We decided we're finally going to insulate our crawlspace. Wish we had a bigger car!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Conference
So I'm at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, which is a 10,000 person conference held every year in Washington DC.
I'll elaborate further when I'm back at home with a real computer (I'm writing this from my phone) but I wanted to share one thing with you before I forget. I was at a presentation on making our transportation industry more sustainable, and a presenter from the UK pointed out something we tend to ignore when sitting around debating using recycled materials and reducing rolling resistance to improve fuel efficiency. Roughly, it was this:
"Ghandi said 'be the change you want to see'. I spend an hour getting to work on the bus, when it would be a 20 minute drive."
It was really cool to hear that, especially since most people at his level in organizations don't practice what they preach. And it made me proud that we chose our house close to Stefano's office, he takes the bus 95% of the time, I work from home, and we only own one (partial zero emissions) vehicle.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Haircut!
I got a haircut! It was getting crazy long, and definitely way too long to deal with next week at my conference.
Nose smears
I'm sitting on the couch, watching the snow and taking a quickie sanity break from working, and I'm realizing that my front window is completely covered in nose smears as far as Molly can reach.
Ahh the joys of pet ownership. Guess it's time to get out the windex.
Oh, and I don't know if this is really weird or gross, but I pulled out two of her baby teeth yesterday because they were really loose and driving her nuts-- she was chewing ferociously on all her toys trying to get them out, and when she wasn't chewing, she was licking at them. I saved the teeth cuz I'm a nerd and I think they look pretty cool.
Ahh the joys of pet ownership. Guess it's time to get out the windex.
Oh, and I don't know if this is really weird or gross, but I pulled out two of her baby teeth yesterday because they were really loose and driving her nuts-- she was chewing ferociously on all her toys trying to get them out, and when she wasn't chewing, she was licking at them. I saved the teeth cuz I'm a nerd and I think they look pretty cool.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
New Years Goals
How are y'all's new year's resolutions going? Jeez that sentence was a mess of awkward contractions and possessives... Don't judge me...
Mine are going great. Wait, what did I resolve again? (wait while I pull up the old blog post) Oh yeah...
Running is going ok... I certainly haven't given up, but things keep getting in the way. I know, I know, "you have to MAKE time for it", but I don't think that really applies to foot injuries, food poisoning, and exploding deadlines at work. I have a conference next week, and when I get home from that, life will settle down. I did go running over the weekend while I was in Vegas, and ran a mile nonstop (which I used to not be able to do at all... Anyone remember me in high school? I pretended to have a untied shoe every half lap so I could stop and catch my breath) in 12.5 minutes.
Hopefully all the January gym bandwagoners give up soon so it's not so crowded. It helps that I've quit using the elliptical machine (I realized I was using it as a crutch because I didn't think I could run) which are usually the most crowded, but it's pretty hard to find a treadmill some days. Usually I can find a bike without too much trouble :)
I've been cooking a LOT lately, and buying less crap. I did my first big grocery store run at our local/natural grocery store, and I'm starting to learn where everything is. It's surprisingly hard to find everything (especially in the canned goods aisle) when you don't recognize the normal brands, and when there aren't 50 bajilion brands of everything, i.e. canned tuna). And I'm starting to get in the habit of making a big batch of brown rice at the beginning of the week to have with meals. Curse it taking about two hours up here at altitude. Grr. Oh, and I've lost about six pounds, but food poisoning is responsible for about two of them. I think Stefano's losing weight too since he's training for the half marathon too, and he's stuck eating what I cook for him. ::evil laugh::
Wow I'm really babbly today.
Haven't gotten my bike yet, but I'll start saving up for it. This spring is going to be expensive between getting Molly spayed and getting Stefano's deviated septum fixed. Plus I started having more withheld from my paycheck to go into my 401k, so my paycheck is smaller even though I got a little raise. I opened a new savings account with a better interest rate (and less accessible so I don't pull money from it for random stuff) and set up a fixed monthly transfer into there.
