From the Cinco de Mayo DC United soccer game. We had a fabulous time. DC United scored a goal and in celebration, B tossed up the confetti she’d made from shredding a game program. Unfortunately, confetti and cotton candy don’t mix. But she didn’t care…

Today after we worked out, I casually mentioned to Josh that his brother had called just as I’d reached the locker room (I had Josh’s phone since he doesn’t get a locker, just gives me his few things). When he asked what he’d had to say, I said I didn’t know as there are rules against using cell phones in the locker room. I supposed (aloud) that it was so no one had the opportunity to take pictures with them. I then tossed out a comment about how often I get an eyeful of naked women in the locker room.

He was shocked. Apparently, being naked somehow doesn’t occur in the men’s locker room? Or if it does, it occurs infrequently, in haste or out of sight of other men. Whereas in the women’s locker room, it’s not unusual to see women in various states of dress, including buck naked, walking around, drying their hair and watching TV (yes there’s a TV in the locker room).

But he reports that men don’t do that. And that if you have to be naked in the men’s locker room, you do it quickly. Or you’re only naked under a towel, even to take under off/put them on. Okay, that image made me laugh because…really?

It seems that men don’t want to look at other men’s dangly bits, or have theirs seen. It must make having to use those public urinals particularly painful.

You know who thought there might be some concern about that, since I apparently haven’t blogged in something like five days. Who knew? I’ve been spending a lot of time flooding Twitter with my random thoughts, and I really haven’t had anything I wanted to blog about. I’ve opened the “add new post” page every day but…had nothing to add.

I did add a page (look at the top of the blog) for Couch to 5k, though. So I’ll at least try to update that.

Also, prize winners, I just now realized I didn’t get your prizes sent out. Ack! I’ll do that this week. I think my concentration is shot because I’m having to adapt to a new routine now that you know who is home. It’s not a terrible thing, it’s just taking some getting used to. I’m so used to having this (mostly) set routine Monday-Friday, with about 6 hours of total silence. Not only do I not have the routine so much anymore, I don’t have the silence. Plus, to further throw things off, I’ve started working out. I’ve noticed I’m a lot more forgetful, easily distracted, and less focused than normal. Hopefully once I get used to this, those things will get better.

It has been weird weather here and we had a gorgeous weekend, so we went to the beach. I should do a post on our weather cycle. Friday the 1st, we were at the beach. Sunday/Monday it snowed and I have pictures of Josh and Brianna out in the snow.Then Saturday pictures of Brianna wearing shorts, standing by the snowpile, with the convertible (top down) in the background. And Sunday? Beach pictures again. We went, in 5 days, from the coldest day of the winter (1 degree) to 70+ degrees. Kind of bizarre.

At some point, the computer will let me upload all the pictures I took, and maybe I’ll be able to share them!

So anyway, I’m not dead. Though I did do my running in the cemetery today. Is that weird?

That’s what I started today. I was supposed to start yesterday but, well, we were kind of “snowed in” and I certainly wasn’t going to go break an ankle on the snowy/icy sidewalks. So I started this morning (at my local Y, on the treadmill). If you’re not familiar with this, it’s a 9-week interval running program designed to take you from the couch (that’s me!) to 5k (3 miles) of running. The reason it’s successful for many people is because of the fact of being an interval program–you start slow and build. The program encourages you not to skip ahead but instead to follow it as it’s designed. But if you need to repeat a week and stretch the program to more weeks, that’s okay too. You set your own pace.

So I did day one today, which is a combination of 60 seconds of running then 90 seconds of walking, which didn’t really seem to bad. I did notice, since I was on the treadmill, that I only went 2 miles, but I was told on Twitter that as long as I did 20 minutes (I think I actually did slightly more) that I was fine. Okay then.

One thing that makes it a lot easier to do this is to use the music podcasts that have been designed for this program. That way you don’t have to wear a watch/use a timer, but instead listen to the music which has a cue in it when it’s time to switch from running to walking and vice versa.

Right now my goal is to just finish the program and run the three miles. Once I’ve done that, I’ll decide on what my next goal will be. I’ve been challenged to do the half-marathon in Virginia Beach in September but that’s…a lot of running. I’ll be impressed if I get to three miles in three months. Girl Scout cookies all around if I manage that!

Yesterday my friend Marly posted an interview opportunity so I decided to take it. Hey, blog content is good! Here are the questions Marly asked me and my answers.

