Another Stupid List

Here are some things I feel I need to put down on paper (so to speak):

* Seeing my friend pregnant REALLY made me want to have a baby. Seeing her WITH her baby made me change my mind. Her baby is sweet and precious and beautiful and she's a great mom, but it's not for me....not yet.

* Sometimes, I really despise the 9-5 work environment. I mean, REALLY despise it. Unless work is playing with my dogs or being with family and friends, then yes, I despise it. Mostly because many co-workers bug the shit out of me. (Sidenote: I H-A-T-E it when people insist on playing phone tag and refuse to email me or give me some sort of clue as to what they need. "Hi, this is Jackass, call me back!".....grrrrr.....and what praytell, do you need?)

* On a related note, when I'm taking a personal day, I find that I am obsessed with knowing what the people around me are also doing off of work. Or do they work at all? What do they do that allows them to be running on the hike and bike trail at 10 am? Who goes to Starbucks with friends at 2 in the afternoon? I know, I know, a lot of them could be like me and have the day off, but not ALL of them.

* I really love my husband. I mean REALLY love him. Sometimes it makes my heart hurt. We argue, sure, but we don't name call and we're not mean to each other. He looks at me as though I am the most beautiful creature in the world and I love it.

* I think pilates is my favorite way to exercise, yet I can't make myself go to the classes or watch the DVDs. What's up with that? I KNOW it works faster on my body than any other exercise method, so why can't I make it to two classes a week? Sometimes I piss myself off.

* I worry all the time about where I will be in 10, 20 and 30 years. I know I've said it before, but I'm afraid of being the grandma working at McDonald's because that's my only choice.

* I need to speak up more when I disagree with people. I'm kind of a wuss. I like to tell myself I pick my battles wisely, but I really just hate to rock the boat.

Not the greatest post, but it made me feel better and it's my blog, so there.

Happy Birthday!

The Rockstar turns 29 today. Happy Birthday baby!

(Just in case you're curious, last night we had pizza, salad and chocolate cake and it was all awesome. No salmon to be seen anywhere.)

Pizza, Noooo, Salmon, No, Wait, Pizza....

The Rockstar's 29th birthday is coming up soon, and his mom wants o have us over to dinner for some grilled salmon and birthday cake. Great, sounds good to me. On Mother's Day, however, Kris told his mom to just order some pizza, that way everyone would be happy. He would get to eat his favorite food, and she wouldn't have to clean up. She seemed really happy with that decision. We decided to get a meaty and a veggie pizza from a local place that has the best pizzas. Done and done.

Or so I thought.

So the other day, she asked the hubby what he wanted to go along with his salmon.....uh, well, hmmmm. He told her he thought we were having pizza? She remembered. Okay, NOW we're all good. Then his dad called him and said, "Hey your mom said we're having salmon. Can I bring anything?" He had to explain, that no, we're having pizza and everything has been settled. So then, MIL emails me and asks the name of the place where we're getting the pizza. I emailed her back with the phone number and the names of the pizzas we had planned on getting.

Not two days later the MIL calls the hubby and asks him what he wants to go with his salmon.

I give up.

DH

Any of you watch the Desperate Housewives finale? If Mike is dead, which I know he CAN'T possibly be, I will stop watching the show. Forever. I mean, just look at him? He's sort of like Matthew Fox's hot older brother. Now there's a sandwich I'd like to be a part of.

Blogging Blahs

I've had so much going on lately, I haven't posted anything because I don't know where to begin. I have been continuing my spring cleaning into summer, and I can't seem to stop. I'm getting rid of stuff right and left. My sister and I had a garage sale at my house on Saturday and ended up making a little under $250 which we deemed a huge success. It felt sooo good to get rid of all that crap that has just been wasting space.

On Sunday, we had mother's day brunch at my sister's lovely home where we feasted on quiche, coffee cake, fruit and coffee. Then the hubs and I met his mom for lunch at 2. There was a lot of eating going on that day. I think I still ate a decent dinner even though I ate enough earlier in the day to last me 3 days.

The rockstar and I also FINALLY got our insurance check to the tune of $3400 from this little incident, and we decided we're going to use it to install laminate/pergo flooring in the entire house minus kitchen and baths. I just can't justify wood with all the running and playing our dogs do. The floors would be shredded to bits in months. We'll probably get that done first week of June because we need to get the drywall fixed first.

Not to leave you on a sad note, but please keep our kitty Sonja in your thoughts. She has an intestinal problem that is at worst fatal and at best a lifelong issue that will mean lots of puke to clean up. She is about 11 or 12-years-old and has always been a puker, but it has gotten worse lately. And when I mean worse, I mean she's puking as much as a child. I'm not exaggerating. The vets can't figure out what is wrong with her. They have done a sonogram, stool samples galore, blood work, etc....they want to do a biopsy, but they only thing that will do is confirm or deny cancer. If it's cancer, there's nothing more that we can do for her then what we are doing now, which is lots of love, anti-vomiting medication and antibiotics to keep her from getting infections. Here she is (the black and white one) sleeping with her momma Sasha. That picture kills me everytime. She is the sweetest little kitty, and she's my husband's favorite. Please send good thoughts her way.

I Love You Momma

Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world. I love you!

My Nose Hurts

Someone on our floor (okay the basement) doused themselves in some sort of baby powder scented crap and it's stinking up the entire hallway. Have I mentioned that I hate baby powder scented ANYTHING? I don't really even care for it on babies, but I really don't get it for adults. It kind of creeps me out. Why do you want to smell like a baby?

