6.14

We woke up and were just relaxing in bed. We were talking about how the packers were supposed to call the day before to tell us what time they were coming. Nobody ever called. I had nightmares that they wouldn't even show up.  Dave joked that they were probably on the porch right then.  A few minutes later I got up to walk to my craft room and saw people on the porch! I hurried up and put on a hoodie and went and answered the door. The packers were there. There were two, a male and a female, and they did a little tour of the house to see what was going and what wasn't.

Just as they were showing up, my parents were showing up.  Originally we were told not to pack anything up at all. We were told that even if something is in our own box they will repack it.   We discussed this with the packers later and they said they just list things as owner packed boxes.  We had a ton of things thrown in boxes and hidden in the basement but not packed for real. (Later we would learn that we should have just taken it all out of our boxes to be properly packed so things weren't damaged.)

The packers said it is an owner packed box but that nothing in the owner packed boxes is insured.  Nothing makes sense.  They made a big deal about the original TV boxes and original game system boxes and how they wouldn't pack anything in those. Well well well that meant we were packing that up and the TVs. I was riled up because if we would have known that, we could have done some things the day before.  The moving coordinator specifically warned us not to pack anything at all.  I hate the contradictions.

Since we had to pack up the stuff that goes in the original boxes, my mom helped with that.  She did all the gaming systems in the family room.  I got a box to put the cable box in.  We didn't want them accidentally packing that.  Poly got in the box so I had to wait to put the cable box in it.

I had to leave to go to the NVision lunch.  Dave could have gone but we didn't want to leave the packers there alone.  I was getting an award.  I asked if I was able to go even though I quit working and they said yes. I got there and talked a little to people but I had to leave immediately after to get lunch and get home for Dave. I wished I would have had more time to talk to everyone.  My manager went to see me get my award.

After the lunch someone asked the photographer if he was going to take a group photo and he said no. Well we decided to take one and I we used my camera.  I'm glad we have it.  That group photo even went in a newsletter at work. I guess the real photographer should have gotten it.  It's funny they didn't even ask my permission to use it or anything.

Poly was tired from all the commotion and all of her toys and places to go were being taken away so she napped on a chair. She did like to explore all the boxes.

At one point Dave went out to buy more luggage (even though he came home empty handed) and I mowed the lawn.  The mower had to be packed w/o gas in it and our lawn kind of needed to be mowed. I was just going to mow until the mower ran out of gas but I ended up doing the entire lawn. A little gas goes a long way.

Originally the packers said they'd be done early afternoon. Then later they said 5pm.  We had to pick up our rental car by 6.  I made dinner plans with coworkers for 6pm. Well around 4:45 they told us how they would go long and we needed to get the rental car before the place closed.  Dave was not happy about that.  Dinner was right by the rental car place to be convenient for us.  Well the later it got the later I was to MY OWN dinner.  Finally I suggested that I leave and Dave join us after they are done.  I thought of that the entire time but I didn't want to ditch Dave since he had already missed out on lunch.  I had texted everyone saying I'd be late so some knew to get there 20 min late or so. I ended up being over an hour late.  Boy was I mad.  Dave got there over 1.5 hours late.  At least I ordered his food so that was there.  His food actually arrived prior to him.   I was so upset to be late to my dinner.  I felt like even though everyone waited to order they ate and left because they already killed an hour sitting there before I arrived.   It was really nice getting to talk to some people again.  I know I had a going away dinner previously but you can never have enough and some different people came this time.  I did send out the invites via email at the last minute and didn't have everyone's personal email addresses so I didn't even get everyone. Ten people were there total. I was surprised how many people made it out.

After dinner, 4 of us went for frozen yogurt. It was Dave's idea and he said who to ask.  He doesn't like huge groups so I let it go with 4 of us. One of them said they felt special being invited to the after party. Ha. I never thought of it that way.

After we got home, we were exhausted.

Dave got rid of his car so now we just had the rental.  We knew the movers were showing up at 9am.  We knew we'd need to shower in the morning.  We had our bedding and towels but not much else going on.  We didn't have wireless since all that was packed up.  At least we had 3G on our phones.

I don't have any pictures of my first outfit.

My second outfit was for the NVision lunch.

