Case of the Monday

The week started off with a bang, literally.  It was thundering so loudly this morning that our entire house was shaking!  It had actually been storming all night, and I was happy as a clam that it decided to stop just before I had to walk out the door.  Still the perfect day for boots and my trenchcoat!

This Monday also marks the last day of 28 Posts in 28 Days Challenge.  I ended up with 27 out of 28, and I am pretty happy with that!  I don't know if I'll continue posting every day because honestly, I was really just posting out of obligation some days.

Now I am having the (almost) perfect Monday night following a rainy day and a long, slow afternoon at work.

Couch, cuddly blankets, and my adorable Pink mini

 The Bachelor!

Penzey's hint of mint hot chocolate.

Ok, ok, so maybe it looked more like this.

I'm also working on making 60+ "Hello My Name is..." tags, but I'm pretty sure the night balances out in the positive!

Workout: I promise to keep at this, even when it's a failure.  Today, failure.  5 hours on my feet at work is the closest I got!

Weekend Report Card

It's Sunday night, let's see how things are measuring up this weekend. 

Posting Challenge: Fail.  I was so close, but missed posting yesterday because of a really busy day.
Having a Fun Weekend: A+.  It's been a great weekend, more to come on that later.
Getting Enough Sleep: Fail.  Oops, I really need to catch up because I don't have a single day off in the foreseeable future!
Getting My Old Body Back: My exercise record for the last few days is a big Fail, but it has been an A+ in terms of weight loss and pants fitting better!
Taking Pictures: Despite the fact that I had my camera with me the entire weekend, major Fail!  So, obviously not my pics in this post...)

I worked late Friday night and early Saturday morning, so I didn't really kick off the weekend until Saturday afternoon.  I came home and washed off the chlorine, and then we met up with Nick's friend at PF Chang's.  Yum.

We may or may not have also partaken in a series of adult beverages.  I think they purposefully leave you waiting at the table for so long just so you are enticed to order more drinks- just a theory.  Though I'll admit that I didn't realize until about 5 minutes ago that the "Bomb Pop Martini" they serve is supposed to taste like a BOMB POP!  Clever bunch they are.

After dinner, we headed across the parking lot to the movie theatre to see Hall Pass.  The girls also decided, by very official voting procedures, that 5 seconds before the movie start time would be a very appropriate time to visit the theatre's bar.  Yes, that's right, the movie theatre has it's own (very nice looking) bar.  We couldn't take drinks with us though, so shots were then obviously necessitated.

Side Note Movie Review: Hall Pass was hilarious but some very (very very) explicit sexual humor.  If that's your thing, I highly recommend it!

 I stopped in the theatre restroom after the movie and walked out of the stall to literally run over one of my good friends from grad school!  I love running into people I know, even when they're people that I see most days of the week!

After the movie it was time to move to a different part of the city, and we all converged again at the casino downtown.  Naturally, my favorite part of the casino is the all-you-can-eat sushi, crab legs, and shot glass size desserts in the buffet.  A little bird told me it was socially inappropriate to guide your friends to a buffet 2 hours after eating a 4-course dinner though.  So no buffet for me this weekend- probably for the best.

What did I do instead?  Gambled away all $2 I had in the Atari Pong slot machine, and gawked like a cheapskate at the hundreds of dollars people threw down on the roulette tables!  I also admired the color varieties of the chips.  Pink and lavender chips?  Yes please.

Did I mention that the casino is also pretty?  It only just opened recently, and it has the most amazing location right on the river.  The view of the city is gorgeous, and the view of the casino from downtown isn't bad either!

I finally dragged myself into bed a little after 2, which was really fabulous when I had to get up to work opening shift at the mall this morning.  I was dutifully rewarded though by scoring 2 pairs of pants for a total of $5.95.  I love a good deal!

After another afternoon of work, it was off to see the fam.  Today was my mam's real birthday, so even though we had a party last week, I deemed today as an appropriate excuse for cake as well.  I was properly rewarded for my cake delivery with HOMEMADE PIEROGIES!  If you've never had them, you don't know the amazing (artery clogging) goodness that you're missing.  I only indulge maybe once or twice a year, but they're oh so good when I do.

