer full of vodka (that makes us sound like alcoholics, really, it's just martini experimentation!). You would have thought I would have figured it out much earlier, but the light bulb just went on tonight. Take some orange juice, combine with vanilla flavored vodka, and you have a Dreamsicle screwdriver. Admittedly, it's not quite chocolate and peanut butter, but it's pretty good.

So while I'm drinking this concoction, I was watching an episode of Flip This House. If you've not seen this show, it centers around three different companies who buy houses cheap and fix them up fast, with the expectations of making a nice profit. In this episode, the Montelongos from San Antonio chance upon a house that has basically been abandoned. They buy the house without seeing the inside. (!!!!!!) Once the property is theirs, the main guy, Armando, goes inside and finds a disaster area. If this show would have been on Discovery, Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs would come in, taken one look, and ran screaming like a little girl. That's pretty much what every contractor did who came in the house, as well as Armando's family (who are in the business as well). Armando can be kind of a jerk sometimes, he's one of those people who bitch about an $1000 plumbing expense then drives away in his Hummer to his brand new ginormous house. I know that the object of the game is to spend as little as possible so you make as much as you can, but still, at some point you're going to have to pay. Armando gets the house done, but not without a huge financial and emotional cost. As much of a jerk as he can be, I did feel sorry for him at times, although I was also laughing at him. Seriously, why do they buy these houses sight unseen????? It wasn't that cheap! Anyway, if you have cable, check out this show. It's much more entertaining reality TV than some of the crap that's out there.

Downtown

There's always an interesting variety of characters downtown. A couple of weeks ago, I saw somebody riding a unicycle on Randolph and Church. And of course, there is the two dollar lady. Everyone who's spent time at any of the downtown bars and restaurants has heard "Hey mista, you got two dollars?" Even if you're a woman you've heard that. Not one, not three, but two dollars is what she wants. She's very clear about that. And then there's Legs-the guy who sits outside of Cafe Kopi and wears short pink or yellow shorts. All I gotta say is thank goodness he keeps his legs crossed when he sits!

The newest character I've seen lately is someone I call Slow-Walkin Dude. I was going to call him Creepy Slow-Walkin Dude, but I decided that's not very fair since he's not really creepy, it's just the way he walks. He walks by the bank every morning about the time I get to work, and sometimes I see him walking back when I leave. Although I have not timed him, he probably takes a good 15-20 minutes to walk one block. He doesn't appear to be impaired in any way, he just takes very slow steps. He's not that old either, probably in his mid to late 50's. I don't know where he goes every day, but I do admire his perserverance. If it took me that long to walk one block I don't know that I would bother to leave the house.

In other downtown news, Ebertfest is going on now. I wish I had looked at the schedule sooner-there's some pretty interesting movies playing. Gattaca opened the fest, and the directorial debut from Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy, Big Daddy) called Come Early Morning just started a few minutes ago. And yes, CNN, Ebertfest takes place here in Champaign, not Chicago!

I really hope I don't have to move when the merger happens. I enjoy working in downtown Champaign, there's so much to offer here! I'll especially miss Friday morning breakfast at Cafe Kopi-sesame bagel toasted with veggie cream cheese. Yum!

Oh crap...

I think I forgot to put on deodorant this morning.........

Chicken With Garlic

A while back I had picked up one of those cookbooks you always find on clearance at Borders and Barnes & Noble. This one is devoted to chicken recipes. I made two or three recipes then promptly forgot about it. While trying to get new recipe ideas last week, I rediscovered this book and one of the recipes in it. I made it tonight, and it's definitely going into regular rotation. Here it is (with a slight adjustment):

3 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons snipped fresh snipped parsley
1/2 cup dry sherry or chicken broth
Hot cooked rice (optional)
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
Paprika (optional)

In a large skillet cook chicken in hot oil until slightly browned, turning to brown evenly. Stir in garlic and parsley. Cook and stir until the garlic is tender.

Carefully add the sherry or broth. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. If desired, serve with rice. If desired, garnish with rosemary sprigs and sprinkle with paprika.

The original recipe says to coat the chicken with flour, salt, and pepper, but I don't follow directions very well and completely missed this step. I thought it tasted better, and Mike really liked it, so it's staying in my cookbook without the coating.

