Sisterly Duties

Julie decided to stay an extra day in Boston to make sure that stuff at the Patriots museum was running smoothly. I picked her up at Dulles and went back to my parents' house to catch up. CT showed up unexpectedly at 11 PM to get skewers for his BBQ tomorrow.

Meanwhile, RJ had a nice nap on the couch.

New-ish Pants!

I haven't been able to wear these red/coral pants in I don't know how long. 3-4 years maybe? Well, today they fit. And not like "rearrange my vital organs" fit, but legit fit. Very exciting! :)

I didn't feel like doing anything after work today, but I sucked it up and made it to spin class and of course, was thankful that I did afterwards.

Crappy Work from the Consultant and Back Day

Ok, back to the office grind. The good thing from today was that there was agreement on a date for an August meeting in ATL with CDC, so I was able to book my hotel room and flight for the trip. The annoying thing from today was reviewing the online course that the consultant company gave for us to review. A lot of the mistakes that I caught would have been avoided if they had just gone through the course before sending it to us. It just made their work sloppy, and when I gave my boss a progress report, I let her know that I was not pleased with this product, even though it was in draft form. We will probably not give them repeat business! One of the things that my boss asked them to do was to use "laboratory" instead of "lab" and I found many instances of "lab" in my review, so that's not cool.

I was definitely ready to go to the gym after work. The difference between the before and after pics is kinda funny. Polished and then...not so much, heh. I got through about half of Day 15's workout (back) before the crowd. I decided to leave the rest of the workout for tomorrow and left the gym to eat dinner and feed RJ, gas up my car and feed Harry. On the way home from my parents' house, I had the nagging feeling that I usually associate with unfinished business. I marched myself back to the gym and fortunately by now, the crowd had lessen. I had 3 exercises left so it didn't take me long to finish. And now I can go to bed with a sense of accomplishment. Yay!

4:00 PM

5:30 PM

8:45 PM

Day Off

Since I'm all caught up with work, I decided to take the day off. Except I noticed an invoice from a consultant came in and I felt like I needed to address it since invoices are due COB on Tuesdays. I thought they should have invoices us double the amount but they said that they'd send the second invoice later on this week. Ugh. Whyyy? Just tack it onto this one! Then because I don't have the right Adobe Acrobat software, I couldn't piece together the PDF and had to send my boss 3 different files for her to deal with. Blah.

I packed up some stuff for the gym and went to meet up with my former co-worker Morgan for lunch (Thai). Then I went to the gym for Day 14's workout (shoulders), home for a nap and snack and then back out for spin class. Julie asked me to feed Harry after class so yep, there he was, waiting for dinner. He could easily kill something for dinner, why eat kibble? :P

Cousin BBQ

While the "adults" are away on their cruise, the kids table decided to have a BBQ of our own. This helps with New Year's Resolutions goal #11 of having more cousin only events.

Julie, Emily and I went over to hang out with CT, Jessie and CT's girlfriend Michelle and had quite the feast. Hot dogs (yes, we're fancy), salad, corn and lots of ice cream and flan. I brought potato salad, but we forgot that it was in the fridge. Oops. We had more than enough food anyway.

So much dessert...

One other thing that happened today was that when I went to my parents' house to get Julie, she called out from her bedroom that she'll be a few minutes. It wasn't a "I need to put on some socks" delay, but more of a "This is really important" delay. It turns out that her work was going to send her to Boston for a project tomorrow. Good thing it wasn't a one way ticket. I'll be picking her up at the airport on Thursday.

Heat Day and Broken Earbuds

I wasn't sure how sore I was going to be this morning from yesterday's work out, so I was pleasantly surprised that the soreness was manageable. I pried myself out of bed and marched myself to spin class. Then I also went to Costco and Target for some groceries. I still had energy left over so after a snack and some vegging, I went back out to do Crush60 Day 13's workout...lots of HIIT. My new earbuds stopped working again so I'm going to return them to Groupon and get a refund. I think I'll go over to Best Buy tomorrow after work to see what options they have there.

