GWB Would be so proud

I was originally going to bank my random extra money they should be sending out any minute now. Then I thought, well I really need a new pair of tennis shoes and a new pair of work shoes so I'll buy those and bank the rest. And then I realized we're heading into spring/summer and as always I have nothing to wear to work for spring/summer weather. Every year I struggle with this. In the winter I wear pants and a sweater almost every single day. Sometimes I get reckless and wear a skirt and a sweater. In the spring/summer I struggle. I loathe 3/4th sleeve shirts which seems to be all you can get in the button down look for women. I have 3 men's shirts that I wear but in reality they are probably totally inappropriate (they hang down to my upper thigh. At least one could be a shirtdress if I were daring.). I would like to wear more skirts but that would either require more industrial undergarments (to prevent the thigh rub issue) or buying that stuff runners use. Maybe I'll try that. Also, now that I've totally lost where I was going with all this, I love how The Avenue suggests things to go with the separates you are looking at on their site. I need that! They call it "create a look" and all I can think is thank you for granimals. :) Also, if you've long admired a skirt a coworker owns and you see a similar skirt, is it in bad taste to get it. How about if that coworker is one who frequently gets mistaken for you? :) (Or you for her.) Finally, the word Skort is just wrong and apparently Republicans are useful sometimes after all. ;)

Southwest Convert

I might be a convert to Southwest Airlines. I know I fret about the whole no assigned seat thing, but when I was making my arrangements to go to Nashville for my work trip I discovered that they have a non-stop flight to Nashville. I could have the best of the two worlds I was struggling with. For all the others, I would leave Seattle at the asscrack of dawn (ok 8:30) and arrive at Nashville at like 4:30, OR I could leave Seattle at Noon and arrive at like 9:30 or 10. With Southwest I can leave at 12:00 and arrive at 4:30 because I don't have to go to some stupidass hub in between.

Luck Giveth and Luck Taketh Away

I found a place that would work for the little girls but sadly I got an email last night that they are full for July and have like one weekend in May. The weekend they have... the weekend I am already signed up for volunteering with NW Folklife Fest. So that's out. I think I may take them to the same place I'm taking the big girls... I don't know. But I have to figure it out soon since everything keeps filling up. Sigh.

I worked out this morning while watching an episode of The Office on my ipod. It didn't seem to slow me down too much and I may do that again. Sometimes I need the distraction and can't take just looking at the clock the whole time.

Wahoo

I may have found a place for the little girls to overnight. Yay! (My fingers are crossed). The best part, they are a no fee place done by a service organization. (Really my fingers are crossed. We still have no money to do anything and any money we use would be coming out of my pocket until we get our money from council after the whole cookie debacle.)

Boring gym stuff and some other thoughts today.

I hit the gym again this morning. Go me. I really have to work, though, to not let my heart rate get into the red. I think that's bad for you.

I baked muffins last night and burned my knuckle and the bottom of the muffins. So sad. (But they're still pretty good. The mix calls for water and nondairy margarine but I used milk and butter. Then I used a lot more butter in the "crumbles" on top because otherwise they end up really dry and not like crumbles at all.)

I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall over the weekend. Freaking hysterical. I laughed the entire movie straight through. It was well worth the full price ticket and I'm considering going to see it again...

I chatted with a coworker on Friday who is doing a foster to adoption process with a child. I asked a bunch of questions and am glad to know someone else who is going through this. She recommended starting sooner rather than later because the process is pretty long going. Since I'm looking at doing this in about 2 years (I think I've said this every year for the last several years and originally 35 was my thought but now I'm thinking 36). We talked about the benefits of school age children (only after school daycare not full day) and how they were considered "high risk" groups which offers up all sorts of other aid (daycare, health insurance, stipends, vouchers blah blah blah). My goal is to be able to swing this without any assistance, but if I've learned nothing from Michelle it is "Use the money people offer you." :) If nothing else, I can set up a nice account for my kid for her college. My other recent realization is that I may have to go back to being a corporate whore. I could earn a minimum of 10k more out there than I do here. Of course the tradeoffs are there, but that's $800 more per month. How can you argue with that? (there are other reasons... those haven't changed... I've just become more complacent.)

Investment

Clearly I should have invested in the company SmartWool. They make socks. I bought some for my February camping trip. I got some for my birthday this year and just a couple of days ago, I went to the running store near my work and got some more. The new ones are for running and to eliminate the blisters that I get with the orthotics. So far... totally pleased. I used them for my 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer this morning and there was no problems. Yippee!!

Camping

I have scheduled the camping trips for both my troops of girls. Now that I've done that, I notice that one of my older girls has a dance recital that weekend. Isn't that the way it always is? And apparently one of my other girls already has a conflict. Sigh.

Sleep

Apparently if one wants to go to the gym in the morning one should wake one's ass up before 7:30 AM. Especially considering that's the time one usually has to leave for work on a non-gym morning. Hopefully one will be better on Thursday when she tries to go to the gym again. :)

Sorta related... I had a dream the other night that I went online to check my credit score and it had tanked. On one of the companies it was so far in the red it was locked like I couldn't even open an checking account or anything. The other two were like orange... between the yellow warning zone and the red zone. In my dream I was trying to figure out what had happened and where I went wrong. But I never did figure it out because I woke up. I think my just before waking mind rationalized it as identity theft.