We had this with a really good bottle of wine. It's an Argentinian malbec from the Kaiken winery. I think malbec must be an Argentinian word (or would that be Spanish?) word for damn good wine. This was Friar Tuck's wine of the month a couple of months ago, and I'm wishing now we had picked up a couple more bottles. Then again, if we had, I might have been tempted to open a second bottle, and that's not a good idea.

College Hoop Dreams

Every March, something strange starts happening. I come down with the ailment known as "March Madness". Yes, for some reason, I love the NCAA basketball tournament. I get my brackets, make my picks, and follow all the games. In fact, I could probably shut myself in a room with a TV, nachos, and beer and not come out until the tournament is over. Or until I have to go to the bathroom, which would probably come first.

You might be saying to yourself, "Hmmm...didn't know Trixie was such a big college basketball fan." That's because I'm not. I'm generally pretty clueless about the sport, other than knowing when the Illini are playing so I can plan activities around it. Nothing beats shopping while everyone else is watching the game!

Anyway, my company has been doing a tournament contest the last couple of years. LEGAL DISCLAIMER-this is purely a contest, no money is paid to enter. But the top ten players win a prize, so it's always pretty fun. I usually end up somewhere in the middle of the standings out of a group of 150-200 people. This year, however, something weird happened. I actually got in first place after the first weekend of play. Pretty exciting, but I knew it wouldn't last. And then after the second week and some very close games, I was still in first place. What the heck was going on? After the Final Four, I was still in the lead, and one of the few to predict the Final Four teams. And then the Championship game on Monday-I missed the first half, and tuned in the second half to see Florida leading Ohio State. Florida kept the lead during the rest of the game. And then it was over, Florida was the champion for the second year in a row. The only time the same starting five had ever won back-to-back championships. How exciting!

Sure enough, Tuesday morning, I look at the standings. And there I am-in 15th place. Yep, I had Ohio State :(

But I still had the best pick percentage out of 155 people at 84%. And 15th place is the best I've ever done.

Wait til next year!

Driving Under the Influence

License plate spotted today-MN SQWZ 4. Seriously, you're fourth on the list of main squeezes and you're proud of that????

There really needs to be a disclaimer on the new Tossers CD-Agony. I was driving to work the other day and almost got into an accident. It's hard to drive while your toes are tapping and you're fighting the impulse to jig and reel. I don't even know how to jig and reel, but it doesn't really matter. It's hard to sit still and listen to it. Irish folk music meets Irish drinking music, how cool is that?

We picked up the CD last week when we saw them open for Reverend Horton Heat. This is the second time we've seen The Tossers, and I wish they would have played longer-40 minutes wasn't nearly enough! They opened with one of my favorite songs, "I've Pursued Nothing", which was on In The Valley of the Shadow of Death. What's so fun about their shows is that even if you don't know the songs, it really doesn't matter. You can catch on pretty quickly and sing along. It's also a lot of fun to watch the crowd, but we had a great vantage point and I could actually see the band.

Reverend Horton Heat was a lot of fun too. The crowd was really getting into it, and they put on a fantastic show. Some of their little tricks were amazing-at one point The Rev was standing on Jimbo's bass while they were both playing. I didn't think I knew that many songs, but there were a lot that I was singing along to, so I guess I knew more than I thought. This was one of those bands that I was always aware of, but never knew what they sounded like. If only I had listened to them sooner!!

If either of these bands are in your area, definitely go check them out!

Brokeback CTU

I've got another one for the 24 fans out there. Enjoy!

Rock & roll heaven now has one more occupant. Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston, passed away on Friday. Boston is one of those bands that I can always listen to-every time they come on the radio the volume goes up and a smile spreads across my face. I listened to Boston and Third Stage constantly during high school. Brad left the band for a while and they released Walk On without him. The album was pretty good, but definitely missing something-Brad. He rejoined the band and they released Corporate America, which to be honest pretty much sucked. There were a few songs that sounded vaguely like Boston, but they had strayed from what made them so good-guitars and feeling. However, there was always the hope that they would get back to their roots and release something spectacular. Unfortunately, that will never happen now. Brad, rest in peace. You are missed.