And yes, I cleaned out my pantry and tossed old stuff, and bought new baking soda and baking powder.
Addendum: I also have been much better about tv, mostly because I haven't had time for it. One could argue that I've replaced it with playing video games with my husband, but I don't mind that vice for now. The exception being that I watched a few episodes of crappy tv this weekend while I was sick, and after Spike decided to break my heart and replaced CSI with UFC. Really??? Blech.
Mine are going great. Wait, what did I resolve again? (wait while I pull up the old blog post) Oh yeah...
Running is going ok... I certainly haven't given up, but things keep getting in the way. I know, I know, "you have to MAKE time for it", but I don't think that really applies to foot injuries, food poisoning, and exploding deadlines at work. I have a conference next week, and when I get home from that, life will settle down. I did go running over the weekend while I was in Vegas, and ran a mile nonstop (which I used to not be able to do at all... Anyone remember me in high school? I pretended to have a untied shoe every half lap so I could stop and catch my breath) in 12.5 minutes.
Hopefully all the January gym bandwagoners give up soon so it's not so crowded. It helps that I've quit using the elliptical machine (I realized I was using it as a crutch because I didn't think I could run) which are usually the most crowded, but it's pretty hard to find a treadmill some days. Usually I can find a bike without too much trouble :)
I've been cooking a LOT lately, and buying less crap. I did my first big grocery store run at our local/natural grocery store, and I'm starting to learn where everything is. It's surprisingly hard to find everything (especially in the canned goods aisle) when you don't recognize the normal brands, and when there aren't 50 bajilion brands of everything, i.e. canned tuna). And I'm starting to get in the habit of making a big batch of brown rice at the beginning of the week to have with meals. Curse it taking about two hours up here at altitude. Grr. Oh, and I've lost about six pounds, but food poisoning is responsible for about two of them. I think Stefano's losing weight too since he's training for the half marathon too, and he's stuck eating what I cook for him. ::evil laugh::
Wow I'm really babbly today.
Haven't gotten my bike yet, but I'll start saving up for it. This spring is going to be expensive between getting Molly spayed and getting Stefano's deviated septum fixed. Plus I started having more withheld from my paycheck to go into my 401k, so my paycheck is smaller even though I got a little raise. I opened a new savings account with a better interest rate (and less accessible so I don't pull money from it for random stuff) and set up a fixed monthly transfer into there.
And yes, I cleaned out my pantry and tossed old stuff, and bought new baking soda and baking powder.
Addendum: I also have been much better about tv, mostly because I haven't had time for it. One could argue that I've replaced it with playing video games with my husband, but I don't mind that vice for now. The exception being that I watched a few episodes of crappy tv this weekend while I was sick, and after Spike decided to break my heart and replaced CSI with UFC. Really??? Blech.
Home sweet home
Made it home from Las Vegas.
In case you're wondering, my awesomely random posts stopped because I got food poisoning and spent all of Sunday and most of today holed up the hotel room. Thank goodness for a CSI marathon on TV which kept me going...
In case you're wondering, my awesomely random posts stopped because I got food poisoning and spent all of Sunday and most of today holed up the hotel room. Thank goodness for a CSI marathon on TV which kept me going...
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Sunset
We don't frequently have dramatic sunsets here. Usually the sun is gone behind the mountains before any color develops, or there are clouds over the mountains to the west so we don't see anything.
Which is why I ran outside the other evening in my slippers and jumped through the snow to take these:
Which is why I ran outside the other evening in my slippers and jumped through the snow to take these:
Made it to the weekend!
This week felt really long. Thankfully I'm only working three days next week, then I'll be at a conference the week after that. And then possibly in Las Vegas for work.
I suppose I could catch up and post some of the cool photos I took this week while I'm waiting for Stefano to get home...
I went and watched Stefano play hockey on Wednesday. Unfortunately they lost, but Stefano did take out the goalpost. It must have said something about his mother... Too bad I didn't get a picture of it.
