- The Winter Olympics are over! I’m pleased with how much of them we got to watch, despite not being able to select what we were watching, and having to listen to annoying commentary. Ha. I wonder how much we’ll use the antenna now. Maybe for the Oscars this weekend? (We used to be super in to the Oscars and even had a viewing party once!)
Luca sent me these cute Team USA mittens!
- I booked my April trip to Dallas for Luca’s birthday! Yay! I love the tradition of seeing him for his birthday. I wonder if I will get to try a Texan vegan donut while I am there…?
- We both enjoyed Black Panther! (Although I still tend to get bored during the “three fights going on at once” scenes at Marvel movies.)
- (NOT AN AD) Have you seen these bracelet helpers before? When I wear a bracelet with a lobster clasp, I have to have Steven help me put it on, but sometimes it’s too early in the morning to ask for help before I catch the train, so I got this thing and… IT WORKS! Yay! (You use the helper to hold one end of the bracelet steady while you use your free hand to secure the clasp.)
You use your other hand to clasp it, but I was using that hand to take the photo!
- I had some funky website issues yesterday (that were likely ISP related) that made me want to throw the towel in on this thing. I don’t want to spend time figuring out code anymore. I just want stuff to work. But that’s not how it goes when I’m using an old wordpress theme and outdated plugins! I should look in to that at SOME point.
- Speaking of frivolous blog stuff, I had a lot of draft blog posts – over one hundred and fifty, and recently deleted ninety-seven of them. So many of them were about healthy eating and weight loss. Gawd. Some were almost 10 years old! Delete. Delete. Delete!
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 169
- I’ve been writing a lot more weekend recaps than I used to. I like it! Thanks to Mica, with her “Last week, briefly” series, for the inspiration. We both recently discussed how we love having our blogs to document what we were up to at certain points in time (despite how cringe-worthy some of our earlier writing is!).
- Christina gave me this decorative box (what do you call these?!?) for Christmas, and of course, I had to cheese it up with some snister pics!
- I’m a fast talker, and am aware of it. I gave training twice this week and wanted to make sure I talked slow enough for people to understand, so I practiced at home (awkward) and brought this post it for my co-presenter to show me if I needed to slow down, ha! (He didn’t have to!) Also, I am so glad to have those done. I was dreading them (but we practiced a lot so they went well and we received compliments).
- On January 30th and 31st, I got an offer to review RunLites (from a different person/company each day) and responded to both immediately that I’d like to try them cause I’d use them! Then… crickets. Ha, I suppose that is what I get for writing this!
- I caught these two cuddling together again! Aww!
- Thank you all for continuing to be kind, supportive, and understanding, as I’ve been a bit mopey lately. It means a lot to me.
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 166
- My mom knows the way to my heart. She’s planning a trip to Mount Rushmore in March and I told her I likely can’t go. Then she texts me out of the blue, “Oh, did you hear about this race in the area around the time we’re going?!” Tempting! I haven’t updated my states raced in/run in map in a while!
- I was on my blog Facebook page the other day and saw someone liked a post that I completely forgot subscribes to my blog. Oops. I forget about the readers who don’t comment! I hope I am not offending too many people.
- I told Steven about the custom notebook I ordered and he liked the idea so much he ordered notebooks for himself and his friends to take coffee notes in! (Steven is on a quest to brew the perfect cup.)
- Yay! My snis and Will and William are traveling to Iowa the same weekend we are in April! I can’t wait to see them!
- Data and Khali get along and (I think) like being around each other, but Tuesday was the first time since Khali moved in last February that I’ve seen them sleeping and cuddling together. Aww!!!!
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 165
What a long month! January seems to be lasting forever (apparently I’m not the only one who feels that way). That’s not a bad thing though. It’s been a fun month, and I am 100% a-okay with time not flying by! But of course, I’m thinking ahead!
Here’s a few things I am looking forward to in February:
- A running date with Rachel!
- Teaching three fitness boxing classes, and one indoor cycling class.
- Valentine’s Day treats for fitness boxing class (yes, I favor them, ha).
- My parents maybe visiting to help with a house project, and take my classes!
- A massage!
- Anne and Terry visiting!
- Continuing my every day blogging streak?! Maybe?! (This post about what makes me blog more often is still true.)
- More bowling dates with Steven! We’ve been bowling more and I enjoy it. I wish we could find a league to participate in… that wasn’t a zillion weeks long. And was every other week. Ha.
- My work detail ending. That’s completely the opposite of what I’ve been saying, but after some things happened, I am ready for it to be done.
- Having another vegan donut?!
Notice what’s NOT on the list?! The Frosty Footrace! I’ll likely be there, but I just still feel so meh about it all. (Yes, I hold long grudges. Working on that. Maybe having a good race there will help!?!)
- I got more information yesterday about what’s going on at work. I’m still disappointed, but I understand it better now. I’ll share more when it’s all done (in a few months).
- The RAGBRAI route announcement party is this Saturday! We streamed it last year and it was horribly painful to watch – way too drawn out. This year, I’ll just look up the course before I go to bed. My guess is that it will go through the far south of Iowa.
- Shutterfly had an offer for a “free” (you pay for shipping) custom notebook. I love this photo of me and Steven, so I used it. It doesn’t really go with the message I put on the cover though. Ha!
- For those of you who saw the film It, what did you think of it? I was expecting it to be better, and scarier (note: I haven’t read the book or seen the mini-series). I typically don’t like movies with kids as the main characters, so that didn’t help. Eh. At least I could sleep after watching it! (Except for my usual wake up to use the bathroom then feeling wide awake happening.)
