Birthday Weekend

Woohoo right now I'm writing this blog from my BlackBerry phone on the road in Dallas! Chuck surprised me with a weekend in Grapevine and Six Flags over Texas.

We had an absolute blast today even though it was pretty humid out. Got to ride almost every single rollercoaster, at least all the ones that were open. Yesterday we went through the historic Grapevine area and then ended with a full on shopping spree at one of my favorite stores - Fry's Electronics :). I got the new PSP game (Namco Museum) and found some java books that I couldn't find in Tulsa.

We're headed back tonight because I ended up having to work on my birthday since I'm taking over for someone that's leaving. Oh well. I'm definitely worn out, what a whirlwind weekend! Thanks so much again to Melanie and Miles for letting is crash at your gorgeous new place, luv ya!

Crackberry Woo!

Sprint contract's finally coming to an end, time for the happy dance! I've switched carriers and I picked up a Blackberry 7100t.

Suffice to say, it's a pretty sweet gadget/phone, and keeps me in touch with work, email, IM, SMS, the whole banana, as well as international support when I go to Japan. It was great to chat with my brother in Hawaii over Yahoo Messenger while I was putting away the dishes last night.

Been fighting a bit of a cold, but nothing big enough to write home about. Nothing gagging down NyQuil before bed and DayQuil at work won't fix. I swear it's because I have an odd allergy to whatever's in the common multivitamin. I wish I could figure it out, because I've noticed that over the years whenever I begin taking a multivitamin, BAM! I get a cold. For some reason, I can take vitamins individually without a problem (eg B12, B6, C, etc), but whatever comprises a multi gives me the symptoms of a head cold for a few days.



Workouts are going pretty well. I've learned that I can't go to bed at 1am if I'm getting up at 6:30am. That's what I get for being ancient. ;) I skipped this morning, but did have my vitamins and breakfast. Waking up with fuzzy NyQuil-head doesn't facilitate an early morning workout, so it looks like we'll have to call today my "off" day.

I'm looking forward to a "chill out and stay in" weekend and getting caught up on a LOT of housework (ugh). And hopefully FINALLY get into Dungeon Siege II and get my game on!

The Amazing iPod Shuffle Feature

I've owned an iPod for at least a year and a half or so now. I've owned the 3G 15gb iPod (I think it was 15gb) and I've had the 4G 20gb iPod for at least 10+ months. I've used playlists and organized my ipod extensively and obsessively. I've had ebooks, text notes, movie showtimes, weather, and reviews pushed to my ipod every time I connect it to my laptop.

But there's this one feature that I've never really used. It's wild. Wait for it...wait for it...it's called "Shuffle". Yes. I know. Big fat DUH. But I must say when you start getting 4,932 songs collected on your iPod and only run about 20 playlists, there's a LOT of music you're missing.

I set all 4,932 to shuffle and wow. I've had a blast while coding at work the past two days. No repeats and stuff that I'd completely forgotten that I'd added to my pod! The only downside is that I do have about six ebooks on my pod, which means they automatically get shuffled in there with the rest, and I have to just skip that track. And as far as the rest of them, it's so cool that it's all music I like. What a concept, considering I'm the one that put them on there in the first place. ;-)

Death Jr. & Dungeon Siege II!

Woohoo both should be in today, and I've got a pre-reserve receipt in my hot little hands waiting for them to call me. "The PSP" magazine's calling Death Jr. the first killer app for the PSP. And might I say, it's about time! I *love* my PSP but it's really fallen short on game releases -- so many disappointing, not worth the money releases, so even though I've owned a PSP since April, I only got about 5 games, and really only play one of them very much (Hot Shots Golf, hehe). Untold Legends has potential but I didn't give it much of a go-round past a few hours of gameplay.



So YES! I should be gaming tonight after workout and going to church. Muscles are a little bit stiff this morning but at least I didn't pull anything, which I often do when starting a new workout regimen. I hate pushups. I didn't even get to do the girly kind. :P

Day One - Combat Conditioning

Got up at 6:30am this morning. Actually got up at 6am because my back pain was yelping at me and wouldn't let me sleep any more. Stretched and used a gel pack for a few minutes before doing Matt Furey's core exercises and then Chuck made me egg whites scrambled with cheese and salsa. YUM! Raw baby carrots, raw spinach, and a plum are the snacks for today.