And then some other random pics from this week...
Ok, that's all. Time to make dinner, since I am super super hungry and we have to leave for the airport soon after Stefano gets home. Las Vegas, baby! I plan on sleeping, reading my book, and getting a massage. And nagging Stefano not to lose all our money at the blackjack table.
I suppose I could catch up and post some of the cool photos I took this week while I'm waiting for Stefano to get home...
I went and watched Stefano play hockey on Wednesday. Unfortunately they lost, but Stefano did take out the goalpost. It must have said something about his mother... Too bad I didn't get a picture of it.
And then some other random pics from this week...
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| Molly has a new favorite spot, since we took the Christmas tree down and put the ottoman in front of the window. |
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| I finally got some birds on my bird feeder! I was super excited... Still am, actually. |
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Drum roll please...
So we decided around Christmas time that we were going to spend the money to get Molly DNA tested to find out what she is... We (aka I) were super curious.
We got the results today...
Her eight great-grandparents are:
We got the results today...
Her eight great-grandparents are:
- Mixed breed
- Mixed breed
- Sheltie (maybe)
- Mixed breed
- Miniature poodle (!!!!!!!)
- Mixed breed
- Mixed breed
- German shepherd (maybe)
(The maybes are matches that they're not sure about)
She is seriously the muttiest mutt around. Good thing we love her anyway. So much for us thinking she was an aussie shepherd - border collie mix...
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| Doesn't she look like she's posing for a school portrait? |
Monday, January 10, 2011
Brr
I think the high today was 12. It was originally supposed to be -3 tonight, but I think they've revised that to 4. I really wish our house was insulated... Our walls are solid brick, mortar, and plaster, so we lose a lot of heat through the walls themselves. Ugh. And there's nothing we can do, really. Does anyone know where I can get some good tapestries? We meant to insulate the crawlspace this weekend... but then we didn't. I don't feel too bad for being lazy; it was our first weekend to relax by ourselves for a few weeks (and our last one for a few weeks too).
Our power/gas bill was $120 last month. Eek. I used to work in the winter with the house turned down to 65-66 and a space heater in my office, but since we got Molly I've been keeping the whole house around 68. Today I just decided that Molly will have to be cold or join me in the office, so the house has been at 65 and I'm rocking the space heater, wool sweater, and fleece.
I know it sounds awful, but there's really only about 7-10 days a year that it's this cold here. It's supposed to be in the high 40s/low 50s Thursday and Friday.
Our power/gas bill was $120 last month. Eek. I used to work in the winter with the house turned down to 65-66 and a space heater in my office, but since we got Molly I've been keeping the whole house around 68. Today I just decided that Molly will have to be cold or join me in the office, so the house has been at 65 and I'm rocking the space heater, wool sweater, and fleece.
I know it sounds awful, but there's really only about 7-10 days a year that it's this cold here. It's supposed to be in the high 40s/low 50s Thursday and Friday.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Pros and Cons
So, Christmas and New Year's Day were on weekends this year (and next):
Pros: Nice long weekends to spend with family, without spending a lot of extra time off (which is a premium for those of use who used all their time off on weddings earlier this year, as well as Thanksgiving). For context, Stefano and I both have about two days off left over, which includes sick time as well as personal days off.
Cons: No real weekends for two weeks. We spent all of yesterday taking down Christmas decorations, cleaning the house, and stocking up on groceries. Then it snowed (about four inches) today so we decided to be lazy and stay home and relax. It was amazing.
Also, Molly still loves snow. I have some awesome videos to put up once I stop being lazy and take care of uploading them. I reserve the right to be lazy, though, since it's late and I have to work tomorrow.
Pros: Nice long weekends to spend with family, without spending a lot of extra time off (which is a premium for those of use who used all their time off on weddings earlier this year, as well as Thanksgiving). For context, Stefano and I both have about two days off left over, which includes sick time as well as personal days off.