I shall run 24 hours tomorrow to burn off the butter content alone, pinky promise!

Workout: 4 hours on my feet at work.  Weak, I know.  I just picked out my dress for a wedding two weeks away though, so I've got a little extra push of motivation going into this week!

Friday Fabulous Favorites

It's Friday, and time for Friday Favorites!

1. Favorite Stress Reliever: The stick!  Thanks to spending hours upon hours sitting in school desks and hunched over books studying, I end up with major tension knots in my neck, shoulders, and upper back.  This sweet little piece of plastic is the perfect answer.  Aside from shelling out the money for a real massage, this has got to be the best thing out there!

2. Favorite Breakfast: Oatmeal!  I grew up on a lot of Quaker Maple Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal.  I rediscovered my love a few years ago, and haven't been able to stop myself from downing it practically every morning since then.  I also eat it in my car at least 90% of the time; I'm terrible with time management in the AM!  The unfortunate side effect?  Sometimes our entire supply of spoons ends up in the center console of my car.

3. Favorite Picture Ever: This one.  Of all the billion and one pictures that the hubs and I have taken together, this is by far my fave.  Ok, I'm a little biased because it's from our wedding, but I love it.  It's bright, flattering, and we're both overcome by ridiculously happy smiles.  Life can't get any better than that.

Workout: (I've been slacking on this so I might as well start on a down day)  No workout today, still fighting off the last bit of this chest cold, but hopefully I'll be movin again soon!

My motivator.

I require about 8 hours of sleep per night.  My class starts in less than 8 hours.  I'm not math genius, but something tells me I am going to be short on sleep.  Tomorrow is Friday though, and really, silly things like sleep don't matter on Fridays!  Tomorrow is also February 25th already, which means I'm almost to the end of my February posting challenge.  Sorry if I've been boring some days; don't worry, you can say it.  Hopefully it's got me into a nice habit though, so I can post as often as I have something to say.  Which the hubs would probably say is constantly, and increases when he's busy dong something else!

Speaking of the hubs, and the million and one reasons why I love him.

We have a lot of fun together.

Our weirdness kind of balances out between the two of us.

We both love to travel to fun new places.

And he cleans up pretty nice.

And I tricked him into marrying me am lucky enough to be married to him.

So why am I getting all mushy-gushy tonight?  Well, mostly because I can, but also because the hubs has become a great motivator for me!  Up until now, I've always been the athlete, while the hubs has been the supportive bf/fiance/hubs.  He would work out some, but I was always nagging pushing him to do more.  Things have change lately though, and the tables may even be turning a bit.  He is still working hard at his Biggest Loser competition, and he is totally kicking some butt!

Seeing him rock out the exercise and nutrition changes has put a major guilt/motivator on me!  I am so ridiculously proud of him!  We may not look like we did when we started dating (7+ years ago), but we're on the way.

 Now if only I could figure out how to look 19 years old now and forever as well; I would be ok with that.

Junk in your trunk

I've recently noticed that all of the public parking structures around the city have posted new signs:

I giggle like a child at the weak double entendre, and if anyone is within earshot I may even reference the fact that I've always got lots of junk in my trunk, and everyone laughs.  Or, I said it to the hubs once, and he didn't find it funny at all.

But I do have junk in the trunk.  This trunk, my car is always super messy:

And (overshare) this trunk too:

But that's not the point.  The point is that the picture includes the awesome tank that I found at Target a little while ago.

I obviously bought it awhile ago because I still had hair.  I was there last week though and they still had it, and in more colors!

What's so much better about this tank than the other tanks I've found?  It doesn't ride up!  I do love my body but a huge size difference between waist and hips can make it really, really hard to get fitted tops to stay down, something about the law of gravity and centrifugal force and me making this all up.  Thanks to the little bit of pleating in the back though, it's just the right size at the bottom to fit the junk in my trunk!  Bonus points for it also having a decent built-in bra and not having a racerback.

For future reference though, do put your junk in the trunk!