The Open Curtain

I've just finished reading The Open Curtain, by Brian Everson. I got this at the library, and the cover really caught my eye. The story is about a Mormon teenager, Rudd, who while going through his dead father's things finds a stack of letters that suggest he has a half-brother. He tracks down his half-brother, named Lael, and they form a sort of friendship. At the same time, Rudd starts a research project for school and finds a story about a murder committed in New York in 1903. The murderer is H. William Young, the grandson of Brigham Young. What piques Rudd's interest is a reference to "blood atonement". This supposedly is a part of Mormon teaching (that has been disavowed) which states that some sins are not cleansed by the shedding of Christ's blood, and in order to make it right the sinner's blood must be shed. Rudd is asked by his teacher to stop researching this, but can't get it out of his head. Things get stranger still when he starts "losing time", and when he starts finding blood on his clothes and hearing reports of people being murdered.

One day Rudd and Lael go up to the mountains. The point of view then switches to Lyndi, whose family was also in the mountains and were brutally murdered. Rudd is the sole survivor of this massacre, and he has no memory of what happened. Lyndi is strangely attracted to Rudd, perhaps because he was the last person to be with her family. She's terrified of being alone, and allows Rudd to move in with her. His behavior keeps getting stranger, but Lyndi chalks it up to his trauma. Finally, she convinces him to marry her, thinking that marriage will improve things.

Does marriage heal Rudd, or does he fall even further into psychosis? Who is Lael, and where did he disappear to after the murder of Lyndi's family?

There is a lot of Mormon imagery in this book-the bodies of Rudd and Lyndi's family are positioned in the same manner as the special marks on Mormon undergarments, and the marriage ceremony in the Mormon temple is unlike anything I have ever heard of before. Mormons are very secretive about their temple ceremonies, and in fact the author mentioned in his afterward that much of what he described in that ceremony is no longer practiced.

I must warn you that there are no easy answers in this book, so if you like cut and dried stories, you won't find one here. If you want your imagination stretched a bit, go check your local library for this one.

Lost No More

Well, I did it last night. I deleted my Lost season pass from Tivo, and I am no longer going to watch it. It's something that I've been thinking about for a while now, mostly because the interest isn't there any more. I've been getting the idea that the writers don't quite know where to go with the show, and they're making it up as they go along. That's not unusual, but when the audience is aware of it, it's not much fun. I also stopped caring about most of the characters a while ago. I can't stand Jack, the doctor, and he's been a primary focus of the show. Some of the other characters I like have either been killed off or relegated to a side story. To be perfectly honest, I've mainly been watching lately for this reason:

And sadly, even this reason isn't good enough lately. So the chains are broken, and Lost can get lost now.

Too Freakin' Hilarious!

All you 24 fans, check out Dave Barry's 24 Blog. Even if you're not a 24 fan (what!), check it out as it is Too Freakin' Hliarious!! Make sure to look at the links too!

Digging Out

Here are some more pictures from the Great Blizzard of 2007. These were taken this morning around 6:30 with the camera in my cell phone. The quality's not perfect but you get the idea.

This is the front of my house. Yes, all that snow must be moved to get into the driveway. There's about a foot and a half stretch in front of the garage door that does not have one single snowflake, thanks to the way the winds were swirling. Do you see the little blob under the address? That's my snowman who's holding up a sign that says "Let it snow!" Easy for him to say!
This is the view from that clear patch, looking down my street. The sky is pretty with the sun just starting to come up, isn't it? I ended up parking about a block away in that direction.

Speaking of parking, I should elaborate on yesterday's post. I dropped off a coworker who lives on the other side of Duncan, and I actually had to drop her off at the start of her street because I couldn't get in. So I went to my street, and when I turned in there was someone who was stuck and a couple of people who had pulled over and were trying to help. I ended up turning around and going to the other entrance. I was about halfway to my house when I got behind someone who was digging out his minivan, plus there was a Beetle parked a little ways up that was completely plowed in. Once again, I was stuck. Even if I could have gotten past them, there were snow drifts up the way that were too high to get through, and I would have been stuck. So I had no choice but to leave my car and walk the rest of the way.

Once I got home, I changed into some warmer clothes and grabbed my shovel, intending on digging my way through. My next door neighbor was out, and he said that he left his car on Duncan and advised me not to try to get through, that it was too dangerous. So I went back inside.

