I Rock!

So for the month of March I worked out (with Maya in Yourself!Fitness) or walked 27 times this month!
I dedicated to workout 4 times a week and walk at least twice a week for the whole month of March and I did it.
There were days I really didn't want to workout. But I remembered my committment. With the Yourself!Fitness if I don't feel like doing a more cardio-induced workout I go to the meditation garden and do a 15- to 20-minute yoga workout with Maya.
And the "Walking Club" at Onyx has proved to be a motivator. There are two of us who walk regulary (twice a week) and we get others once in awhile. But we have had a third join us and stay dedicated.
We were gonna do a bonus walk today, but it was raining. Booo! See post below.
Oh, and I have shed some pounds. Woo-hoo! Go me!!!!

Rain, rain go away ...

I think I have posted with this same headline before. But seriously, enough with the rain already. I think this March is the wettest on record since the Gold Rush or something crazy like that.
And it is supposed to keep raining until next mid-week.
I have been told this is an unusual winter--raining this much still. And last year was an unusual summer--colder than normal. Will I ever know what normal weather is like around here?
Click here to read about the rain and mudslides.
And just think Phoenix finally got some rain a few weeks ago after like 140-some days without it. Crazy!

I know I am in San Francisco

"You and your wife will be happy in your life together" was my fortune from my cookie last night. I met Curt and a former co-worker of his, Kong, and Kong's son Nagen for dinner last night. Kong also invited a friend he has known since kindergarten from San Jose. The longest friendship I have is 13 years old. That's nothing!
We had dinner in Chinatown. We ate at a really good restaurant. It was at the bottom of a steep San Francisco hill. So we had a great view of the cable cars going up and down. Nagen, who is 6, thought it was pretty cool.
Nagen was hilarious. He loved to talk and talk and talk. He was shy at first. But once he and I started chatting (or should I say I was listening and saying uh-huh once in awhile) he was like the Energizer Bunny.
Eventually at dinner he was quiet. He was starting to get tired. It was passed his bedtime.

The Latest ...

• Friday night my neighbor (Jennifer) and I hung out with some of her co-workers for dinner, knitting and bitching. We drove out to Alamo, which was a tad bit of a hike. It was pouring rain. But Jennifer is a great driver and got us there and home safely. It was a nice evening. And I got a little bit of knitting done. One woman has been knitting since she was 8. Man! She was starting a sweater. Sigh, some day ...
• Saturday I did the boring laundry. After I came home Curt and I kinda hung out and then we went shopping. My boss had given me a gift card for Christmas to an outdoorsy store called Royal Robbins. So Curt and I went there. I got a sweater and a shirt. Afterward we headed to a store called Title Nine. I had gotten a catalog from them in the mail and liked a black dress they had. So I decided to check them out. The store has nice comfy, good-looking clothes. But they are rather pricey. If only I was rich ... sigh ... But I did get the dress. It will be great to wear in Europe. You can dress it down or up. And it will be fine stuffed in a suitcase.
  After all that shopping we were hungry so we headed to the Pyramid Ale House, which was nearby. We had a good lunch, which included yummy garlic fries. And we both had the Crystal Hefe. (Ed, you are gonna love this place!) We watched a little basketball there. And then headed home.
  Once home, more basketball, then a nap for me. We watched "Wedding Crashers" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" Saturday night. Crashers was pretty funny. But there were a few weird things. There was one part Curt played over and over again. He thought it was hilarious when they go to an Irish wedding and they both give their Irish names and then Owen Wilson's character says, "I'm ready to get drunk." Good Night was good, but kinda boring, too. But it was definitely interesting.
• Sunday we walked to downtown Berkeley to hit some bookstores for maps for our Europe trip this summer. I finally bought some liberal bumper stickers from the guy who sells them near the bookstore we frequent. I got three: "If you can't trust me with a choice how can you trust me with a child"; "If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament"; and "He's not my president!" We walked back home and had lunch. Then another nap for me--my allergies have been wiping me out lately and naps on weekends and early bedtimes all week are the norm right now. When I woke up I had a headache that lasted most of the day and evening. I was supposed to do some more spring cleaning and didn't. Oh well, there is always next weekend.
  Happy Monday!

Kids are a hoot!

I got this in an e-mail and thought I would share:

JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister. After a while he asked: "Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?"

MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was.> Granny replied she was so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, "If you don't remember, you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six."

STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. "I love you so much, that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window."

BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a painkiller. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a childproof cap and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: "How does it know it's me?

SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. "Please don't give me this juice again," she said, "It makes my teeth cough."

D I (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: "How much do I cost?"

MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: "Why is he whispering in her mouth?"

CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried. When his Mom asked what was troubling him, he replied, "I don't know what'll happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in?"

JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: "The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt." Concerned, James asked: "What happened to the flea?"

TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, "Why doesn't your skin fit your face?"

The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget ... this particular Sunday sermon ..."Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. "Without you, we are but dust." He would have continued but at that moment a very obedient daughter (who was listening!) Leaned over to her mom and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, "Mom, what is butt dust?"

Happy Birthday Curt!

OK, well, I tried to post a pic of Curt but I keep getting an error messge. You all know what he looks like anyway. We had dinner last night with our friend Alex and downstairs neighbors Jim and Jennifer. We had Triple Rock and then headed to a place called Beckett's for dessert and beer for the men. We went back to our place and Curt got an Itunes gift card from Jim and Jennifer. And I let him open one of his gifts. I gave him Squintz. These are sugar-free candies that he really likes. This morning he was e-mailed a U.S. Soccer gift card so he can get a jersey to wear to the World Cup. And I can't tell you the other gifts cuz he hasn't opened them yet.

GOOD THINGS

• The dumb Chickenhawks (University of Kansas) lost in the first round of the tournament to Bradley. Bwaaaahaaahaa! Woo-hoo! And then Bradely went on to beat Pitt in the second round. Go Bradley!
• My beloved Cats won the first round. But they couldn't get to that Sweet 16. (So that isn't a good thing--but at least they didn't lose in the first round. I figured they wouldn't go far. But I was willing to be wrong. I know it would be a first. HA!)
• Curt and I went to REI on Saturday. We found all their dehydrated camping food. Some of the stuff seemed pretty fancy. There was some pesto Salmon thing--but it was like 15 bucks and I wasn't gonna pay that much for something that was probably gonna taste gross. So we got Thai Shrimp and Kung Poa Chicken. We had the Thai Shrimp and it was actually not too bad. We haven't had the chicken yet.
• My friend Alex came over to the East Bay. (She lives in San Francisco.) We went to my fave little day spa. She got a French pedi and I got a regular pedi and manicure. Afterward we had lunch at the Drunken Boat. Then we walked around Telegraph. Did some shopping in the stores and with the vendors all along the street. Lots of jewelry and T-shirts and stuff. I always like to stop and look at the liberal bumper stickers. I still haven't bought any. After shopping and perusing was done we headed back to mine and Curt's place and got the gang together and out to dinner we went.

*********UPDATE**********

Erica commented asking why were we eating dehydrated food. I guess I forgot to mention that we saw the food and just decided to try it. This isn't a regular diet or anything. They had such fancy sounding stuff we wanted to see if it was any good. And it wasn't bad.

March Madness

Woo-hoo! One of the best times of the year. Arizona is ranked an 8 seed. How far will they go? Unfortunately I believe they won't go too far. Curt has them losing in the first round in his bracket.

Liberal is not a dirty word ... and George knows it

I am talking about a different George. Much smarter and good looking:
Read this blog posting by George Clooney.

Brrrr

Curt and I went grocery shopping last night. One of my least favorite tasks. But it isn't as bad when you have company. Though the shelves were cleaned out. It seemed the things we wanted (that were on sale) were missing. There were holes on the shelves.
Anyway, we got our shopping done pretty quick and headed to the checkout. At the end of the ring up the guy asked if we wanted two free passes to the new "Ice Age" movie. (The first one was hilarious. If you haven't seen it, rent it.) He had to write us a rain check because the passes aren't in yet. (So we should get them on the next shopping trip.) Then I asked him why we were getting the free passes. If you buy 10 frozen food items you get the passes. HA! Good thing we like frozen food.
(This was at Safeway by the way.)

Lazy weekend

Didn't do a whole lot over the weekend.
Saturday we headed to the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley for dinner. Had a delicious dinner at a Thai restaurant. The food was very good and resonably priced. But the restaurant was really cold. They had little space heaters. But in the room we were in they had one space heater and it just wasn't doing any good where we were sitting.
We got home from dinner and I decided to take a nap so I would be up for "Saturday Night Live." (I have been taking naps on the weekends [usually during the day] because my allergies have just been wiping me out.) So I took a nap at 8:30 p.m. Woke up at 9:30 to some guy yelling and banging on doors. He was trying to find the apartment that ordered take-out food. Back to sleep. I woke up for Matt Dillon's monologue and then in and out till the last half hour of the show. I watched the last half hour--which kinda sucked. Sunday morning I watched the parts I missed the night before.
Sunday it poured so Curt and I stayed in. Rick Steves was having a marathon on PBS. So we watched that and got some good traveling tips.
There were some things I was supposed to get done around the house and I kinda slacked in that department. Oh well, nothing earth shattering.