An Unwelcomed Blast From the Past and Leg Day

Dear Unwelcomed Blast from the Past,

I would be dumber than a box of rocks if I accepted the Facebook friend request that you sent me last night. I haven't responded to any of your attempts to contact me over the years with good reason. I don't understand why you thought this time would be different. Was the silence not loud enough? Your request was promptly deleted, as I have no interest in dealing with people who have taken my kindness for granted.

buh-BYE.

Sincerely,
Me.

Geeze, some people just can't take a hint. (eye roll)

P.S. I had a pretty awesome leg day (well, we'll see how awesome I'm feeling tomorrow morning...). Day 12 of Crush60, done. I had a minor panic moment when my Bluetooth earbuds stopped working. Oh, heh, that's because they ran out of power and needed to be charged.

I also watched Kingsman: The Secret Service via Redbox. It was pretty cool! It had shades of Harry Potter. Underdog kid goes through training and eventually kicks some serious butt.

Volunteer Activity #4 of 2015

Julie was supposed to have another person with her at the Random Acts table at the Supernatural Convention in DC today, but for some reason there was some misunderstanding and that person couldn't show up until this afternoon. She asked me if I could pitch in to help, and I said sure. Well, especially when we agreed that my payment would a Five Guys burger. I should just wear a shirt that says "Will work for food." It wasn't a hard task anyway since we'd done this in Vancouver last year.

Random Acts was partnering with So Others Might Eat and collecting food and monetary donations. The picture that I took at around 5 PM wasn't all the donations.  There's stuff under the table and a SOME staff person took like 10 bags of donations around 3 PM. The convention attendees were very generous people. It'll be interesting to see how much more stuff they get tomorrow and Sunday. Julie will have help this weekend, so my sisterly obligations are complete.

Arm Day, Done

Kara, who sits on the other side of the aisle from me at work, said some funny things today:

• I wore the yellow heels that I purchased a few weeks ago to work today. Kara made an observation, "Your shoes are the color of banana cream pie."
• The nurse at the doctor's office said that my blood work came back saying that my vitamin D levels were low and that I needed to take a supplement. Kara went with me to CVS to pick up a bottle. On the way there, she told me that her mom got her a Fitbit for her birthday. "It took me only a day to be one of those people that constantly checks how many steps they have." Yep, welcome to the club. When we got back to the office, we became Fitbit friends on the app. I'm hoping she'll keep me on my toes because since Surili's become pregnant, she's kinda slowed down (understandably, of course!).

I was determined to finish yesterday's prescribed workout and I did, so now I can say that Day 11 of Crush60 (arms) is done. Whew. I went home to eat a snack and feed RJ and then I went to the other gym to go to spin class. Afterwards, I went to the grocery store next door, and I noticed that if you bought a bottle of coconut water, you could get a container of yogurt for free. Another spin instructor raves about coconut water so I thought it'd be worth a try. Meh, it's alright, maybe less than alright. Maybe it's an acquired taste? This evening involved sitting on my butt in front of the tv, watching Kimmy Schmidt and eating Indian food that I made...chicken, tomatoes, peas, and chick peas. Yum!

Oh, fun thing from today. There's a new dog in the neighborhood: Buster the French Bulldog puppy. He is so cute! I was walking on the sidewalk to my townhome and he sees me and comes bounding towards me to say hello. I gave him a few butt scratches and he wiggled with delight.

Arm Day, Kinda

I got through about 80% of the prescribed Day 11 (Arms), and then the crowd started exceeding my comfort level so I decided to leave.  Ugh. That's the first time I haven't been able to complete a workout. I didn't think that waiting around for machines was going to be a productive use of my time anyway. Plus, RJ was probably freaking out at home, wondering why dinner was being served so late.