- Ha, we got this flier for the Frosty Footrace in the mail yesterday. The caption on the front page cracks me up (especially the typo). A lot of us must have complained when they changed the format last year. I’m glad they’ve changed it back! (Brief history – I’ve been doing this 5K since 2009 as a goal 5K and they changed it (after I registered) to a “2 miler” last year and the race sucked.)
- Snow has been coming in some nights to spend the night inside. He LOVES the bed. And is SOOOOO cuddly.
- It looks like I am going to be blogging for another two years – I just renewed my hosting until March 2020. I hate that I have to negotiate the rates each year. Blah.
- And now for the COMPLETELY random. I’ve been talking about nachos a lot lately. I should probably make some soon, so I shut up about them. Nachos… droooooool…
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 164
- Happy first day of winter! The days only get longer from tomorrow until June 21!
- We saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Saturday. I didn’t love it, but was mostly entertained, which is all I can ask for when seeing a movie in the theater!
- Oh my gosh, poor Snow. I think his “friends” are hazing him. Every morning (and sometimes afternoon) we find his food bowl in a different spot – often in the middle of the yard!
- A pet peeve of mine is when someone asks me a question once, and I tell them “no” or “I don’t know” and they ask again shortly after. It’s still “no” or “I don’t know.” Come on. Nothing changed in the last few seconds/minutes. I STILL DON’T KNOW.
- Someone must have recently given out my blog email address because I am getting several emails a day asking me to post about products or share information for “immediate release.” Spam and unsubscribe.
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 159
- In a meeting yesterday, we did an activity where everyone wrote their name on a piece of paper, then passed it around the table, and everyone else wrote one positive thing about that person. It was interesting to see what people said about me, since I’ve been in this group less than six weeks! Someone accidentally wrote “well dressed” on mine. Ha ha ha. Ha. Ha.
- Gmail users, do you have the “undo send” setting turned on? I do. I didn’t realize how much I rely on this feature until recently. I was using a shared gmail inbox at work and hit send, then wanted to undo the send because I saw a typo. But I couldn’t, because that setting wasn’t turned on for that inbox! I also wanted to undo a send in yahoo mail the other day… I don’t think that’s even an option there. I suppose instead of relying on it I could do a better job proofreading (not just for exclamation points)??!?!
- Those of you using Garmin Connect – did you see you can add a photo to your workout entries now? I added some, and like how they show up in the mobile app (top of the screenshot below). A while ago, I read that Garmin wants Connect to be more of a social media platform. Adding the photo option must be part of that effort. I think it’s fun.
- Steven proposed a recurring blog series idea to me this week – “No F*cks Friday,” where I talk about something from my week or something the media is talking about that week, that I don’t give an eff about. Ha ha ha. Oh Steven. Maybe “IDGAF Friday”?
Click through to watch this video
- We don’t have cable or antenna at home (we have a ROKU and a few streaming subscriptions) so we get somewhat excited when we are traveling and have a chance to watch network/cable TV. Sad. Anyway. We were planning to watch some TV when we were in Iowa last weekend but we were too busy! And I was all pumped to watch the David S Pumpkins special. Ha ha ha.
Random Thoughts Thursday 153
Before I publish each blog post, I reread it several times, in an attempt to catch spelling and grammar errors, and to make sure it’s somewhat coherent (ha) and appropriate. AND to make sure I don’t go overboard with exclamation points.
Because, whoa, I overuse them.
While reviewing, I tend to remove several from each post. I ask “am I really that enthusiastic about that topic?” before leaving one in.
Where I need to get better about reviewing my exclamation point use is blog comments, comment responses here, texting, and emails. I reread work emails several times before sending to make sure if I have one, it’s absolutely appropriate.
But I am not so good with personal emails. And if you’ve ever received any type of correspondence from me, it’s likely been littered with exclamation points. I just want to appear enthusiastic, it seems! I AM EXCITED ABOUT LIFE!!! I am excited to be talking to YOU!!!
You know what Snow’s excited about?! Halloween!
He says “Happy Halloween, and FYI, you can use a pumpkin stem to get to those pesky face itches.”
Today is my twelve year blogiversary! Aww, my blog is almost a teenager. Although with how little I post now, it seems my blog is already going through the withdrawn angsty teen years. Ha.
The best thing about blogging is the connections you make, so thank you, readers! And thank you to the many of you that are “real-life” friends now.
And while I am posting less, I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Just waiting for the itch to write more again!
- It would be inappropriate (and boring) to talk about the stuff at work that makes me nuts, but a lot of times, I make a list of it and imagine posting about it here. Ha. Doing that, along with venting with coworkers, helps!
Awesome picture, right?!
- More vagueposting – it feels ironic, that as someone who shares personal information on the internet, there are people out there I don’t want knowing mundane information about my life. It’s not because of knowledge reasons, but what they do with the information – hold it against me, overreact, or gossip about it. It’s hard for me to NOT share things, but I know it’s better off in the long run, with certain people. Ugh. (Most of it’s harmless, just annoying. Example – somehow other people have information I only told YOU, that I would have liked to share with them myself.)
- On to the mundane! Steven and I are always looking for a show to watch during our lunch breaks. We watched Parks and Recreation, then tried to watch Extant, then watched Big Little Lies. Now we’ve decided to rewatch Game of Thrones. We’re catching a lot more watching it the second time, which is fun! Sometimes Khaleesi watches the TV when her namesake is on, which always makes me laugh. I haven’t grabbed a photo of that, but here she is watching The Secret Life of Pets:
- My parents are visiting in June and this will be their FIRST trip to our “new” home without an entire weekend of labor involved (they’ve been here twice but once was for the move and the other time was to help with the second floor attic work). I am looking forward to them being here with the house put together and having more “free” time… along with a few projects, of course. Ha ha.
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 133
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