My third outfit was for doing work around the house. 

Oh I guess I had another outfit - my lawn mowing outfit.

Shirt and shorts: F21, Shoes: Famous Footwear

Dress: Dress Barn, Cardigan: Kohl's, Necklace: Sears, Shoes: Famous Footwear

I wore the same dress as in the photo that would be on the powerpoint presentation. I did that on purpose to see if anyone would notice and a few did.

At one point I looked in the mirror. I was confused. Then I realized I forgot what my face looks like with makeup on. 

5.22 - Farewell

Cardigan and Skirt: Express
Shirt: F21
Necklace: Sears
Shoes: Famous Footwear (Connie)

I worked.

I gave a speech at the end of the NA-YGN meeting. Too bad nobody taped it because I'd like to watch it again. I congratulated the organization for winning the regional chapter achievement award then I said farewell.  The claps at the end felt heartfelt and not the standard clapping that someone gave just because the speaker was done talking.  Then people came up to me after to talk about it.   Too bad I wasn't so stressed with work and everything and too bad I didn't get to practice my speech more or the delivery might not have sucked.

(Later in the evening I checked facebook to see this status update)

Before work I took a few pictures of the house to show how muh cleaning/organizing still had to be done.

After work we watched TV. Poly was too cute on Dave.   Dave went up to bed and I watched more TV but then Poly climbed up on me so I stayed up late even later.

Look at my calorie burn. I believe I mowed the lawn in the evening.

Mars Band 5k - 5.19.12

On Saturday, I ran a 5k. I ran the same 5k 2 years ago.  I was really hoping for a personal record at this race and really thought I could do it. I thought I could do it so much that I even told people about it. And if you know me, you know that is big. I usually don't even like to tell people I'm about to run a race.

I wasn't nervous Friday night or Saturday morning. I used to hate how I was so nervous but I was realizing I really missed my nervous-self.

Prior to the race, I had to get the prizes ready for NA-YGN prizes but I still wasn't even stressed at all about that working out right. Paulo was meeting us at our house and then we were carpooling and yet I still didn't stress when they were lost on the way without a GPS.

I met up with people I knew in after I registered and before the race started.  I wanted to warm-up but barely did that.  I figured it would all be OK. I usually don't have that feeling.

I started out with Adrienne.  My friend, Brie, was taking some race photos but I didn't know if she was on the left or the right and I couldn't see her as I ran by so I thought she might have totally missed me (she didn't) yet that didn't stress me out at all.  Brie got pictures of a bunch of NA-YGN runners by taking a ton of pictures and hoping for the best.  Neither of us knew what everyone looked like. Also some of the people we knew what they looked like, we still had trouble recognizing them in their running clothes versus their work clothes.

We were near an 8 minute pace which is about what I was shooting for but I kept thinking I would run out of steam the last mile going up hill so I kept reserving some.  In past races I have had a 7:10 first mile and then a 9 minute 3rd mile and I didn't want that.

I ran the first 2 miles with Adrienne. I talked to her a little. I pointed out my house to her.  After 2 miles I felt like I was struggling and almost told her to go ahead. Right then she told me that I knew the rules and I go ahead if I could run faster. Well she said that and I figured I knew that slow uphill grade so I went slightly ahead of her.  I was picking up my pace going up the hill.  I didn't pick it up enough but I was going and passing people right and left. When you pass people you forget you are still behind what you want to do.  I talked to some guy with about a half mile left after he told me I had a good end of race pace.  His goal was 25 minutes. My goal was 24:30 but I told him I was missing that.  I was running the last quarter mile and just couldn't figure out if I was running as fast as I could. I didn't think so. I wanted someone to push me along. My mind was wandering.   With a hundred or so yards left the announcers said Tom Henry was coming in. He said he'd donate $1 for every runner that beat him during the race. The announcers were talking about it so I got motivated. I really kicked it into high gear (faster than 6 min pace) and passed him with about a second to spare.

I finished with a time of 24:49. I didn't stop my timer until the end of the finishing shoot. I was going too fast and couldn't even stop.  I didn't get a PR but the other course was short according to my Garmin and this was sanctioned so maybe it is kind of like a real PR.  I really want to run another 5k now. I really want a PR.  I felt like for this race I wanted to be awesome but I was still fatigued from the marathon. My calves were also sore at the start. I'm not sure why they were sore. That was something new.