I went home to put on a dry shirt and then headed to my uncle's house to say goodbye since they are leaving for vacation tomorrow with my parents. I also wanted to see if I left my sunglasses there since I seem to be missing the second pair that I leave in the car (they weren't there...so I guess this will give me an excuse to buy a new pair?  Ha ha). I also stopped by my parents' house to say bye to them too.

My plan is to do the rest of the workout tomorrow before spin class (which I haven't been to in a week, and I'm feeling really guilty about that too...). BLAH!

Rest Day and Snail Mail

I think all the walking around that I did in NYC this past weekend and Monday's back day has finally caught up with me. I woke up this morning with everything hurting. I didn't even attempt to pack my gym bag for a post-work workout. I briefly thought about going to spin class after a nap, but I went home and promptly plopped myself on the couch.

The evening wasn't a complete waste though. The nap really helped to energize me. I did make some oatmeal for this week's breakfast and some vegetables for this week's lunch. I also wrote some snail mail to my friend Page and her mom because they are going through a tough time these days.

Arm day tomorrow. Let's do this!

I don't usually watch America's Got Talent, but it was on when I was waiting for water to boil. There was an almost blind dancer, Benjamin Yonattan, who had a pretty amazing performance. It must be the time of the month hormones, but I got kinda teary eyed listening to his story and watching him wow the crowd and judges. The song that he danced to, "Tell Your Hear to Beat Again," was beautiful too.

New York, Day 3

Suzie and I got breakfast at a nearby diner and then it was time to head to Penn Station. It was so nice of her to take me there for my peace of mind. We said our goodbyes and she went to go swimming and I went to sit down in the waiting area. I slept most of the train ride home and when I got my car, I went to get RJ. Julie offered to buy me some Five Guys burgers for dinner since I'll be helping her at a volunteer event this upcoming Friday.

New York City, Day 2

I got the New York bagel experience this morning for breakfast. The bagel place gave me far more cream cheese than necessary for one person. I could have probably used the cream cheese that I scraped off for another bagel! (I got a cinnamon raisin one with strawberry cream cheese).

Then it was off to Central Park. Suzie had work this morning, which actually worked out fine because I could do my own thing for a few hours and she didn't have to lose out on income by taking the day off. She ended up having 4 students to tutor anyway, so she kept busy while I was being touristy.

She walked with me in the direction of the zoo, but we separated around 9:30 AM. She drew me a map of NYC that she thought I would be interested and it really did come in handy. One of the attractions on the map was Lee's Art Shop. I got to the Central Park Zoo entrance around 9:45 AM, and since it wasn't opened yet, I decided to keep walking to the Art Shop. I got there right as they were opening and it was amazing. There were so many crafty things to buy and play with on the first floor and the second floor was dedicated to light fixtures and office furniture. I ended up buying some new markers (the sale sign was definitely a selling point). Notice all the testing I did on the pad of paper. HELLO! :)

I made my purchase and then backtracked to the Central Park Zoo and stayed there until about noon. There was a sea lion feeding at 11:30 AM and you could tell the sea lions were so excited to see their trainers carrying food to their enclosure. YAY, lunch time!! The Zoo was a little small so it wasn't like I could spend all day there, so I headed towards the American Museum of Natural History. As I got closer, I could see there was a line forming out the door...and around the corner.  Ugh, no thanks. I went around the block and saw there was a planetarium. I saw a sign for the featured exhibits for the Natural History Museum because, who knows, maybe something would be worth seeing for the waiting and admission ticket. One of the exhibits listed was focused on spiders. Live animals! Larger-than-life models!  I promptly made a U-turn and walked out. No, thanks! Gross. I walked to a Starbucks to get something to drink and charge my phone a little.

Before I knew it, it was time to meet up with Suzie since her shift ended. We decided on getting lunch at Tiramisu. We had stuffed mushrooms, salad, meatballs, tiramisu and some cream puffs filled with ice cream. Yum!

We walked around NYC for a little bit, but around 5 PM, my feet had had enough.  We headed back to Suzie's place and ate leftover Indian food and chatted until it was time to put on an episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and then go to bed. With all the walking I did today, I got a new Fitbit step record, 27K+!