1. If you had to paint your house all one color, inside and out, what color would you choose?

Funny, but most of the inside of my house is already one color. We repainted most of the inside a very lovely creamy color with slight peach undertones. I love it and I’ve not got sick of looking at it in most every room, yet, so I’d have to go with that if I were forced to use it inside and out. But I have a 4 y/o, so you know, the walls get decorated for me.

2. Which celebrity couple would you be most likely to trust with your child?

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. Seriously, who wouldn’t trust Tom Hanks?

3. At a business function, would you rather fart very loudly or visibly wet your pants?

Oh dear GOD. I once visibly wet my pants when I was in the second grade and I’m still scarred by that. I went to Catholic school and there were very strict rules about when we could go to the bathroom. On the other hand, oddly enough, at the same Catholic school in…third grade…I once farted loudly as we were filing in to church for Friday morning services. It was, of course, super quiet in there, I was starting to sit and just getting close to the pew so it echoed REALLY loudly. The rest of my classmates blamed it on a boy named Mark. Being a smart child who’d already suffered one grade school humiliation, I didn’t correct them. Sorry, Mark! Neither of which answers your question, but since I’ve already experienced both, I should be exempt from further bodily function humiliation, don’t you think?

4. If your husband got an invite to the Playboy Mansion, would you let him go alone?

Absolutely. Look, my husband loves me, I’m secure in that. Going to the Playboy Mansion would be fun for him and make for a super cool story. I wonder if he’d let me go to the Playboy Mansion by myself?

5. Describe your most embarrassing moment as an adult.

The fact that I gave so much information to you all in #3. Actually, I’ve been thinking about this since I read the questions last night and I can’t think of one embarrassing moment as an adult that’s stuck with me. Not to say I’ve never been embarrassed as an adult, because I have. And had embarrassing moments. But none that stick out for me so much that I can even tell you one, let alone the most embarrassing. Um. Knock on wood. I don’t need any either.

Thanks, Marly. Those were fun but not too painful!

Want to be part of the interview fun? Follow these instructions:

1. Leave me a comment involving the words, “Interview me.” (I’m going to limit it to four people, for my sanity’s sake)

2. Be sure to include your email address (required to post on my blog anyway, so just make sure you include a valid one), because I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to write the questions.)

3. You will update your blog with the questions and your answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.

Every morning for as long as Brianna’s been going to daycare, and any other time I’m in the car, I’ve tuned my radio station to 95.3. Why? Because they did the Eighties at Eight every morning. Hello! A whole hour of eighties music? Yes, I have turned into my parents, listening to the songs of my “youth” but c’mon, who doesn’t love the eighties? During the rest of the day, the station played a great mix of 80s, 90s and current, all top 40 stuff. It was easy to listen to and I knew I wouldn’t be hating on most of the music.

Today, my heart was shattered. I dropped Brianna off at daycare, flipped the radio to my fave station and heard…Bob and Sheri’s Chatroom. Who the hell are Bob and Shari, who’s this dude they’re letting blather on about nothing particularly interesting (random caller) and where’s the Eighties at Eight? Gone, it seems. Looks like the radio station is restructuring and they’re piping in a syndicated morning talk show. Can I just say blech? Every other radio station in the area already does morning talk shows (some local, some syndicated). I could have switched to one of them at any time if I wanted to listen to a bunch of people who will drive me insane and raise my blood pressure with their stupidity, and rambling, pointless, inane opinions. I want music, not talk. I WANT MY MTV. Errr…sorry. So anyway, I flipped through all the other local stations and the only one not “talking” was a country station. I like country, it’s why I have it programmed, but not enough to listen to it all the time. I’m so sad! I want my eighties, I want Jeff and Karen back in the morning, I want music. I don’t want change. I don’t LIKE change. Waaaaaah.

It looks like I’ll be loading up my mp3 player again, and plugging it into the car stereo. I wonder if it’s too late to invest in Sirius radio….

This is the first weekend in awhile that we haven’t had some sort of plan to get things done, either errands or around the house. Don’t tell my husband, because he’ll find something I do have dinner tonight with some friends but other than that, I’m feeling especially lazy and unmotivated. Which is actually me every weekend but still… (shuddup, you know who).