After I finished I was talking to Tyler and Tom Henry came up to me to tell me how I got him at the end.

I didn't place in my age group because of putting in NA-YGN teams and them bumping me out.

Dave ran it too.  After I was done, I talked to a few people and was going to run and meet Jen but she ended up ahead of what I thought so I almost missed her.  Then I talked a little more and then ran to meet up with Dave.  I did the last 2/3 of a mile with him. I ran slightly off course at the end to get to my camera and get pictures of him.  He did better than he thought he would.

After the race I had to wait for the team times to be ready. That took too much time. I would have loved to do my awards prior to the official awards.  I had different prizes ready to go (shown above). I also had certificates ready (examples below).

The official awards started and I was only half listening because I had to analyze all the team awards to find out what teams got what for NA-YGN.

An NA-YGN member won overall for females.  My team won the female team award. Then 6 other individuals won age group awards.  We were well represented.  Actually our male team should have won but one of our runners chips did not register. (I have since emailed the race director and they are updating everything and said they would reissue medals. I don't think the team cared about the medals but I bet they'd like online to be updated since people eye up the times in future years.) NA-YGN did awesome.

Too bad official awards took so long because I didn't do my NA-YGN awards as officially. People had to leave. I tried to move around and give people their awards but I probably only got about half. 

3.25 - Bowling

I started out my morning heading to the South Side to run. We started over 20 minutes late which put me behind schedule.  Also I was only going to run 6 but that changed to 8. I ended up being really behind and Ibrahim and I had to book it to get back to the car and head home.

I got home and didn't even get to look at my data.  I showered and was out the door. 

I wore my skinny jeans.  Since I would be wearing bowling shoes, I just wore flats.  Dave thought I looked like I was in high school with skinny jeans and flats.

It was off to Bowl for Kids' Sake. I got a 101 the first game. Then I got a 122. My fingers were hurting by the 3rd frame of the first game and just got worse.  As my fingers hurt more, I got worse. My last game was pitiful. I got a lot of gutter balls. I did have a split once and got a spare. I Impressed myself.  I ate there because I hadn't eaten at all yet. I ate close to 2pm.

Dave was miserable.  He quit in the middle of the 3rd game.

After bowling we headed to Monroeville for Casual Male XL to find some pants and to use some coupons.  We were fairly quick. Then it was off to Johnny Carino's.  I barely ate anything. I barely finished my bowl of soup.  Boy was I disappointed that I ate just a few hours earlier.   Then we went to Sam's Club with my parents since they have a membership. We got lots of stuff. We spent $196!

After shopping we drove home. My parents also drove up to visit Poly and give her a present.  The present was that bag type thing that secures a cat instead of a cage. They can travel in it in the car. She didn't seem to like it.  She doesn't like a cage either though.  I think she'll like it better than how we normally transport her, but she definitely did not like it while sitting at home.

After my parents left, it was time for another dinner.  I probably watched TV after and blogged. It was a long and busy weekend. It was exhausting.

2.17

The day started with volunteering at the Carnegie Science Center for Engineers Week. We worked the Westinghouse booth and explained some stuff and did an activity.

Then we headed to Haufbrahaus. We met my parents there. It sure was fun.

After we got home we sure were tired from all the extraversion.  Poly also was a little baby and just wanted to be held. She was mad we ditched her most of the day.  She was mad since Tuesday since we were out so late.  She caused me to not go running until almost dark so I didn't have enough time to run as long as I wanted to.  Poly even let me hold her when I walked around and when I sat down. She just wanted my attention. Poor baby. I was sitting on the chair in Dave's room and there was even junk on the chair that I was sitting on.

2.10 - Skate Party

Poly tried to camouflage herself with my bags so I would take her with me.
I got to work early and was one of the last ones there.  I left close to 5:30 to head to our NA-YGN Skate Party

We got some good pictures at the party.

I got some pictures of people skating but most turned out bad.  I don't know how to work my camera well enough when it is dark and people are moving and with people so far away.  I guess I should learn how to work the camera and practice a little more. I guess if I went to Schenley park more than once a year maybe I'd remember what settings I used by the end. 