New York City, Day 1

Hooray, time to head to NYC to see my friend Suzie! I took the train in the morning and by the time I got to Penn Station, it was around lunch time. Wow, I thought I was accustomed to city life, but NYC is not joke. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the crowd and all the subway options. After some texting, I found Suzie and we headed to her apartment to drop my stuff off. Then we headed to a Japanese restaurant for lunch (Hibino). She got some sushi rolls and I went with the fried pork dumplings. Yum!

After lunch, it was time to head to the Bronx Zoo. It took a little while to get there, so by the time we got to the Zoo gates, we only had about 2 hours to walk around (not enough time to see everything). We rode the monorail (Suzie whispered to me, "This feels very Jurassic Park."). We also went to see the birds of prey because there was a snowy owl there.

For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant in her neighborhood and came back to her apartment to watch The Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt on Netflix, which I hadn't seen before, but will make a point to watch when I get home.

Performance Day and Pizza

I finished checking the rest of the survey data! And the best part was that out of 80+ questions, only 2 questions that I checked didn't match the survey guy's answers. I was able to talk to him about it and now my results match his. Now, we wait for the survey director to confirm everything and we can get these reports out to the respondents.

Hilary's last day was today and for her goodbye cake, her boss got an ice cream cake. So yummy. I, of course, had a piece, and then promptly went to the gym for Day 9 of Crush60: Performance to try to even things out. There was a guy there that had several plates on the machine row. I seriously thought he was going to hurt himself.

I took RJ to my parents' house since I'm heading to NYC on Friday for the weekend. I ran into my cousin who was walking back from the Metro and he said that he was going to get some pizza from Costco and if I wanted some.  Um, yes! RJ thought it was for him.

Sick Day and New Stereo

I decided to take a sick day today to get a physical (long overdue) and have the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted. The doctor's office said that I had to fast for the blood work. Well, the lab didn't take my blood until around noon, so I was starving by then! A funny thing that happened at the doctor: she hit my knees to check for reflexes and my knees went up so suddenly that my flip flops came off.

My 3 PM conference call got cancelled, so I was able to make it to the gym before the afternoon rush. One of the things that I like about the gym near work is the big windows, so I can people watch during some of the workouts. When I was walking on the treadmill, I saw this little girl on the back of her dad's bike and she was waving to the traffic like she was Princess Diana or something. When I was stretching at the end of the workout, there was some sort of medical emergency or something. I didn't see what happened, but there were at least 3 police cars and 2 ambulances. The paramedics helped an older gentleman out of one of the cars and onto a stretcher. Hope he's okay!

I finished most of the Day 8: Chest workout during this session, except for the dips because the dip machine was broken. I did, however, manage to do that part of the workout at the other gym before spin class. Whee!

My new Bluetooth speaker that I bought on Groupon came in the mail yesterday. I was getting tired of blasting Taylor Swift from my phone and carrying my phone everywhere in the house in my back pocket. I was expecting it to be bigger, but the sound quality is pretty good (and it came in red!).

Survey Checking and FitnessBlender

There were some happy people at the office today. It must be the sugar rush they experienced from the banana pudding I brought in. What a nice start to the week, right?

My goal was to check someone's work on some survey scores. There are 11 sections in the survey and I got through 6 sections. I'm moving along ahead of schedule because only sections 1, 2 and 3 are due on Thursday.

Even though yesterday was Leg Day, it's more my bum that's sore from the workout. I skipped out on the gym after work, but I told myself that I couldn't watch Real Housewives of Orange County until I cranked out a FitnessBlender workout: Total Body Strength Training with Dumbbells - Challenging Dynamic Superset Workout. Hey, whatever motivates you, right? I probably should have chosen a different workout since this one has a lot of squats, but once I started, I felt like I couldn't turn back.

Jello Flan, Indian Food and Leg Day

Whoa. Is that progress I see? Maybe it's the lighting, but I'd like to think that it's progress.