So weekends. Weekends are hard for me because I want to do things on the computer (like catch up on blog reading) but at the same time, I don’t. See, I have this problem where if people see me on the computer: on my blog, on someone else’s blog, twitter, facebook, Romance Divas, whatever, they think I’m at work and should be meeting their demands (sending edits, answering emails, thinking about their problems, whatever they may be). I don’t know how often I can stress that just because I’m online doesn’t mean I’m working. And seeing me online shouldn’t mean that you can expect me to be working. Monday through Friday, normal business hours, you’re welcome to expect whatever you want from me, but even then, if I’ve worked a lot the week before, or ended up working the weekend, I might not be. It’s the problem with working online, I think. People expect availability 24/7 which is not only unreasonable, but unfair. The reality is, I work more than Monday through Friday most weeks. I work far more than normal business hours. But I don’t want that to be an expectation, because you’ll be disappointed and I’ll be cranky(crankier).

It’s the same reason I keep my Twitter private and have a private Facebook account. Not everything is about work, just because I work online!

So…yeah. Don’t ask what brought that on. I’ve just been thinking about it for awhile. I’m trying to be better about not working on the weekends–it’s not fair to my family, it makes it harder for me to decompress, and it’s more than likely going to lead to extreme burnout if I don’t knock it off. I’m thinking no one wants that

We had scheduled a babysitter last night, but yesterday morning we decided to cancel the babysitter and stay home with Brianna. What’s really funny about this is that Brianna was DEVASTATED that we were staying home. I’m talking full-blown wailing when she found out the babysitter wasn’t coming. She, um, really likes the babysitter!

But it was so cold and windy here, and we’ve been spoiled by almost 60 to 70 degree days the past week, so I was glad that we decided to stay home. We ordered pizza and played Rock Band until about 11:45pm. Then Josh and I went up to bed and watched Dick Clark ring in the new year. Which made me sad, because Dick Clark is one of those people who are eternally young in my mind and he is so…not.

So we were in bed and asleep by about 12:30 and you know what? It was a great New Year’s Eve. I had a lot of fun and as Josh said to me at one point, “I was with my favorite person”. Perfect.

I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable night, and have a fulfilling year in 2009!

Whatever your holiday, whatever your beliefs, I hope that you celebrate the beauty of the season surrounded by family, friends and laughter. Thank you to everyone who’s stopped by and made this blog a wonderful place. Happy holidays!

photos and card courtesy of Bluebug Photography

Car seat covers for Christmas. Josh and I have been car shopping since last February (the first time his car broke down). We were a single car family for about three weeks, which was a lot of fun, let me tell you, since he works 40 miles from home. We shopped around for cars, but that was before the real economic crunch and none of the dealerships actually wanted "deal" on the price of a car. We didn’t want to buy a car just to buy a car, and eventually Josh got his fixed, so we decided to wait. In the months since, we’ve seriously talked about buying a car a few times, both of us have really wanted a Mini-Cooper, but it’s hard to take on a car payment when you’re used to not having one. No matter how many we looked at or how often we talked about it, we just weren’t feeling impulsive enough to do it.

This summer, his parents left their Miata with us for a few weeks and I had a great time zipping around in it, a little red convertible. I told Josh I wanted one. Hey, some gentleman at the grocery store even told me I looked cute driving it. Dude. It was meant to be (me owning a Miata, not me being with the guy, breathe, honey).

So fast forward to about 2 months ago and Josh goes to this neighborhood to pick something up and sees…a Miata for sale. Must be fate, right? But did I mention that we’re seriously not impulse buyers? We went and looked at it a few times, waffled and just never pulled the trigger. Then Josh’s car broke down twice in one week. Did I mention he works about 40 miles from home? Yeah. So eventually, after a lot of discussion, last week, we bought the Miata. Yes, it was still for sale, which is both amazing and not. Not, because of the economy, but it is because it was a killer deal. Really. It’s a fully loaded ’94 black Miata, which has been owned by one owner and very, very well-maintained. And it has a new engine. And we got it for an awesome price. No, not a very good family car, but you know…I’ll look damn good driving it, and that’s all that counts, right? Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the reason I should have asked for car seat covers for Christmas is because it has leather seats, which I’m not a big fan of, especially in the summer (and in a convertible) because they get really stinkin’ hot, plus my legs and other exposed skin sticks to them. And they don’t warm up too quickly in the winter either. So…car seat covers.

I haven’t gotten to drive it yet, because we just got it last week and it still has to be inspected and titled. But in the meantime, I’ve been thinking about getting vanity plates. But I’m not sure what I’d want. That’s where the contest comes in. Give me some ideas of things I could put on my new vanity plates* and I’ll draw one winner at random, sometime after Christmas to win…something. I haven’t decided yet. It won’t be a huge prize but it won’t suck either.

*Vanity plates can have up to seven characters/spaces, so be sure your idea fits those requirements!