I left a bit after 11:30.  I got home and should have gone right to bed but I did not.

The pictures of my car are what my car looked like when I got home. It was full of leftover stuff that needs to be given to someone else in charge of other events for NA-YGN.

Then after that, I loaded all my pictures and started making collages. I ended up staying up far too late.   I just got too into trying to finish the collages and lighten some of the pictures. Also Poly had my arm so I only had one arm to work with.

1.20

Dave, Poly, and I hung out in bed until about 8am.  Usually I would be asleep until 8 or later but Dave set his alarm for 7 and so I was up too.

Then I went to shovel. It took a good 20 minutes and there was only about an inch.

Then it was back to bed to hang out with Poly before I started cleaning.

My day was much busier than I thought. Many people were concerned about the weather for our NA-YGN Holiday Party.   I logged into work and spent far too much time discussing the party and options on the pending snow.  Then I had to meet my parents for lunch.  We left late.  We also made wrong turns like we always do. Haufbrahaus was good.

Then we went to a movie. War Horse was longer than we expected when signing up so I actually didn't get out of there until 5:10.  The holiday party started at 5. Oh boy. The stress.

I got to Dave & Busters at 5:15 and tried to set some things up.  I tried to socialize but I was being being in charge too so that is always stressful. Dave wants me to be with him but I have to do being in charge things.

Even after dinner, he wanted to play games with me but I had to handle some of the additional games we were playing for NA-YGN and then distribute the prizes.

Finally after all that was done, we got to play some fun games. At least everyone else seemed to have fun throughout the night.

We left around 9:40 after cashing in our tickets and having 1957 but wanting to buy nothing. We bought some candy and saved the rest.   It wasn't snowing at all when we left but minutes later started and was snowing the entire way home. We took 79 to 228 instead of taking back roads but thens someone on 228 was going so slow it was annoying. I'd have to brake going up hill which made me think we'd get suck.  After cars between us turned, I learned the culprit had a Florida license plate.

I got out of the car at the road to go up and get my boots and shovel. I was walking up and it seemed good so I thought no big deal and then boom it got bad and I was sliding. So I tried to make it over to the grass to make it up. That was really hard. I failed and ended up fully on my stomach with my hands up near my head kind of blocking my face from hitting the driveway.

We got home and Poly sure missed us. We fed her but she didn't even care. She just wanted to hang out with us.  We went to bed and were using our laptops reading reddit and heard her crying. She had gone downstairs to get some food or something and forgot we were home and cried out of loneliness. Dave called her and said we were here and she never ran up the steps so fast. Poor Poly. Poor Poly forgetting we were home but also Poor her because she probably does this when we aren't home.

We used the computers for a little bit then went to sleep.  It was a tiring day.

I FORGOT TO TAKE MY DAILY PICTURE! But this is what I wore.

6.6 - NA-YGN, Ikea, Carinos

Dress: Old Navy
Cardigan: NY&Co.
Shoes: Connie from Famous Footwear
Necklace: Lia Sophia
Earrings: Target
Belt: Kohls

Similar to a recent outfit.I just swapped out the cardigan.  I was going to do different jewelry but figured why mess with something I liked and also I didn't have a lot of time to think.  I am a lot more comfortable belting over things with a dress than I am with skirts or pants.  But a year ago I wasn't even comfortable belting a dress.  It is a work in progress.

This dress is getting more use recently than it did the first 10 years I owned it.  I also like having something with a higher neckline. Nowadays it seems so hard for me to find something that fits and isn't too revealing.

Poly was sleeping with me in the morning.

At work we had one of our NA-YGN meetings. I finally got up the nerve to take a few pictures to show what some meetings are like. We usually don't have the round tables.  These pictures don't show how there was a row of chairs around the walls of the room that were all in use. We had about 80 people there.  Chad came up to present. I see him rarely. Well the last time I saw him I was wearing the similar outfit I noted above. Sigh. I should start paying attention to who I will see so they get to see a variety of my outfits.