After worrying for an hour or so about the fact that my car was abandoned, I decided to go out and see if things had improved. Brian was out again (he has a dog), and his car was in his driveway. Someone in the neighborhood had come through with a plow and was attempting to clear the roads, and Brian offered to go with me to see if I could get through. It was really hard to tell with the drifting, since you'd get a patch where you could see the road and then the snow was six inches deep. We got to my car, and the minivan was gone, but I still wasn't able to get through. I was able to turn my car around and go back the way I had originally tried.

This time there were no cars blocking my path until I got about a block away. A Chrysler Sebring was stuck in a drift, and in fact the front passenger wheel was at least an inch off the ground. There were a couple of people trying to get them out, and Brian and I tried to help as well, but no deal. The truck that was plowing the neighborhood was also there facing the opposite direction, so even if the Sebring could have gotten out I still could not have gone past. Since the road was reasonably clear and there was a parking spot, I decided to stop there for the night.

This morning I saw that the city plows had come through and plowed our street. I took the shovel and went to fetch my car, which thankfully wasn't plowed in, although I had to clear a little snow away. The neighborhood plow was gone, but the Sebring was still there. I pulled the car in front of the house, cleared a small path so I could at least get to the door, and then got ready for work.

I left work early today to go home and shovel. My boss understood, she was working from home because she couldn't get out of her garage. I started to do a section just so I could get one of our cars in-Mike's coming home today (hopefully) and I didn't want him to have to worry about shoveling. We have a new neighbor across the way who I haven't even met yet, and he offered to help me shovel since he didn't have too much snow and was done quickly. It didn't take us long to get about half the driveway done, and if I'm feeling ambitious I'll try to do more in a little while (though something tells me that won't happen).

Now, what's going to happen when all this snow starts melting?

Let it Snow?

Isn't winter lovely? They actually closed the bank early today, but not early enough. I had to leave my car several blocks away-I'm not stuck, I just can't go any further, thanks to drifts such as this. The blizzard warning is supposed to last until midnight, so hopefully tomorrow I can start digging out.

World Champions

In Just Over An Hour....

the butt-kicking will commence!!!! Go Colts!!!!

Come on, who deserves a Super Bowl ring more than Peyton Manning? "Sexy Rexy"? Puh-lease!

Black And Blue

No, not me, it's the title of the last book I read. I decided that instead of just dumping the books I like in my "Recently Read and Recommended" section I would actually try to review them for you.

Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen, is the story of a woman, Fran Bendetto, who is beaten by her husband. The book starts out when she leaves her husband Bobby, a New York City police officer, and takes their son Robert with her. Fran has enlisted the help of a woman she met through her job as an emergency room nurse who works to get battered women away from their spouses. Fran doesn't know where she's going or how she's going to survive.

Fran ends up in Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw. She and Robert start forging a new life and making new friends, and at the same time learn some things about themselves and each other. The story of Beth's abuse is told in memories, and we start learning the reasons that she never left before-she liked their house, she didn't want to ruin family vacations, and most telling of all, she loved her husband. Robert knows what his dad did to his mom, but is reluctant to face the truth. He struggles to work through his feelings, while Beth tries to help him through it.

In order to keep themselves safe, Beth and Robert need to keep their real reasons for living in Florida to themselves. Everything about them has changed, from Beth's hair color to Robert's date of birth. Throughout the book is Bobby's shadow. Beth is in constant fear that Bobby will find her, and knows that he will kill her if he does.

When I told a friend that I was reading this book he laughed and told me I could turn on Lifetime any night of the week and see this story. What sets this story apart from others is the attention to detail. Beth is honest with herself-she loved her husband, and she still has feelings for him. Sometimes she even questions whether it was really that bad. She doesn't blame herself for the abuse, but she can't help thinking that Bobby will find someone who "doesn't make him so mad". These kinds of flaws make her character very realistic. There's also a feeling of helplessness. Beth doesn't even learn her phone number until she has been in her apartment for a couple of weeks, and she can't make contact with her family to let them know she's okay.

This was a very good book, and it was easy to see why it was one of Oprah's Book Club selections. If you find it in a library or bookstore, go ahead and pick it up-it's worth the read.

