Determination

I have been thinking about trying Nutrisystem for a while now. I know a couple people that have tried it and said that the food was good. The only thing that has stopped me in the past is the cost - it just seemed like a lot of money to spend on the food, but when I really looked at what I am spending on food (even bringing my lunch to work every day) it really wasn't a whole lot more.

So today I finally sucked it up and ordered my first month of food.

I am really excited to try this program - there are a lot of websites out there that have real-world reviews of it and they are overwhelmingly positive. I have struggled with my weight for years and enough is enough. Whining about it and pouting about it doesn't burn as many calories as I wish it would...

I go through phases where I am really good about working out, but then something will happen that will make me miss one or more workouts and then it becomes far too easy to continue missing them... Last time was P90X and I was rocking it for a while and losing weight, but then J's schedule changed and the time that I would normally spend working out was my only chance to see him for the day and crazy me wanted to spend time with her husband. Luckily I haven't gained back all the weight that I lost while I was doing that workout, but the scale is definitely moving in the wrong direction again...

I don't have any plans to make this all about my "weight-loss journey." Mostly because (as titled) this is my place for my mental garbage - it is what it is and it's its own little organism... I will definitely talk about it as I go, but seeing as Nutrisystem isn't giving me anything for this and I am ponying up my own cash here, they aren't getting any exclusive stuff... haha But I will be posting updates.

Wish me luck!!

Umm - Happy New Year?

I took two weeks off work for the holidays and kind of went on an internet/social networking sabbatical at the same time. Then once I got back to work, I have been so busy (seriously – I came back to 297 e-mails waiting for me my first day) that my brain is melted and I can’t get it function enough to make a coherent post. So until I get back to my normal level of busy/stressed/SUPER exhausted, let’s catch up. Grab your diet coke, coffee, tea - whatever tickles your pickle and let’s talk.

- We did some dog-sitting for our friends after Christmas. As you can see it was a rough life:

 Admission: I contemplated putting ‘ruff’ life instead, but that seemed just a little too gaggy. 

Even for me.

- I got this message the other day at work when I was trying to pull up a floor plan to see where someone sits at another one of our offices. It seems a little ominous.

Useful for a paid assassin though.

 - I’m determined to use the coupons that I get all the time. Normally when they come, I put them on the table next to my purse and fully intend to take them with me and use them. And that never happens. Most recently: I received a $5 off coupon for Fresh and Easy in the mail – we went to Fresh and Easy approximately 10 minutes after receiving said coupon – coupon remained at home on the table. As a motivator, I purchased myself this nifty little coupon holder:

 Cute, huh? Find them here. Lots of super cute patterns.

 Sure, I totally could have made this on my own at home for cheaper... But I had an Amazon gift card that I totally would have used to purchase it if I hadn’t forgotten it on the table!!! See?! Desperate need. Now I always have my coupons and stuff with me :-)

- I got this error today when I tried to load a webpage - I guess if you are going to pause, do it gracefully...

- Etta James, the woman that sang the song “At Last,” died. It’s very sad. And the way I just phrased it is WAY better than the way People.com had it on their Facebook page:

 Rude, People.com. You just couldn't wait could you? 

I always thought she seemed like a nice lady...

- I am obsessed with the Albertson’s grocery store game. A woman in my office and I trade game pieces that we can’t use, but neither of us have even won the stupid little $2 prize!

 Aggravation! So close, yet so far away. On so many prizes.

- I’m going to be starting an Etsy store as soon as I get around to taking some pictures. Stay tuned! It’s mostly going to be cuff links and stuff like that.

I really can’t think of anything else... My brain hurts from thinking this much. Seriously.

Have a lovely weekend!

Merry Christmas!!!

I stumbled across this video a little while ago and can't stop watching it. I just love it... So enjoy. Hope everyone is having a very Happy Christmas and gets everything they asked Santa for!!

Watch "T-Mobile's Home For The Holidays Surprise" on YouTube

(I did this on my phone while laying in bed, watching the Oddities marathon, and trying to fall asleep. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't embed it, but the link should work fine and it's definitely worth watching...)

Randomness

So... Yeah. The insane business has not subsided at all. I am still feeling like I am several steps behind. I absolutely have to send off two presents that are sitting on my kitchen table, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to bust out the wrapping paper and actually get them ready... I still have a couple people that we need to get presents for, need to pick up J’s See’s (we get each other a box of See’s chocolate for Christmas), and I haven’t gotten anything for my work friends. I thought about making something, but I am feeling like I really don’t want to do that anymore. It was either going to be cookies or black coal candy that I found a recipe for. I just know that if I messed up a batch, I would collapse into a ball under my table and refuse to come out until after the New Year. Since my brain is more than a little melted, this is just going to be some randoms to catch up...