And Tennesse makes three

Tenn. Senate Backs Anti-Abortion Step

This story doesn't mention how far they would ban abortion--whether victims of rape or incest will also be banned. Either way it sucks!
Apparently these governments don't realize that by banning abortion they are risking more lives. I guarantee back-alley abortions will increase. These governments don't care about women!
I really wonder how abortion would be viewed if men could get pregnant?

A year and a day

Yesterday was the one year mark for me moving to the Bay Area. I came up with my mom, Fred (my stepdad) and Joey (my cat).
Joey has become quite the little traveler in his 12 short years. He has lived in Arizona, Oregon, Arizona again and now California.
We arrived on a Tuesday in the early evening. We met Curt at his and my new apartment. Dropped off the cat and my clothes and headed to dinner.
We didn't get our furniture until the following Monday. So all we had in our apartment was our air mattress, some clothes, the cat and our computer.
I believe it was the second night that I was in town Curt and I decided to rent a movie--which we could watch on Curt's laptop. We went to to local video store, Video Maniacs. We found a movie we wanted and I started to walk toward the counter. I noticed a tall man walking out with a hat and a scarf around his mouth and nose. Me being naive I thought, "I wonder why he is so bundled up? It isn't even that cold outside." Then Curt called me back to him and told me that that guy had just held the place up. I had no idea and almost walked into him. Right after the "Beanie Bandit" left the clerk called the police. So we had to wait around for Curt to give a statement. We read the next week in a police brief in the "Berkeley Daily Planet" that the "Beanie Bandit" had been armed. Lovely, huh? And I almost walked into him. (The "Daily Planet" referred to him as the Beanie Bandit by the way.)
We ended up leaving without renting a movie. But we did go back. But we have now given our business to Netflix, but not because of the Beanie Bandit.

Seriously???

OK, I am not an award show fan. But I did watch part of the Academy Awards last night. Curt and I just watched "Crash" over the weekend. Now, I thought it was good and brought up some major issues. But I didn't think it was the best movie of the year. Now, I do have to say I have not seen any of the other contenders--so maybe out of the batch it was the best. I don't know. But they are all in my Netflix Queue and when I do see them I will let you know how I feel.
But I think award shows are dumb. They are a waste of money and there is always an actor or movie that gets jipped.

***

A major movie contender for next year is "Curious George." Yes, I finally saw it over the weekend. (There is a whole saga why I didn't see it till now--but I won't go into it.) I knew the movie would be cute. But it was really great and funny, too. I knew that it wouldn't be the usual kid movie and have inside jokes for adults. But it was still really funny. And I actually loved that it was 2-D and felt like the books.
I went with Jennifer from work and Neighbor Jennifer. We had lunch together and then headed to the movie. It was a very nice girl outing.
Before seeing the George movie I hadn't been to the theater in almost a year. Can you believe that? Movies here are really expensive. So Curt and I don't go. We just get movies with Netflix. It is way cheaper. And once a movie comes out that I want to see I just save it and when it is released it is added to my queue.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Last night a little after 10 p.m. we had an earthquake. Apparently there were 2 others earlier in the day but I didn't feel them while at work. The one Curt and I felt was a 2.9. But it was the biggest one I have felt since living here. Our building really shook. But that was the extent. (You kinda hear a boom and then the building shakes. It felt like someone ran into our building in their truck. We live in a small building with 4 apartments.) Before that I was fairly sleepy and was ready for bed. After that I stayed up and watched "Sex and the City" on TBS.
There is a cool map where you can see all the earthquakes that have happened in the area in the last hour, day and week. About a minute after we felt the minor temblor it was on the map and soon after the magnitude.

Here we go again ...

Mississipi House Advances Bill to Ban Abortion

Same thing as South Dakota--Abortion only to save a woman's life. This law would make no exception for rape or incest.

What is going on with this country???? We are so going in the wrong direction!!!!
I am so angry right now I can hardly type.