This is how they get you

Anybody else go shopping for school supplies this weekend? Guess how many Fine Point Black Sharpies I needed?

One.

(Yes, I did ask if they sold Fine Point Black Sharpies singly. The answer was no, except they sold singles of the "Bic" version of a Sharpie.)

Getting back to ww

Trying to get back on the Weight Watchers track. Ugh. Sometimes I am so tired of watching what I eat. There are days I swear I could just eat butter and twizzlers.

But WW is one of easier programs I know with the flexibility to treat myself now and then. And frankly at this point, I've gotten on board with drinking water regularly. Okay here I go...

Anybody else sweating?

I've been both on the west coast and east coast this summer and I have been sweating so much. The bummer is sweating at night. Even though I slept relatively comfortably, I've been waking up with a sheen of sweat like one of my sheets was replaced with Saran Wrap during the night.

Man, I think I'm ready for fall. The cooler weather, at least.

With permission

I can fully reveal the awesome cut 'n' paste handiwork!

New Blood for a wall

Before: a blank (dry erase) wall in the office of someone away at a conference. So tempting, if you know what I mean.

After one lunch break, and with some imagination, it became this:

This person has just seen "Twilight" DVD with his wife and I can only imagine that he'd be thrilled to be a part of the sequel (identifying details have been covered to protect the victim, er, lucky fan):

"And so the audience reacted to the re-casting of Jacob Black to the relative unknown--"

The "edited" poster is my favorite--almost seamless, don't you think?

And since this person takes care of our network (among many other things), we tailored some of the memorable lines of Twilight so he would appreciate them even more:

Another good one:

And my favorite:

Whoever did this must have had a great time.

Biker girls

The girl is growing up too fast--I can barely keep up. I miss the age where she just started talking and would grab my face with her little hands. Now I've got a sarcastic tweener in my house who rolls her eyes when I talk about Harry Potter.

I'm trying to grab significant time with the girl whenever I can so I suggested going for a walk tonight. The girl wanted to ride bikes. I was hoping for something a bit more laid-back so we could chat but she said we'd hadn't rode bikes in soooo long. So we rode down to Strickland's:

The girl got a cone and I took a detour and picked up a latte:

We chatted a bit but I feel our major accomplishment was making it all the way back without walking the bikes because of course, the ride home is uphill. I was sweating like a pig halfway up the hill and I was totally up for walking the bikes, but the girl said she could pedal it. So I stuck with it too, breathing heavy, standing on my pedals, my front tire weaving from my exhausted steering, and leaving a trail of sweat drops on the road. We both made it. Perhaps it was the latte but I'd like to think it was the mother-daughter bond that powered me up the hill. At least, that's the way I hope the girl remembers it.

Those aren't pillows

I grew up with John Hughes movies. Did he not have the best soundtracks? Whenever I hear Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work", it brings tears to my eyes remembering this scene:



Totally busting out the "Pretty in Pink" album tonight...on vinyl.

Rest in peace, John Hughes.

Anime me

The girl rendered an anime version of me:

She definitely got the hair right.

Not quite sure where she got the top.

Yes, I love it.

wow

Still trying to get my head around the fact that former President Clinton negotiated the release of two American journalists from Kim Jong Il. Personally, I was pretty pessimistic about an early release for those two, because let's face it, Kim Jong Il is known to be an egotistical, sadistic, crazy dictator and capturing two Americanas who would have exposed the real little-seen North Korea must have put a big canary-eating Cheshire grin on his face.

What does this mean? That Clinton has a gift for negotiating with crazy? Or crazy isn't always so crazy? Maybe the key was that Clinton said this was a "private" mission while Kim is under the impression that Clintong is representing the leadership of the US? Apparently there were "exhaustive" talks. Whether it was a ruse, charm, reasoning, (or some combo of any of it)--that had to be difficult to keep that up.

Hmmm. So curious to hear more details...

Running and me

Before my recent vacation in New York, I was trying to exercise regularly--getting to the gym every other day, taking classes, doing some cardio on the elliptical, hitting the weights, etc. Every once in a while, I even did running on the treadmill--though it was not my favorite. If you've ever seen a runner who's pulled something and is jogging it out, that's kind of how I look from the get-go: body crumpled together, feet clomping forward as if some invisible rubber band is limiting my gait, my face in a yawn of discomfort, breathing hard, and draped in copious sweat.

During my recent vacation in New York, we made a trip to meet Tracy, the final sibling (that I had yet to meet) of Josh, my sister's fiance. I had met his two brothers before and I was finally going to meet his sister. We drove up to her home in Connecticut late Friday afternoon and got there early evening. Their home is this incredible self-designed home with a pool, tree house, multiple gardens--it was like out of a magazine. But it wasn't ostentatious--they're a DIY family where the husband likes to build things and the surroundings were hand-crafted, designed, grown, or built by them.

Josh's young nephew ran up in his swim suit, fresh out of the pool when we arrived. His super fit twenty-something babysitter bounced up in her size 2 bikini behind him chatting about a night swim and asking if we were hungry. Josh introduced her as Tracy, his sister. The sister that was ostensibly close to my age and in theory produced two kids. All I remember was staring at her shredded body and blurting out that she was by far, the fittest sibling in the family. Turns out she's a runner...as in marathon runner.

She offered to take my sister and me on a short 2 mile run the next morning (after her early 10 mile run with her running buddy). Sure! After all, I've been working out.

Okay, the one thing I learned about running is that it I really need to know where the finish is. I realize now that I had pretty much gunned the first mile downhill. I felt like a flippin' gazelle as I bounded down the hill. We took a brief break in the middle of the run so the dog could have a dip in the lake. Turns out the second half was uphill--that killed my inner gazelle.

By then I was breathing so loud out my mouth, I could only make out a few words Tracy was saying--lunch...goat cheese...almonds...And I swear at this point, she was walking--that's how slow my running was. Then I recognized her long driveway and managed to get some gumption and totally sprinted up the final 70 yards to her porch as a personal finish line. Finish big, I was once told.

Holy crap. If I thought I was breathing hard before, I was like, drowning after my crazy sprint. I was so glad my body chose to make a collective effort to huff air rather than some more embarrassing bodily function, like vomiting or involuntarily evacuating my bladder, as I clutched the railing on the porch in front of everyone. Eventually I was able to drink/gasp down a quart of water. I survived.

So different from a treadmill.

I haven't figured which one is worse.