Cons: No real weekends for two weeks. We spent all of yesterday taking down Christmas decorations, cleaning the house, and stocking up on groceries. Then it snowed (about four inches) today so we decided to be lazy and stay home and relax. It was amazing.
Also, Molly still loves snow. I have some awesome videos to put up once I stop being lazy and take care of uploading them. I reserve the right to be lazy, though, since it's late and I have to work tomorrow.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Little things
I cleaned my desk! It's a little ridiculous how happy this makes me... Maybe I'll tackle cleaning my personal desk after work. Gasp!
Posted using my Android phone
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
It's only the eleventh day of Christmas so I totally still have time for a Christmas post!
By the way, I always have trouble coming up with blog titles. I'm always worried it'll make the post sound lame-- or worse, spoil some surprise I have for you!
Like what we got Molly totorture amuse for Christmas.
Like what we got Molly to
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| Me: "Now, Molly, these are antlers. You're going to be adorable. Just hold still..." Please forgive my shirt... I had been wearing something nicer but changed into this to bake since I always make a mess of myself. |
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| Molly: "I realllly don't know about this..." |
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| Molly: "Yeah, NO. I'm done." Me: "PLEASE????" |
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| Molly: "Oh, fine. But only because I'm distracted because my favoritest person in the whole wide world just got back from yoga and I need to lick her hands more than I need to get this thing off my head." Kristin, before you say anything, you look fine in this picture, and posting it was absolutely necessary for proper blogging. |
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| "Ok, maybe this isn't so bad" |
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| "Actually, I look rather cute" |
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| "I think I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit here guys" |
And here's my personal favorite...
Molly was (and still is) a very spoiled puppy for Christmas. We bought her a stuffed Christmas-themed moose, Kris brought this awesome monkey that squeaks. Unfortunately Molly has now torn holes in both and I keep pulling polyester stuffing out of her mouth because she tries to eat everything and doesn't have the common sense to spit out things that are not food. I had to pull an unpopped popcorn kernel out of her mouth the other day (don't judge me and my cleaning skills; it went flying out of the air popper and I didn't know where it went).
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| "OOH what's the flashy light thing you're pointing at me. Must investigate camera!" |
Molly was (and still is) a very spoiled puppy for Christmas. We bought her a stuffed Christmas-themed moose, Kris brought this awesome monkey that squeaks. Unfortunately Molly has now torn holes in both and I keep pulling polyester stuffing out of her mouth because she tries to eat everything and doesn't have the common sense to spit out things that are not food. I had to pull an unpopped popcorn kernel out of her mouth the other day (don't judge me and my cleaning skills; it went flying out of the air popper and I didn't know where it went).
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| Christmas moose! She actually started leaving the antlers on for after a while. |
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| Santa Paws! |
Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got everything they wanted-- we had a wonderful time with family and friends, both here and back in Lemont last weekend.
Goals!
So I usually don't make new years resolutions, because I have a short attention span and tend to get distracted by things. Plus I'm pretty much perfect already, so what's the point?
But in this case, I have a lot of changes I want to make this year, and I'm usually better about keeping up with lifestyle changes if I make them public. So I'm doing this, and I'll have to keep myself accountable to my readers. All three of them or so. :)
The biggest one, which I'm sure a few of you have heard about already, is I'm going to be running a half marathon in June. June 5th (my sister's half-birthday!) in San Diego! I'm not a runner, so I'm really counting on that elevation difference helping me out... Just kidding, I'm training too. I'd love to be at the gym right now, actually, except that I think I slightly sprained my ankle last weekend (stupid slippery airport floors and having to dodge people trying to walk into you) so I'm trying to take it easy.
Second one is that I'm going to buy, cook, and eat (when we eat out) healthier food. I know, nice and vague, eh? More specifically, I'm going to buy more of my food from smaller shops (we have some great bakeries, delis, and butcher shops that I have in mind) and from the local grocery chain that has wonderful natural and organic meat and produce. It'll take more time, but I feel like it'll be worth it. Plus the grocery store is next to my gym, so I'll just have to learn to lose my shame and go in there all sweaty after working out. Oh, and I'm trying to avoid artificial shtuff in my food. Not going to be preachy here, I've just reached a point where I don't want fake color, fiber, flavor, sugar, etc.
