Starting next Sunday, I am going to be on a business trip, hitting multiple cities in CA (La Jolla, Rancho Cucamongo, LA, San Jose), ending with a red-eye on Thursday night - yikes!!! After much nail-biting on my part, Adam was FINALLY able to take off a day and a half from work and we are taking some much needed vacation ahead of my trip --- a portion of my flight is company-funded, very nice! Unfortunately, booking a trip a week ahead of time isn't exactly cheap. Since Adam isn't interested in the spa-scene of La Jolla (go figure!), where my conference is being held, we decided to find a city somewhere on the West coast to visit....
SEATTLE HERE WE COME!
We plan on flying in Thursday afternoon and driving straight to Mount Ranier (which according to our guide book is about an hour and a half from the airport). Adam has found a fabulous country inn for us to stay at. On Friday, we are going to take in some nature/mountains and then drive back in to downtown Seattle that evening. On Friday and Saturday night we are going to stay at a hotel on one of the piers. We'll have Saturday to see the sights of the city and it looks like there is plenty that we are going to want to pack in. On Sunday, Adam flies home and I head down to my conference... it will be an action-packed weekend and it doesn't sound like it will be very restful, but we are both looking forward to the change of scenery.
We haven't had a vacation since our long weekend in Jamaica (back in April!!!), and with my exam looming, it looks like this will be our "last hurrah" for 2007. Oh, except for the wedding in Florida that I am really looking forward to, but happens to fall just two weeks before my exam.....
I'm disappointed we didn't get more vacation in, but I guess we set the bar pretty high last year having made it to Germany AND Japan in one year.... hardly something we can afford to do on an annual basis.
Already have my sights on next year though -- and I hope to convince Adam to take two seperate, full weeks of vacation -- never an easy task!!! I'd like to do a week with friends using my mom's time share in the Spring and a trip to Switzerland and Italy in the Fall.... so much of the world still left to see --- time to get as much in as we can, before we are tied down by a bunch of kiddies....
I get a NYTimes email link each day and at the bottom it has "On This Day" which cites something newsworthy that had happened on this date. Here's today's:
On Sept. 20, 1973, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all tennis match.
I JUST learned how to get photos taken on my cell phone uploaded to my computer -- can't believe I didn't figure that out sooner... thought I would share the exam-related photos first with an update on how studying is going....
During a particularly boring class, I think it might have been the first one, I sent Adam a text that I was looking forward to a glass of wine when I got home.
Adam sent this <------ I told him he was being mean!
Last week, my exam-friend J, who failed that exam with me back in June 04, took this lovely photo of me during class (unbenonst to me). Don't I look like I am having fun?
In all seriousness, studying is (THANKFULLY) getting better. I am putting more time in than I had been previously, and I think I am becoming a more productive studier. In an attempt to motivate to me, I worked out an agreement with Adam that we will try a new BYOB for each week that I study at least 14 hours (not including class).
This was the first week and I only studied 11 hours, so no BYOB yet, BUT this was the first week I studied over 10 hours, so I am pleased with that...
Feels like a long way to go between now and December 1st.
Last weekend my mom came down. She and I went shopping - always fun and then we tackled some purging/organizing throughout the apartment. This is our "scary" closet... we still had boxes packed from our "didn't move" and we never put away our camping stuff after our trip got cancelled...
Once we decided we were staying put for awhile, we bought a new bookshelf from IKEA, but never got around to making it look nice - Mom was in heaven making magic happen.
This past weekend, we went to my brother-in-law's place. Adam helped them assemble furniture and get the baby room ready. Amazingly enough, I actually got some studying in and then spent the rest of the day gossiping with my sister-in-law.
We have gotten right back into the swing of things as far as taping TV programs go.... Adam noticed on Sunday night that the DVR cut off the last few seconds of The 4400, but I didn't think too much of it.... On Monday night I wasn't up for watching the last two episodes of a show called MY BOYS that's on TBS from 10-11pm (It was the Summer Season Finale) so we taped it. The show promised a big ending in the last 30 seconds (do you see where I am going with this?).