We provided food at the meeting but the cafeteria was late in delivering. They were late by 45 minutes. Then I noticed about 3/4 of the way through the line that they were out of napkins.  I am proud of myself for getting up and walking all the way to the cafeteria to get more napkins. I could have just sat there. Then when I finally returned, nobody was in line anymore. I knew there were lots of people without napkins. I walked around and passed out stacks to the tables that were in line near the end. I felt like I was sort of disrupting the presentation, but that it was worth it for napkins. The pizza was extremely greasy.  I did my good deed for the day.  I learned while I went to get napkins they also ran out of plates or almost ran out.  The cafeteria didn't do anything right I guess.

After work we headed to Ikea to buy a corner bookshelf and the connection pieces. We also found a nice reading chair.

After Ikea, we went to Carino's.  It was half off family platters so we decided to get one. I settled with regular spaghetti even though I like angel hair better.  We had a lot leftover too.  I got Italian Chili but only ate one bowl.  I didn't feel full. I didn't have pants pushing on my gut though. Then when I tried to get up to leave boy did I feel full. Then on the way home, every bump made me want to throw up.  So I guess dresses have pros and cons. I can eat to my hearts content but then I eat far too much.   Then on our way home we stopped for frozen yogurt. I barely got any but I shouldn't have gotten any at all. Oh boy was I full.

Three hours later, we had the new shelf assembled and didn't even have them lined up properly. It was extremely hard to get everything at the right angle and in the right place. I wish they had dimensions for how far away the larger bookshelves should be from the corner. Then it would have been so much easier.  I didn't bring my work laptop home knowing I'd be a little busy but then I didn't realize I wouldn't even have time for TV and that we wouldn't even get the bookshelves totally up.

4.28 TYKTWD

 This was try 1.  Then I looked at a few pics and even though I was running late, I ran upstairs to grab a belt.

It was far too bright at 7:30 AM for outfit pictures in my standard location.

Skirt: Express 2009 (or so)
Shirt: Express (2009)
Jacket: NY&Co (2008 or earlier)
Shoes: Famous Footwear
Belt: Kohl's
Earrings and Necklace: Target (2009)

It was so windy. I don't even know how I ended up with so many decent pictures.

I needed to wear blue for Take your Kid to Work Day.

I like it better with the belt because without I looked too straight under the jacket. Do you like it with or without the belt? Someone commented to me today that they noticed I've been wearing a lot of belts. And then gave me a compliment about it. :)  I wore the blazer again since I got so many compliments on it the last time.

Today was so busy.

The morning was Take Your Kid To Work Day activities.  We had a new maximum and we had to keep 7-12th graders occupied for 3 hours. I really think the kids enjoyed it. Some years they get bored by the activities, but not this year. One of the volunteers told me how she read my blog and then commented that I really do take a picture of myself everyday. She wanted to know why. Then she questioned my reasoning for my weight graph too. We were discussing my weight graph while I was eating a doughnut.  Since there was a photographer at TYKTWD, I figured I might as well spend the less than 5 minutes to curl my hair. I always like it curled but am lazy.  But then I don't think I made it in a single picture in the 3 hours of TYKTWD. Or if I did, I didn't know, so it is probably awful with me making a weird face or talking.

My shoes were not made for standing and walking. I barely made it back to building 4 after it was all over. These shoes are definitely made for the trash. They used to be good but I have worn them a lot over the past year.

Then it was lunch with Jason.  We went to Olive Garden. The service was so incredibly slow.  I couldn't believe it.  It makes me never want to go back again. Poor Jason sat there without soup or salad for many minutes and then his second soup was even the wrong kind. He didn't bother complaining. He thought there was no point.

Then it was back to work and almost immediately to a meeting.
After the meeting my computer wouldn't work right and I had to reboot. That took a long time. It wasn't that bad because I read an RCA while it was working.

After work it was off to Jersey Mikes for dinner. Then we went to Costco. We bought far too much.

Our grass needs to be cut but instead of doing that, I watched The Voice.

Then Dave and I lifted weights. We did upper body. I got 1 set in of a ton of different things which makes me happy. One muscle was still sore from weights at the gym 2 days ago so I didn't do those hardcore. I did a few things 2 or 3 times.  There was very little rest involved. Dave did better than last time. He got more in.

My muscle shots aren't as good as they look IRL :(