- I have a project that I really want to do in my hallway... Currently I have a large picture of Marilyn Monroe up there that I have had for years, but now it kinda bugs me and I think I would rather have something more personal. I’ve seen tons of picture walls on Pinterest and I really want to do one... I’m thinking about hitting up Goodwill next week when I’m off for the holidays and looking for a bunch of unique frames that I can fill with all sorts of things. I don’t know if J would like it or if he wouldn’t even care...

- Flat tires seriously suck. We were about 40 miles into our trip home from Nevada when the tire pressure light came on. We pulled over, found a screw in my right rear tire, swapped out for the donut, and had to turn around to get to a dealership to get it fixed because the from road-side assistance that I had on the phone wouldn’t bring me a new tire no matter how much I begged. Luckily we got to the nearest dealership 20 minutes before the service department closed and they were able to patch the tire. I am now firmly against ever having another car that doesn’t have a full-size spare tire. If I had a full-size spare, we could have just swapped it out and kept going. It looks more and more likely that I’ll be getting a Highlander as my next car.

- My entire immediate family was in one place at the same time for the first time in over 6 years for Thanksgiving. It was nice to see everyone and we spent way too much time staying up too late talking and playing games. Good times :-)

- We had our Holiday Potluck at work Monday. I brought Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes again. So yummy. Unfortunately I have an entire dozen left over! And I did not drop them on my front walk in the rain like last year...

- I finally “decorated” for the holidays. This is about as good as it gets...

I guess that’s about it for now... This train of thought has derailed...

It's a Good Thing It's My Friday

Because I could not handle any more of this after the 50th time fixing it:

 "Who's the worst copier in the world? You are! Oh yes, you are!"

And after someone so kindly told me that they were pretty sure they saw one of the mice plaguing our office run under the cabinet behind me, I will now be sitting like this for the rest of the time that I work here...

And that makes my knees hurt...

But soon I will be on vacation for a few days. No rodents allowed....

Can Someone Get Superman to Fly Around the Planet and Slow Down the Rotation Already??

My brain has pretty much melted. I’ve started this post about 50 bazillion times and deleted it after the first few sentences. All I want to do is be able to get some words down and have a post to show for it. Even if it’s a terrible one...

I’ve been so busy when I’m at work and then busy when I come home and I feel like I’m constantly 10 steps behind. My house is a train wreck right now because cleaning up gets shoved to the bottom of my to-do list for the 50 other things that keep popping up on it.

It just seems like a constant stream of work events, errands, and craziness with trying to get some time to relax with friends thrown in... And that feels like it has barely happened. Even when I do find a minute to relax I feel like my brain is either so melted I’m a zombie or I can’t really relax because my brain is constantly thinking through the things that I still need to get done...

"HAVE to clean off the kitchen table... How long has it been since I washed our bedding? Sooo many dust bunnies – MUST VACUUM. Really need to go through the books on the bookshelves and clean them up. Why are there so many old magazines on the coffee table? How is EVERY SINGLE trash can lid in the kitchen broken?? Need to go through my closets again and get more crap out. My car is disgusting – need to do more than just drive through a crappy car wash... How is there so much trash in my car’s trunk??!! It’s getting really chilly in the morning – I really need to get a new jacket. I seriously need to go clothes shopping – must get new tops, can’t keep wearing the same crap every week to work... Do I want to put my order in for the Kindle Fire? Need to find new bras – stupid Target stopped carrying the ones I like... Gotta start getting everything organized for the camping trip next week. Definitely must get my car in for an oil change before we go to Vegas for Thanksgiving. Why hasn’t the stupid towel rack been fixed in the bathroom yet?! GO TO BED EARLY!! Stop forgetting that the white load of laundry is still sitting in the dryer! Still haven’t cleaned the rifles since the Appleseed event two weekends ago... Seriously need to go grocery shopping – wheat thins and cream cheese does not equal dinner... Don’t forget to put new registration sticker on your license plate! When are the cats going to learn to clean their own litter boxes???? Crap, they need food – how long has that been empty? HOW IS IT NOVEMBER ALREADY????????? Why haven’t we gotten our new windows yet? Or the new hot water heater?!?!”

And that’s just the HOME running list... Work has its own list.