Going hand-in-hand with that, I'd really like to lose 15 pounds. Shouldn't be too bad. I won't go into detail on that because no one likes to hear people ramble on and on about how they want to lose weight...
I want to get a new bike and start biking around to do errands and go to the gym. There's really no reason not to since most of the places I go are within 3-4 miles. Like this one.
To make time for all that, I'm going to stop watching crap tv. I'd tell you what I end up sitting down and watching sometimes, but honestly I'm embarrassed... Exception to this is food network shows that I record and watch later, but I'm going to try not to do that either.
Oh, and I'll be saving more money for travel, emergencies, etc. Haven't been doing that since all the wedding chaos and the joy of trying to combine two peoples' finances and spending habits, but shouldn't be too hard now.
Resolution for this week? Clean out the fridge and pantry! I have no less than three jars of baking powder, all of them past their expiration date. Shame on me...
But in this case, I have a lot of changes I want to make this year, and I'm usually better about keeping up with lifestyle changes if I make them public. So I'm doing this, and I'll have to keep myself accountable to my readers. All three of them or so. :)
The biggest one, which I'm sure a few of you have heard about already, is I'm going to be running a half marathon in June. June 5th (my sister's half-birthday!) in San Diego! I'm not a runner, so I'm really counting on that elevation difference helping me out... Just kidding, I'm training too. I'd love to be at the gym right now, actually, except that I think I slightly sprained my ankle last weekend (stupid slippery airport floors and having to dodge people trying to walk into you) so I'm trying to take it easy.
Second one is that I'm going to buy, cook, and eat (when we eat out) healthier food. I know, nice and vague, eh? More specifically, I'm going to buy more of my food from smaller shops (we have some great bakeries, delis, and butcher shops that I have in mind) and from the local grocery chain that has wonderful natural and organic meat and produce. It'll take more time, but I feel like it'll be worth it. Plus the grocery store is next to my gym, so I'll just have to learn to lose my shame and go in there all sweaty after working out. Oh, and I'm trying to avoid artificial shtuff in my food. Not going to be preachy here, I've just reached a point where I don't want fake color, fiber, flavor, sugar, etc.
Going hand-in-hand with that, I'd really like to lose 15 pounds. Shouldn't be too bad. I won't go into detail on that because no one likes to hear people ramble on and on about how they want to lose weight...
I want to get a new bike and start biking around to do errands and go to the gym. There's really no reason not to since most of the places I go are within 3-4 miles. Like this one.
To make time for all that, I'm going to stop watching crap tv. I'd tell you what I end up sitting down and watching sometimes, but honestly I'm embarrassed... Exception to this is food network shows that I record and watch later, but I'm going to try not to do that either.
Oh, and I'll be saving more money for travel, emergencies, etc. Haven't been doing that since all the wedding chaos and the joy of trying to combine two peoples' finances and spending habits, but shouldn't be too hard now.
Resolution for this week? Clean out the fridge and pantry! I have no less than three jars of baking powder, all of them past their expiration date. Shame on me...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Twitchy
How I feel working lately is exactly how I used to feel during naptime in when I was in kindergarten. I never napped past toddlerhood (much to my mother's consternation I'm sure), so during naptime I'd lay on the mats on the floor we were supposed to nap on and watch the clock.
Apparently my teacher gave up and let me read after a while because she found my behavior really creepy.
No matter how hard I try lately, I can't make myself focus when I'm supposed to be working. I had a three-hour spurt of productivity yesterday and it was heavenly. But now I'm back to watching the clock. And fidgiting. And pacing the house. Spying on the dog. Snacking. Doodling. More pacing.
Posted using my Android phone
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