I went to a 45-min spin class this morning, did some grocery shopping (I told Hilary that I'd make banana pudding before her last day), went home to eat a snack, make the banana pudding/try the Jello flan dessert I found at Harris Teeter yesterday while waiting for our Founding Farmers table, and charge my phone...and also fell asleep, oops. Even though the box says that it doesn't contain eggs, it does surprisingly taste like flan. How did they do that? Should I be creeped out?

I had to push myself to get back to the gym to do Day 7 of Crush 60: Legs. I've read that people griping about Leg Day so I was a little apprehensive, but I pushed through it. I told myself that I just needed to get dressed for the gym.  Then ok, just get to the gym.  Then ok, I'm at the gym, I might as well do the workout. Oh man. My quads are crying. I'm surprised that I made it up the stairs to my car afterwards. I suppose I could have taken the elevator, but I needed the steps. Walking around tomorrow should be interesting. But I did it! BAM!

The other thing that I tried today from yesterday's trip to Harris Teeter was this Indian dish, or rather this packet of seasoning. I made my potatoes a little soft and I added some cherry tomatoes that were in my refrigerator, so it doesn't look like the picture on the front, but it's still delicious. It made a lot, so I have lunch figured out for this week.
Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening catching up on Arrow and X-Men San Diego Comic Con panels...because a) my legs won't work and b) because it's cool to see all the actors interact with the fans.

CrossFit Class and Founding Farmers

I went with my sister to a CrossFit class this morning. After taking the free trial class 2 weeks ago, I bought a set of 10 classes. I can't commit to buying a membership since I already belong to another gym, but at least this way, I can go to classes with her on Saturdays. My ungraceful moment was not catching a wall ball in time and it hit me square in the face. Fortunately, the ball is a little squishy so it wasn't too bad. There was no time to think about it because it was during the 10-minute partner workout. The longer I took, the longer Julie had to do burpees behind me. I also did a new exercise, which was using resistance bands for pull ups. I recognized one of the gentlemen there from spin class, so I went over there to confirm my suspicions. Everyone was so friendly and I appreciate the encouraging atmosphere. Having a smaller class size allows the coaches to correct form, offer tips and overall cheer everyone on.

We went back to the house and got cleaned up so that we could go to Founding Farmers for brunch with Mom and Dad. Julie's work gave her a generous gift certificate to the restaurant to thank her for the work she did on the American Enterprise project. Dad got 3 different types of rolls (chicken salad, crab and lobster); Mom got the stuffed blueberry French toast; I got an egg scramble with sausage, mushroom and spinach and a bellini; and Julie got eggs, sausage, hash browns and a biscuit. So good. I was able to take some leftovers home for dinner.

Waiting for our table...so hungry!

Mmm, brunch!

Rest Day

Today didn't really go as planned, but that's okay.

I was supposed to go to lunch with one of my former coworkers, but I got an email from him early this morning (never a good thing) saying that he was at the ER with his wife and they won't know more about what's going on with her until a CT scan (?!). Oh nooo.

I thought the office would be super dead because of the teleworking folks, but fortunately, many of my friends were there to hang out.

I signed up for a 10-class punch card for the CrossFit gym that I went to 2 weeks ago and reserved my spot in tomorrow morning's class.  Oh yes, this was voluntary. Never ever thought I would say that...ever. With that said, I decided to skip the gym after work today; my shoulders are a little sore from yesterday anyway. I must have needed the rest because I fell asleep for 3 hours after getting home. I watched the second half of Stephen Amell's Q & A for Nerd HQ at Comic Con (because I was asleep during the first half) and then worked on my office card order. Happy Friday!