Weekend Update

Here's my famous weekend in bullets (yes, I know it's not really famous, but whatever, it sounds better):

* Saturday morning, went to SIL's graduation ceremony. Very.long.ceremony.

* Went to MIL's house for graduation party. Had a very nice time. Ate lots of seven layer dip. Saw hubby's grandma whom I ADORE.

* Came home to see trashy looking people looking at our neighbors house that is for sale. Was tempted to tell them the house is covered in lead paint or asbestos, but took the high road instead.

* Hung out with the dogs.

* Drove through the millionth storm of the past two weeks to get to my sister's house for movie night. Watched North Country and ate pizza. SO GOOD (the movie and the pizza). OMG men are pigs.

* Got home to find tree branch broken and resting on neighbor's roof. Crap. Hope they aren't shitty (we already know they're weird, but not sure about shittiness factor).

* Did some crossword puzzles and fell asleep about 1 am.

* Woke up at 10 am (hallelujah, no more ride training!)

* Drank coffee and ate some waffles.

* Did a ton of laundry.

* Organized all my filing.

* Still in my pajamas.

* Had more coffee and did more crosswords (yes, I'm addicted).

* Showered at 2 pm to go to a food bank volunteer day with my sister and dad. When we get there, they were done early, yippee!

* 4:10, get a message from best friend, H, who was in labor. Finally. She is five days late and HUGE. And uncomfortable. And really annoyed.

* Went to hospital and sat with her from 4:30 to 9:30. Watched Desperate Housewives in the hospital room.

* Came home and went to bed.

I still haven't heard from H or her husband about the baby and it's making me crazy! She started having contractions at 8:30 am on Sunday, and when I left at 9:30 pm, they were about 2 minutes apart, but she was only dilated 2 cm and the doctor was going to wait a bit to break her water. I'm dying to see that baby! I'm just sitting at work, sipping a latte and waiting to hear the news. Update at 9:05 pm! H's husband just called me. She just had a c-section and they now have a beautiful healthy girl weighing 7 lbs, 9 ozs. Yay!

On an unrelated note, I was talking to R (her husband) last night, who is a firefighter. His station was actually the first on the scene of that cyclist that died last month. She was alive when they got there and they did 45 minutes of CPR on her. Her husband showed up while they were working on her. R said he wished all his friends who are cyclists would get a new hobby. I can see his point.

The Ride

I guess by now you know I survived! Here's the day in photos.

It rained really hard the night before, and was still raining when I got up at 5 am. I was a little worried, but it stopped about 5:30 and turned out to be a gorgeous day. Here's my car clock as I left my house:

It's about a 45 minute drive to Krause Springs, so when we got there, the sky looked like this:

We parked got our bikes ready and walked over to the main pavilion to eat breakfast. After a breakfast taco, banana and yogurt/granola/fruit combo, we started to line up to head out:

It was absolutely gorgeous. It was sunny and clear and, thank god, not humid after such a torrential downpour the night before. I love how this ride includes all ages, shapes, sizes, athletic ability. My sister and I were marveling about how we can walk around in spandex shorts that include crotch padding and not feel the least bit uncomfortable.

Here's the first pit stop. We fill up on more gatorade and Clif bars. This is where we also met a man who was smuggling a panini in his backpack. It became a running joke and, well, you just had to be there:

Our trusty bikes taking a break:

Some good ole Texas scenery. Nothing like a Loose Livestock warning:

Here I am in all my spandex-y, helmet-y glory:

Brush fire at mile 22. That was nice on the lungs:

Riding out after the lunch pit. We had hummus sandwiches, pasta salad, cookies and more gatorade. And more cookies. And maybe even more cookies.

And here is a sign we saw as we were leaving the lunch pit:

Yeah, it says, "Active Underground Mines: Blasting Area". Great.

I don't have any more pictures from the actual ride, but my parents came out for the closing ceremonies and dinner. Here are some pictures of the memorial signs which were made from memory tags that we made for our jerseys and wore during the ride:

It was a very moving ceremony where they read out the names of loved ones that have died from AIDS. There was some visible emotion and very loud crying going on.

I just love this ride. It's so cool, the people are great and so far this year, it has raised almost $470,000 for local AIDS services. 75% of that money will go directly to the beneficiaries which is unheard of.

I cannot adequately thank everyone who sponsored me. You are so awesome. I would like to thank a certain someone named Lori who noticed that I was $5 away from meeting my goal, and donated a SECOND time so that I would meet my $1000 goal. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My $0.02

If people really want to stop illegal immigration, go to the source....the corporations that are hiring the people. As a friend of mine said, it's simple supply and demand. If companies want and need cheap labor, then they're going to hire illegal immigrants. Oh wait, but if our government goes after the source, that means they're going after their buddies in Big Business, and that wouldn't be cool, now would it? It's not exactly an easy to become a legal immigrant, so who am I to fault someone born in Mexico or El Salvador wanting to make a better life for their family here in the good ole USA. Bring it on. They do jobs that most people would snub, and frankly, I'd like them to stay and do them. Two Mexican men installed my bath tile, one didn't speak a lick of English, but damn, he could install some tile. The bonded, licensed, guaranteed American company that I hired to do the rest of the bathrooms did a piss poor job. I'm just saying. Like I said, just my two cents.