The Most Over Utilized Word in Business

And I just utilized it in my title and again now. Yes, I'm talking about the word "utilize". I sat through a presentation this morning, and I wish I would have counted how many times it was utilized.

Definition time: u·til·ize (ytl-z)tr.v. u·til·ized, u·til·iz·ing, u·til·iz·es To put to use, especially to find a profitable or practical use for.

What happened to "use"? Is it considered a lesser word because it's only one syllable? Is this just another example of people trying to sound smarter than they really are, so they utilize a word that sounds fancy? I think it's like synergy, another word that keeps popping up. Do the executives and sales people who utilize synergy even know what it means?

And to be fair, it's not just business that utilizes "utilize". I recently watched an episode of Designed To Sell, and guess which word was utilized quite frequently? It wasn't synergy.....

I've utilized that word seven times in this post so far. Did my IQ increase with each usage? Or would that be utilization? That has a lot of syllables, so I must be really smart, right? To be fair, I know that there are situations where utilize would be more appropriate than use, and I have no complaints about those situations. What I have a problem with is that this word is just everywhere.

I have another presentation on Friday. I will count how many times I hear "utilize" and post the results.

Super Bowl Bound!!!!

Peyton's pointing the way to the Super Bowl. Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Hundred Dollar Hamburgers

Yesterday Larry invited me and Mike for a flight in his plane. It's been a long time since I was in a small aircraft, and Mike had never been, so we were both very excited about the invitation. It was a little cold out, but the skies were fairly clear and the sun was shining. A perfect day for a flight!

Our destination was Lansing Airport, and a bar/restaurant called Shannon's Landing. This was a place that I never would have known about, but if I lived in the area I would be there all the time. The atmosphere was comfortable, the food was outstanding, and the view of airport and the small planes taking off and landing was a lot of fun.

And the flight was a blast! I absolutely love the sensation at take off. No matter if I'm in a commercial jet or a small plane, I can't help grinning like an idiot when we take off. In this case it was even better because I was in the copilot seat, and we also had headphones so we could not only talk to each other but hear the pilot chatter. At 5500 or 6500 feet in the air, you also get a much different view of things. I spent most of the flight simply staring out the window, with my tongue practically hanging out. Larry also showed us the various readouts on his instruments, and explained what everything meant. You sure don't get that on American Airlines!

On the way back we could see that the clouds were starting to creep in. At Lansing there had been a lot of traffic, and that was probably due to the weather that we received this morning (snow!!!). A lot of pilots were getting in a last minute flight before they were grounded for a few days. Coming back, we could see the clouds starting to come in, and by the time we got back to Champaign it was overcast.

From the wide open skies I went the opposite way to the crowded grocery store. I pretty much had to climb over big groups of people (don't have your family reunion in the main lane to the produce section!), and many of the shelves were empty, causing me to make a side trip to another store. What a let down after feeling so free!

Thanks Larry for an awesome time!

Words of Advice

I've been taking yoga classes for the last 2 years, and along the way I've learned some things. The problem is, I don't often remember to take my own advice.

The first thing to remember is to throw away the deodorant that has been sitting in your desk drawer for the last six years or so. When deodorant is sitting around for that long, it can't be good. Sure it smells all right, but it tends to crumble after being applied to your armpits. This means that you have deodorant dingleberries under your arms, and that's just not attractive when you're wearing a tank top. Not to mention that every time you raise your arms (which is frequently), some of these dingleberries fall off. I think I spent about half of my last class brushing deodorant crumbs away from my pants and my yoga mat. On the plus side, it did make the class go by really fast.

The next bit of advice comes with a warning-it may include Too Much Information. If you're not comfortable reading about my underwear just stop now.

Always always always wear comfortable undies when practicing yoga. I cannot stress this enough. No thongs, no cheeky panties that may crawl. Stick to the basic full coverage panty. In fact, this might be the only situation where granny panties are acceptable. Seriously, if you wear anything that tends to move and shift there is a good chance that the underwear will end up in a place it really isn't supposed to be. You may even be cut in half (hmmm....a plot idea for CSI?)

So, if you start practicing yoga, remember to breathe, calm your mind, and wear comfortable underwear. Now if I could just remember to take my own advice....