The basic plot was that PJ, the main character, and her best friend from college were each going to find a man and the four of them would take a trip to Italy... PJ had three offers of men to go with her... in the last 30sec you were going to get to see which one she picked --- hmmm, sounds lame now that I explain it --- well, my DVR ended the program just as the camera was panning to the other airline seat! I can't believe it!!!
Update: I figured out what's going on, but I don't think I can fix it. The bedroom TV is on a bit of a delay, wither because the big TV is HD, or just because the signal has to go the extra cable length to get to the bedroom... so, this isn't something that can be fixed. With TIVO you coudl program it to start taping a little early or go a little late, but Comcast doesn't give that option.... grrr....
Second Update: I just went websurfing for the answer and learned that the show faded to black without giving an answer..... OOps, my bad! Sorry I blamed you beloved DVR!
To be fair, I didn't actually watch the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). It seems Ms. Brittany didn't have a good performance, which isn't a surprise to anyone... I do take issue with people commenting that she looked really heavy and unfit...
Take a look at this photo:
She has had two children - I think she looks pretty good. Why doesn't she get any credit for performing in nothing more than a bikini on live TV. Don't get me wrong, I am not a Brittany Spears fan. But since when is someone who looks like this fat???.... Even if she is a celebrity that is supposedly held up to a higher (translation: insaner) body standard.
Comments about Brittany being fat just contribute to the body-image problems that many women and young girls face.
Update: It was nice to see an article on this very subject this morning. I think its a fair point that if you opt for a bikini on a national broadcast you are inviting critiscm, BUT, the NY Post and others are still being overly critical.
So nice to see that someone agrees with my assessment of Tim Gunn's new TV show, Guide to Style. Over the past week I saw two episodes and I thought it was clear that they were unsuccessfully trying to recreate What Not to Wear. A show that I am quite fond of....
Things I didn't like... the use of a "life coach". They didn't force more clothes to be thrown out. The inclusion of a cheesy celebrity designer cameo to give the fashion victim an outfit... and one of them was a designer that was part of Project Runway (season three when they went to France). Also, they made the person strut back and forth in each outfit too much.... AND, the top 10 list of items that someone needs isn't adjusted for each person. How is a trenchcoat a must have? Coat, of course... the list was too constricting.
Gunn often sounded like he had a stick up his ass. "I just don't know about this" was a phrase he kept using that just wasn't working --- I miss the Tim Gunn of Project Runway - "Make it Work!"
Hands down, What Not to Wear is better.
Show us a book you wish you had written.
I think this is one of the most well written books - the author does a great job. Hard to imagine it was written by a man.
What one year of your life would you like to re-live, if you were given the chance?
Submitted by Ross.
Choice #1: My junior year abroad in Bremen, Germany - hands down! All that traveling and barely any school work, what's not to love? I consider myself very fortunate that my year abroad was pre 9/11, I'm sure that students doing it now don't have nearly the freedom that we did.
Choice #2: Junior year in high school... It was the first year that I felt like I really belonged. Middle school (grades 5-8) were really rough on me. I was the new kid in a very cliquey school. When high school started, my middle school merged with 3 others, so in a way I got to start fresh... It took until sophmore year until I felt like I finally had friends. During junior year, I was co-leader of the junior tennis team playing in the top doubles slot... I was getting lots of skiing in. I became leader of the drama club... got my first boyfriend... went to lots of parties with friends (boy girl sleepovers, oh my!). Good times, good times....
It seems a little odd that my first two picks don't include my hubby.... life's been quite a rollercoaster since he & I are started dating, both from family-drama and career-wise...
Officially got the Triple Play package from Comcast today.... Can't wait to watch WEEDS and THE L WORD!
Sad when this is something that makes my day. Very excited about the DVR too, because now I can't blame TV shows for the reason why I'm not studying for that damn exam....