Lunch was chili & rice. Dinner's pork chops and brussel sprouts. So far not bad for a first day. Although I think hindu squats and hindu pushups are in the picture before I can have dinner tonight *wince*.



Got GTA:SA in the mail yesterday from my eBay win. Totally fun game. Completely different gameplay style than what I normally play but it definitely made it fun. Although I am SO needing the strat guide already; I just don't make a good gangster quite yet, lol!

Aquafina Sparkling Water Part Deux

Damn stuff nailed me again on Sunday afternoon. Grr. This stuff's WAY overcarbonated!

Hans 'n Franz

Tired of the back pain and being devoid of any lung capacity, I asked Chuck today to become my personal trainer for about a month and see where things go. I think this means getting up at 6:30am every morning, eating healthy meals, and doing cardio, stretching, and core workouts.



I'm thinking the only way I'm going to get my back repaired and avoid back surgery is just to push through it and build up core strength and muscle/spine flexibility. I'll post on how it goes and what kind of progress I make. No, I'm not telling you my weight but I'll tell you what I eat and what my workout was :)

Wish UnkyMoods would come back. Dangit. Meanwhile I might have to create my own mood images and post them on the template at the side...hmm...that might get fun, make my own up like "Pissed off because the cube people are chewing ice again!" or "My ears are pinned to my skull because my coworker just belched in my face!" Ooh...potential.



Chuck's birthday was yesterday, although it ended up being a full weekend-long celebration lol. Ate WAY too much. Had fun. Managed to not set foot in a single club all weekend. Life is good.



Did my taxes last night cause I filed for an extension and they were due today. It was painful with a 5-figure 1099 that I'd gotten from working in Bville last year, but not unmanageable. I also had 4 other W-2's cause I worked on so many short/small projects last spring. It's amazing what kind of deduction you get when you end up driving 150 miles a day round trip for nearly 8 months! Hopefully taxes will be much simpler next year. 2 W-2's. Woot.

Rain! Isn't it wonderful? About time too. I'm hoping for a downpour that comes with some fun thunder and lightning, but at least we're getting rain in any case. (No hill sprints this week due to mud, la la la) :D

Stupid Fizzy Water

This is not the first time an Aquafina Sparkling Water has fizzed all over me like a 6th grader's shaken up Pepsi. What a start to a wonderful day. I think I'll be grumpy today, I'm female, it's in my contract. ;)

Not much else interesting going on I suppose. Here's the three books I'm reading at the same time:

Running With Scissors



Geisha, A Life



Telling Lies for Fun and Profit

When's the Weekend?

Man it's been a long week and it's only Thursday. One more day to go. The new job's awesome... it's a lot of work but it's all really fun/cool, so it makes it neat. I'm trying to ride my bike to work when I can, it's downhill all the way to work and uphill all the way home, but it's an easy incline so it's not too bad. Not the most fun thing in 100+ degree heat though, blech.



Chuck & I went to Cherokee Casino for kicks late Sunday night, just to go check it out. I put $5 in a machine and on the 3rd or so pull won about $145 bucks! I let it get down to $130 then decided that I liked money better, so I cashed out. I think I can taste a Chef Nobu special dinner coming up for us soon from my winnings!

My back's been giving me inordinate amounts of grief, I'm trying to keep exercising my core and working out and riding the bike and stuff but it more or less dully aches from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep. It bites. Thinking of trying acupuncture to relieve the pressure. Oh to NOT be allergic to NSAID's so I could take aspirin or ibuprofen like normal people. Tylenol is a joke.

The casino got me thinking about playing some blackjack, and I signed up at Golden Palace (online casino) to play for real cash. So far I'm up about $150 real money that I could cash out at any point. My trick (aside from learning a few blackjack tips) is to quit when I win, lol. So if I happen to win $10 in a few minutes, I just log out and call it good. I think the longer you stay and play the more you'll lose. Makes for good one-off 45-second entertainment though. :)

I want more rain! *pouts*