New Office Order

New Office Order: I got an email from Human Resources on Monday, ordering 34 Happy Anniversary cards. Whew, I thought they forgot about me! Because I was on travel earlier this week, I didn't get a chance to make a sample until last night. The HR girl approved it today, so now I'll have something to work on this weekend.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China
Stamps: Hero Arts- Everyday Sayings
Embossing Folder: Lifestyle Crafts- Whimsy
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Two-a-Day: I decided to switch my telework day from Friday to today because I'm meeting up with one of my former coworkers for lunch tomorrow which is close to the office. I took a break from the computer this afternoon to go to the gym and do Day 6 of Crush60: Shoulders. While setting up for some shoulder presses, I banged my head against the bar (not to worry, it wasn't hard enough for me to see stars). Unfortunately, there were 2 guys next to me when that happened. Ugh, so ungraceful. At least it wasn't as bad as it was for 2 other people at the gym. I noticed that 2 paramedics came in during my workout, and I overheard one of the trainers say that one of the people working out injured his shoulder and the other guy had a cable pulley fall on his head (??!). Yikes!

I went home to finish my work day (and take a quick nap on the couch) and then went back out for a 45-min spin class. Tomorrow is leg day...and from what I've read online, it's going to be a killer. Challenge accepted!

Oh, hai!

Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.

4 Year House Anniversary!

OMG, it's been 4 years since settling on my townhouse (btw, thanks for the texts this morning, Cristina). Time flies when you're...being a responsible adult? Hah, "responsible adult." That makes me want to throw up and laugh out loud at the same time.

One of my friends at work, Hilary, is leaving next week for another job, so Michelle, Ben and I took her to dim sum as a good-bye lunch. I haven't had dim sum in forever (like a couple of years?), so this was good timing. I'm so sad to see her go though. She makes our publications look awesome and always provides such wonderful customer service. I told her that I'd make banana pudding for her before her last day. Michelle was nice to drive us in her big party bus (aka Honda Odyssey) and I called shotgun both ways (yes, sometimes I act like I'm 12...not a "responsible adult" as mentioned above). When we were going back to the office, she flung her hand in my direction several times and a bug flew off her and onto me. There was a moment of silence and then giggles. "Here, Tina, you deal with it!" At least it wasn't a spider. I don't know what it was. Yuck.

This was round 1. The amount of food we ended up with was seriously embarrassing. Thankfully they had take-out boxes and I got the leftovers, yay! It worked out since my refrigerator is kinda empty at the moment.

While falling into a food coma would have been nice, I had to be awake enough to be in a group meeting this afternoon to talk about a resource center website that needs fixing. As the meeting went on, the list of grievances got longer. I'm glad that I'm not the one that has to make the changes, but unfortunately, the contractor totally sucks. I wish I had the skills to make the changes, because then we wouldn't be wasting any money and I know I'd deliver a good product. Blah.

The meeting went over a little, but I was able to do Day 5 of Crush60: Heat after work before it got crowded at the gym. The medicine ball slams were no joke. Whew. 

I heard "Oops, I Did It Again" on the way home today...and yes, I lip synced in the car.

Atlanta Meeting, RJ Antics and Etsy Feedback

The meeting in Atlanta went smoothly today. It's nice to get some direction and priorities straight. The best part was that the meeting ended about an hour early, which also meant that I was able to head to the airport earlier with minimal traffic. I debated on spending the $50 to catch an earlier flight and yeah, I did. I figured what I didn't use on per diem was going to go towards that ticket. When I got back, I went to my parents' house to eat one of the leftover hamburgers from the July 4th BBQ and take RJ home. Julie texted me this morning to say that he had been a naughty kitty. In other news, I got a very nice feedback on my Etsy shop this morning. :)

Trip to Atlanta

While my flight to Atlanta wasn't until noon, I left the house around 8 AM so that I could ensure a parking space at the Metro. Thankfully, because of free airport wifi, I was able to send off some emails and then watch Daredevil on Netflix (heh). The flight was uneventful. I was in row 34 out of 36, so pretty much removed from anything that was happening on the plane.