“Gotta create the tracking report for the new incentive... Another new report to create for boss. Need to request payments from that incentive. Why haven’t I received the information I need for the payments from the other incentive?? Need to reconcile my purchasing card. Have to check to see if my AMEX charge has loaded in the expense system yet. Holy crap I let my vacation time MAX!! Gotta remember to request days off. Another new report to create for boss. Need to find out if there are pool cars that need to come back from the Dealership so that I don’t have to find a ride back from dropping my car off for its oil change. Need to do the ranking. Have to update my 15 different morning reports. Have to update the wall thing tracking our objective for the month. Need to organize. Need another storage box for paperwork. Another new report to create for boss. Why isn’t my neighbor at her desk – I hate having to answer her bosses’ phones when she’s not there! Need to go get the mail from downstairs. Can’t forget to go to lunch early this week because I have to cover the receptionist’s lunch break. Need to pull my weekly reports and e-mail out the reminders. Why didn’t he just give me the correct information for what he wanted – now I have to complete recreate the information because he’s terrible at his job. How can someone be SO bad at a job that they’ve done BEFORE?!?!?! Still haven’t heard on a handful of itineraries. Surprise – I get to create name badges for a trip coming up! Another new report to create for boss. Have to update a PowerPoint slide with the current info. Have to update all of my month-end reports. There’s a change to one of the codes – have to update every single one of my reports to reflect it.”

And that barely scratches the surface. Of THIS week only.

Time is FLYING. It feels like every time I blink, an entire month is gone.

How do we slow time down? The extra hour this weekend for Daylight Saving doesn’t count...

Things I Want

I have wanted a Tablet for quite a while now... I’ve talked about it a little bit on here... I see all these pretty shiny handheld computers and the green-eyed monster starts poking me in the back. But I just couldn’t justify spending so much money on one. Even the less expensive versions with less storage space are in the $400 up range.

Then there was the fire sale on the HP Touchpad that I missed out on... $150 is totally within my impulse buying range. But they went in a blink of an eye – and continue to! I keep missing them by seconds...

Today Amazon unveiled the new Kindle Fire. I. WANT.

It’s only $199 – not much above my impulse buying range... It’s full color, touch screen, has what they are saying is a super-fast browser, unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content... You can play with your Apps on it, watch shows/movies, browse the internet, check your e-mail... Oh, and it’s still a Kindle, so you can read on it too...

I have generally leaned more towards the slightly large Tablets – the 10.1 inch screens instead of the ones that are Kindle-sized – in my jealousies and pining. But for some reason because this is a Kindle on steroids, I don’t have a problem with it being smaller... In fact, it’s kind becoming a selling point because it will just take my Kindle’s current permanent place in my purse without taking any extra space...

I may be adding my name to the pre-order waiting list before the day is out...

Since I immediately titled this post “Things I Want” (that’s right, I recklessly title my posts before I write them... I like to live on the edge.), I feel compelled to list more things that I would like in my possession:

- The two new Limited Edition Harvey’s bags that are probably already sold out... (And this one because it's super cute...)

- The Hunger Games movie to be out – now that I have read the books (almost – I am more than halfway through the third one) I am slightly obsessed with seeing it come to life

- My new business cards

- A vacation – it’s been way too long. My last “real” vacation was the cruise we took for our honeymoon... 6 years ago. I would love to go back to Alaska.

- A new laptop. With the newest everything on it. In red, please.

- Cookie dough cupcakes – I realize that I am fully capable of making these at home and that is what I will have to do in order to have them, but I would like them to just magically appear. It would be awesome.

- A house closer to my Bestie. We’re there all the time anyway... Why not just live closer? Plus, their area has way more restaurants and shops... I really like it there.

- A new car. Don’t get me wrong – I still adore my IS250, but I still have another YEAR before I get to order a new car. This will be the longest I have ever had a car... (Boo-hoo first-world problems...) I think I might get a Highlander next...

- My Rifleman patch. We took a rifleman course a couple weekends ago and while I was able to secure the status of “Sharpshooter,” I didn’t make it up to “Rifleman.” It’s the elite. We are going to sign up again next month. I will get it this time. I fully plan on buying a jacket just so I have something to attach the patches to and I will wear it everywhere. For bragging rights.

 One of the phases of the test. I'm the one in white. My friend/coworker is the one next to me. And J is the gray edge of shirt on my other side...

- The weather to continue getting cooler. I am so not a summer person and it has been really nice not to have to crank the AC as much to be happy...

- Oh... and World Peace.

What are you wanting right now?