To Do: Pat Myself On the Back

Yes! I have finally accomplished something that has been eluding me for ages...

I COMPLETED MY WEEKEND TO-DO LIST. I want to shout it from the mountaintops.

And, it's only 7:17 pm Sunday night, so I can probably complete a few supplemental activities as well! This is me doing cartwheels.

Quick recap:

Got up early this morning so I could take the Focus to Firestone and get the oil changed. Yeah, I'm such a good wife that I'll take my husband's car to the shop and wait around an hour for it to be done (however, I did get a good amount of knitting done while waiting.) It wasn't all bad, except for the fact that it was about 95 degrees in their lobby, and the morning sun was shining directly on me through the giant wall of windows. Then, in yet another bout of wifely goodness, I went and bought replacement windshield wipers and had them put on. God, I'm good.

Came home, knitted.

Completed my homework assignment.

Knitted.

Mailed homework assignment.

Shopped with Adam (the mall was Kee-razy for a Sunday).

Picked up a dozen eggs (gotta make some banana bread this week).

Picked up Stacey and we did a five mile run. Our marathon training has officially begun. Five miles felt great. I haven't done that in a long damn time.

Oh, and I also zipped through four episodes of Oprah, and a Suze Orman show. One of Oprah's shows this week was the war between stay-at-home moms and working moms. Whew. No matter the side of the argument you're on, that stuff can get pretty freakin' catty. I guess I won't know til I'm in the situation, but I turned out just fine, and my mom didn't stay at home. My feeling is, as long as your "working" mom job isn't selling crack or yourself on the local street corner, and you love your kids and spend what time you can with them, you'll do just fine and so will they. Kids are going to have to do without their moms SOME day, aren't they?

Gotta go do some more stuff!!

Finally, a photo of something I knitted

Here's the hat I knit for Jayne. She wasn't in a very good mood when Mom took this picture, but Mom says she wears her hat every day.

Hmmm. Maybe she doesn't like the hat and that's why she was in a bad mood when the photo was taken?

The hat is from a pattern on Knitty.com.

Snowy Pink Houses for you and me

By the way, here's the photo I promised of what the house looked like when I returned from Dallas. (Yeah, it took me a whole freaking week to figure out how to do it. I can be a real Einstein sometimes...)

Just another Friday night in Doodah

Stop the presses. Hold the phone. Call aunt Martha.

Jill actually went out Friday night. It was a nice girls' night out actually. Well, it ended up that way. It started as dinner with friends and family, which was also great.

Jeff, Kat, Terry, Kurt, Kasey, Lauryn and I had dinner at Da Cajun Shak. Um, yeah, it's "Da" Cajun "Shak." Just so you know, if you go there, be sure to ask what they're not serving anymore before you order off the menu. Last night it was hush puppies, cornbread stuffing, and two other things. Nothing like ordering and hearing the server say "We're out." "Oh, we're out of that, too." "Oh, we're out." Um, mark it off the menu, maybe? Heck, that's what they make black Sharpies for!

The food that they weren't out of was pretty damn good. I had the red beans and rice, and a side of fried okra (thank god they weren't out of that!). Oh, and I actually ate a tiny piece of Gator tail. Yeah, it was really gator tail, not breaded fried chicken that they just call Gator Bites cause it's cute. The taste I had was good, but I don't know if I could eat a whole order.

After dinner, I headed over to Da Von Maur at Da Towne East, and lo and stinkin' behold, the Keens I have been wishin' and hopin' and prayin' for FINALLY were in the clearance room. Ah, beloved clearance room. I'm not a shoe-hoarder, but I freakin' love that place. Sure, they were still 60 bones, but they only had one pair in my size (7.5 if you're keeping score), and they were marked down from 90. I HEART THEM.

Seriously. I have been waiting like two years for the damn things to go on sale.

Amy and I met a couple more friends out at Oeno. Well, we tried. Of course, because it's the only uber trendy wine bar in Wichita, it was packed like sardines on a Friday night. If you squint, you might just think you're in Chicago or NYC - it's dark, EVERYONE is wearing black, and the foundation and eye makeup are thick. Those of you that know me know that I'm more of a beer girl anyway than a wine snob, so we made for Old Chicago pretty damn quick.

It was nice to be there again - but weird, because it's all the same kids still working there from when Adam worked there. I guess I always thought of that as a transitional type job, but they're probably making more money than me, the poor sucker who decided to be a journalism teacher!