There was about an hour between my arrival time and my boss's arrival time, so again, I continued the Daredevil episode I was watching earlier. We checked into the hotel and took a break and then headed to the Chinese restaurant to get some takeout. I scarfed down most of the dumplings that I got, took some time to digest and then headed to the hotel gym to crank out a treadmill run. I was glad that the elevators were across from the gym because after my run, I looked like I took a dip in the pool instead. I felt compelled to get the workout in because I'll be stuck in a meeting with CDC partners tomorrow and by the time I get home, there will be no time or energy for a workout. I'll pick things back up on Wednesday!

July 4th Nails

Feeling appropriately patriotic, I did a July 4th manicure on Friday night. Some glitter, some metallic, some nail art stamping. :)

In an effort to burn off last night's dinner (or rather dessert), I went to a 45 minute spin class this morning, went home to do a load in the dishwasher/eat/charge phone/take a short nap and then went to the other gym to do Day 4 of Crush60 (arms). I could definitely feel it when I was washing my hair. Tomorrow should be interesting, especially with traveling to Atlanta for work.

There was a guy doing cable chest flys that was creeping me out. A helpful tip: talking to yourself out loud as a form of motivation makes you look more like a looney toon than He-Man, mkay? (eye roll)

Happy 4th of July!

The gym opened at 8 AM this morning per their July 4th schedule. I wanted to get today's workout (Day 3 of Crush60...lots of squats and ab work. Comparatively not as tough as Days 1 and 2, but tomorrow will be arms and I foresee it being a challenge) done and out of the way so I got there probably around 8:10 AM. I stayed an extra 30 minutes and walked on the treadmill while watching Daredevil Episode 2 on Netflix (yay for wifi at the gym!) because it was raining outside and I didn't have an umbrella. The rain hadn't stopped by the time the 30 minutes was up so I figured I was already sweaty, what difference would it make. I went to Safeway for some groceries and then home to take a shower. What a difference that and some winged liner makes! On another note, I bought these black shorts probably like a year or two ago. I remember them feeling kinda tight, so they had been in my closet at the bottom of the pile. I took them out today just to see what would happen, and they fit so much better. Yay, progress!
I had a $10 off and triple points coupons from DSW so I wandered over there this afternoon. My goal was to find a pair of nude pumps because I had to throw away my old ones. They had been to many conferences already and were in bad shape. Buh-bye. I walked over to the clearance section and found the same pair in yellow for 30% off. Bah ha ha...
I made some rice krispie treats to bring with me to the family BBQ, but I wonder if that was even necessary since my uncle/aunt ended up bringing 2 pies (apple and strawberry rhubarb) and my cousin made flan. Even though Julie made her famous steaks, the hot dogs were the most popular item on the menu and they were all gone by the time dinner was over.

I will definitely be going to the 8:30 AM spin class tomorrow. Hope everyone out there had a happy and safe 4th of July!

A Day at the National Mall

The exhibit that Julie worked on at the American History museum, American Enterprise, opened on July 1, so we decided to use our day off to go see it. It must have been rewarding for her to see something that she worked on come to life and have people play with the interactives that she created. My favorite interactives were the one that had to do with different types of drinks and how they are made and one about cat food (if it has cats, there's a 99% chance I'm going to like it) and a section on technology (they had a display with different types of cell phones, old and new). Oh, and I liked the American Flag display that was made of Legos.

Julie, at an interactive that she created about Market Revolution

Wandering over to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on Peru

Last stop: the Museum of Natural History...because they had air conditioning.

After the American History museum, we wandered to the Folklife Festival. There was a lot of stuff crammed in a small space and because the two of us are kinda short, it was tough to see anything because of the crowds. We eventually gave up and sought refuge at the Museum of Natural History to check out the dinosaurs because they had air conditioning. I was hoping to see the dinosaur exhibit, but unfortunately, the dinosaur hall is closed until 2019 (?!) so they had a smaller one that wasn't as exciting.

No gym today, but I did crank out about 14,000 steps today. I'll be back tomorrow before a July 4th BBQ at my parents' house.