18

My niece is turning 18 years old this month. (Around the 19th or 20th I think). What the heck do you get kids that age these days? I'm pretty sure I can't go the same route as I did my nephew who just turned 21. I bought him booze. I don't think my niece would be really thrilled with me if I bought her cigarettes and p0rn for her 18th birthday. Or maybe she would be... who knows. :)

How Professional!

I get to go to a conference in May. I've never been on a work conference before. It will be in Nashville. I've never been to Nashville before. I'm planning on spending two extra nights there just so I can tour around like a big ol' geeky tourist since I'll probably never see Nashville again. :) But I'm totally excited.

Yet again with the shoes??

I hate shoe shopping. We've long established my lesbian tendencies when it comes to shoes. I like them practical. I like them plain. I like them well made so that I don't have to do this that frequently. I like them comfortable. I like them without velcro which seems to be a bit of a problem given the practical, comfortable and the well made rule. Somehow that translates to either old old lady shoe (hence the velcro) or lesbian. I usually would wear the regular Dansko clog, but my orthotics make my feet too tall I guess to fit in mine properly. I also have the Dansko Mary Janes (in brown), but Michelle rightly pointed out that two pair of Mary Janes may be more than I need. Oh because I suppose I should add I also would rather not own a ton of shoes. I don't need shoes that are so specific that they only go with two outfits. If I were independently wealthy, I'd have a personal shopper who would just spend her days finding the things I don't know I want until she's found it. I'm not so I put myself in your hands, dear readers. Any simple black shoes you like? Any brands you prefer? Now that Dansko has updated their site and it is all flash based they may be dead to me. I hate flash!

You go Yahoo!

Yahoo is still fighting off the unwelcome advances of the Evil Empire. I'm hoping they'll win, but I have the feeling they can't last forever. I don't like the combination of the two because while I grudgingly use Microsoft products (like I have a choice? (Ok I do have a choice. I could run a mac or linux or whatever blah blah blah but really the choice is pretty limited)) I don't love most Microsoft products. I stopped using their hotmail a long time ago (with the exception of a few college friends who still email me there). (Ok full disclosure - I do like some of their computer games like Age of Empires and I think Zoo Tycoon might be theirs. (OMG! I almost misspelled that there's!) and I do play games on MSN more than I do on Yahoo). Anyway I've totally digressed and what I really want to say is that I love Launch and Yahoo's Email and I don't want them to become Microsofted. Also Microsoft's search SUCKS and that's all I have to say about that. Keep fighting Yahoo!

Bellevue Square is Dead to Me

Friday Lyday and I went to Bellevue Square for dinner and after dinner we went and wandered the mall. (I feel compelled to say we didn't intend to go to Bellevue Square for dinner. We were headed somewhere else for dinner but they were full.) Once upon a time there was an ice cream store in Bellevue Square that had gluten free cones. We were wandering the mall and looking for it when we consulted the directory. According to the directory, it is gone. Boo hoo. I had an icee instead but it isn't the same.

We ate dinner at Z'Tejas. I was unimpressed. The waiter was not good. The food was meh. And the restaurant was LOUD. It makes me feel old to complain about the noise level of a restaurant but it was seriously loud.

I did buy new bras and undies. Part of project look and feel cute.

When I got home I watched Reign over Me. I'm not sure what I thought this movie was but it wasn't what I saw. It was depressing. DEPRESSING. For some reason I thought it was at least funny a little bit. I know what the subject of the movie was, but I swear the previews only showed the funny parts. And not the funny/sad parts where yeah the guys antics are funny but it is so sad you can't even find that funny.

I also recently read Veil of Roses. I thought it was AWESOME. I really enjoyed the read. I was a little sad to read the Amazon reviews of it, though. Many criticized the author for continuing stereotypes of Iranian women. Although a couple Persian women also reviewed it saying it was relatable to them, so I don't know. I was really touched by the story and the characters.

Happy National Employee Benefits Day!

According to the International Federation of Employee Benefits Specialists today is National Employee Benefits Day. If you have benefits and you like your benefits you should thank your benefits professionals at your office or at least wish them a happy National Employee Benefits Day. (Unless you're Michelle and she's told me tales about her peeps. Although maybe you catch more flies with honey than vinegar and it could help. :) ).

They sent out a list of the top 10 things to do today. They're funny. (Probably only to benefits people) but two that I liked were:

Show some pride for your designation. Get a CEBS tattoo. Didn't earn it yet? How about "Mean, lean benefits machine." (I totally think that's my next one!)

Protect yourself from fiduciary-based law suits by donning some really baggy trousers and saying, "Can't touch this," followed by the MC Hammer dance.

April Fools - A classic

My most favoritest post ever is the one in which I played an April Fool's Day joke. The best part... I got someone who probably couldn't usually be gotten. It is awesome and 3 years later it still cracks my shit up.