Alrighty tighty. I guess I should go do some real work. I did post something about procrastination earlier this week. Wait, that's right. No work tonight. Headed over to Stacey's to chill tonight. We're running five miles in the a.m. Yep, five, on the stinking treadmill. When will the sun warm the earth?

Speaking of that - my new favorite commercial line: "I have to illuminate the entire eastern seaboard in 15 minutes. I think you all have time for breakfast."

Duh.

Okay, realized in my haste to post and get to bed last night I forgot to add

The Office
My Name is Earl

to the mix.

So, yes, there's another hour of my life spent in front of the damn TV each week. Oh well, at least with the DVR, I only spend 23 minutes watching every half-hour show!

Well, crap...

Let the procrastination begin. Just the other day I was patting myself on the back, thinking "Hmm, I'm really ahead. I've got lesson plans for the next two weeks, I've already completed assignment one for my college class, and my grading's all caught up." That's about to come to an end. I realized tonight WHY I've been so dang on-top-of-it.

ALL THE TV SHOWS WERE IN RERUNS.

I really don't think I watch THAT much TV, but maybe I do have a problem. A slight one.

I went to Muscle Pump class at the South Y tonight, and on the way home (at 8:30) I was clicking off the things I would accomplish before bed: finish my reading assignment, fold laundry, update blog (check), complete one other assignment I needed to do. When I got out of the shower, Adam said, "Well, which would you rather watch: Studio 60 or What About Brian?"

Oh. My. God. I totally forgot Studio 60 was back tonight!

Sure, WAB was a nice interlude while 60 was off, but it's kinda crappin' out for me. I settled in with the remote and glued to Studio 60. I DIDN'T EVEN KNIT DURING THE SHOW, which is unheard of for me. A lot of my friends are saying they don't like 60, but I adore it. Smart, snappy writing, great characters. For me, it's up there with Grey's, Lost, etc.

So, I guess from this point on, I'm going to have to get my homework done BEFORE prime time. After all, Lost is back soon, too.

Shows I'm into:
Grey's Anatomy
Lost
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
How I Met Your Mother
King Of Queens
Ugly Betty

Thank God for DVRs and online viewing, so I can watch at random times when there's nothing else on - pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday, right?

Anywho, gotta go. I'm supposed to get up at 5 tomorrow to run at the Y. AND, I have to be at school 15 minutes early, AND I have to pick up a couple cases of soda before that. Busy girl, busy girl.

Oh yeah, this is also where I become accountable - I've lost 5 pounds since Christmas. I must be working my ass off since I obviously watch WAY to much TV.

I'm back, baby!

At least the flight back into Doodah today was a little more visually interesting than it typically is. Six inches of snow (whoops, I just accidentally typoed "snot" there) makes every thing look so clean. Then, you get out of the plane, into the car and on the road, and you realize just how dirty snow can get in such a short amount of time.

Had a nice weekend in Dallas - AWESOME hotel room, again. Even got to sit in the whirlpool for a little bit this morning for some pre-week-of-school relaxation.

I'm on my way out to shovel a path to the garage for tomorrow morning, and hopefully shoot a few photos too.

Maybe I'll post some of them in a bit.

Brrrrrrr.....Ccccccooolllldddddd....

Helpful hint: When you live in an 80-year-old house - spend the freakin' money and get replacement windows! Single panes and lows of 5 degrees do not mix. It's so drafty in here, we've got 97 space heaters going.

And, our office is the coldest room, so I feel as though I'm getting frostbite on the fingers just sitting here typing. Can't stay long tonight - gotta go to the womb of the house - the living room, which we've done our best to insulate using blankets and the aforementioned 97 space heaters.

Peace (and warmth).

Get a real town.

So, it's icy in Wichita. We can all agree on that. There's a bunch of stuff that looks like snow on the ground, only it's rock solid, and really slick to walk on.

Because of this, I went through a yellow light today crossing Woodlawn on Douglas (heading into Eastborough). Eastborough's finest decided to write me a $150 ticket for running a red light. Un-effing-believable. Okay, how about I just slam on my brakes to stop for the light, and slide into the car next to me, or right through the intersection. How does that sound?

You better believe I'll be going to the Eastborough "City Hall" or, I mean, Mabel's old house, to contest this baby. Give me a break.

(FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO AREN'T IN WICHITA...) Eastborough is a "city" that some hoity-toities got together and claimed, right smack in the middle of Wichita. It basically bisects a major east-west artery, cutting the speed limit down to 20 so you can admire their million-dollar houses. Don't forget, during the admiring, to curse loudly at their town. At one point, legend has it, they tried to put up gates into and out of their "community" but when the City of Wichita said, "Fine, fight your own fires and pick up your own trash," they quickly reconsidered. What a bunch of wusses.

Uggghhh. Sorry to be such a complainer, but come on already! PS-I am a total admirer of cops-so I'm not one of those people who is just angry because I was dealing with Jonny Law.

On a happier note, did make it to the Y today, for a class and a two-mile run. Also, we saw "The Good Sheperd." Grreat movie. Matt Damon great as always.

Attended a rockin' 2nd birthday bash for one Derby resident that I know yesterday. Mom made the coolest Mr. Potato Head cake. I should post a picture here.

Gotta go do some work before school tomorrow.

Damned frogged sleeve

So, yeah, I wasn't making great progress on Adam's sweater, then I had to rip out a whole sleeve. Are you kidding me? Oh well, now I have this renewed sense of git 'er done.

This one'll be short - not much too report except that I'm tired, tired, tired. But, I did drag out to Muscle Pump class tonight, so I do have something to add to my exercise journal...

I'm getting too old...

Well, we've survived the "Adam Chittum 30th Birthday Extravaganza" that began earlier this week. Adam is now officially tucked in at 30 years old, the keg is empty, and the snacks have been put away. We had a great party Friday night, lots of friends from many different groups mixing and hanging out. It's always so gratifying when our divergent tribes can mix it up.

Other than that, it was a pretty lazy weekend. Nick, Denise, Carrie and Keri and I played some board games last night..."Can't Stop," "Wits and Wagers" and the DVD pop culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. I gotta tell ya, I freakin' love trivia, but we were playing with many shortcuts and that game still lasted three hours.

Today, we ran 3.6 miles. Pretty good considering it's flippin' cold outside. It reminds me of my marathon training, only today's high was 6 times that of some of those days!

Had to rip out most of the arm of a sweater I'm working on for Adam. The poor guy. It'll probably be done just in time for the weather to be 75.

Oh well, gotta go do some re-knitting, and some homework.

on the flip side

Another day, another dollar

Well, it's official.

Two days of being back at school, and I'm already exhausted. It's not that I don't like school - I love what I do - it's just that those teenagers just suck the life-force out of you! Not in a bad way, mind you - they just wear me out. Man, I sound like the 70-year-old English teacher, not the hipster, twenty-something journalism teacher.

Why, oh, why, can't I be a morning person? That simple personality change alone would make my life soooo much easier.

If I were a morning person:
I would get up the FIRST time the alarm went off.
I wouldn't have to speed to get to school, hoping to time all of the lights right.
I could read the entire paper before leaving the house.
I could go to the Y EVERY morning.
I could take longer, hotter showers.

Alas, I am not a morning person, so I
hit the snooze bar like a mad woman.
rush through the whole shower thing.
don't wear makeup (takes too long).
read only the first two pages of the paper.
sometimes skip breakfast.


Maybe that should have been my NYR. Or maybe not. At least I'm never late to work.

Since today was my "day of rest" I did get to a.) knit and b.) watch "Earl" and "The Office" - two of the funniest shows in the history of television. If you haven't seen them, give 'em a try. I'm working on a sweater for Adam, a purse for Alice, and I'm dreaming of a couple of projects for myself. I wish I wasn't such an ADD knitter.

My 9 millionth foray into the world of blogs

Here I am again, only this time I plan to use this blog for more than just journaling, so hopefully I'll actually stick to it.

It's 2007, and my resolutions are:

1. Dress more like a grown-up (since I'll be 30 this year, and all).
2. Cook at least one home cooked meal a week (Adam does the rest).
3. Run 750 miles this year.

Sounds pretty doable here on Jan. 3, but we'll see how it goes.

This is a spot for me to talk about all things knitty, running, and hopefully even get my students involved. I'd like to use this to post the class schedule, make it a resource for makeup work, and the return of the current events quiz...

Yes, you've been warned.

Now, I've done some homework, and some schoolwork, and I run a 5K at the Y tonight, so I think it's time to go knit a few rows before bed.

Later taters!