Book Progress

Another telework day, yay!

Since my last post on books, I finished Robyn Carr's Thunder Point Book 3 and 4, and am currently working on Book 5.  I liked Book 4 the most from the ones that I've read.  Books 3 and 5 (so far) were really boring.  I've been skimming a lot of Book 5, so I'm probably going to move onto something else after this.

Bookworm Mode

I got in a 1-hour spin class this morning and then I went to visit my cousin since she's leaving to go back to Taiwan (but will be back in mid-February to celebrate the lunar new year with us).  I delivered the cookies that I promised and then went two doors down to my parents' house.  Then off to Safeway to get some snacks (Oreos, hummus, and Wheat Thins).

The rest of the day was reading, reading, reading. I found another series via my library's e-book selection, Robyn Carr's Thunder Point.  I made it through Book 1 and Book 2 already and am currently working on Book 3 (which is kinda meh so far compared to the first 2 books).  I am wishing for a snow day tomorrow, but I would settle for an optional telework day.  The Northeast is supposed to get pounded the next few days and I would prefer to be teleworking than shoveling lots and lots of snow.

While I was reading, I had another round of the creamy chicken crockpot dish going. This is the third time I've made it this month, so I'm ready to try something different next weekend.

Spin, Read, Sell

I mustered the energy to get out of bed this morning to go to the 8:30 AM spin class and then I walked a little over a mile on the treadmill afterwards to get closer to my 10,000 steps for the day.

This afternoon, I battled a virus on my computer, but I think it's resolved now.  I'm leaving that computer alone for the time being, at least until tomorrow, because I know if I find anything wrong with it, I'll be determined to keep fixing it, no matter what time it is.

Another two accomplishments for today were a) a book that I put up on eBay last night got a bid  (The Art of Racing in the Rain) and b) I finished the last book of the Lucky Harbor series by Jill Shalvis.  I'm glad that I got into it at the tail end during the past month so that I could binge read with no problem since the library had them.  I was thankful that there were both hard copies and e-book versions available so I didn't have to wait at all.  I'm glad she's got other stuff coming out this year because finishing the last book today was like watching a series finale.  It's been a while since I've gotten hooked on an author like that. I got Divergent from the library yesterday, so I think that'll be my next read. 

I have another book, several DVDs and a puffer vest listed on eBay at the moment, so I'm hoping that they will all be going to new homes at the end of the week!

This week should be interesting.  There's a freezing rain alert for tonight through early tomorrow morning.  And then I'll be going to Atlanta Thursday and Friday.  Good thing this upcoming weekend will be a 3-day one because I think I'll need it!

RJ will be spending a few days at my parents' house.  I'm sure if he knew, he'd be looking forward to being spoiled by Mom.

Tyson's Corner

I went with my sister Julie this afternoon to Tyson's Corner.  She'd been putting off redeeming some lottery tickets that she got from her secret Santa at work.  Since the mall was nearby, we decided to get some steps in there.  We went to Old Navy, LL Bean, and Sephora, but came out with nothing except the steps. This makeup no-buy I've put myself on hasn't been as hard as I thought it'd be; it's been about a month so far.

Afterwards, I went to the library and the grocery store and then another mall to get some steps in.

When I was at the library, I found Book 9 of the Lucky Harbor series, which was the only one of the 12 books that I hadn't read. I was tempted to read it all tonight, but I need to save some for tomorrow.

Books and Chocolate Mug Cake

I tried to do 2 spin classes this morning, but I ended up doing the later class and 2.5 miles on the treadmill.  I'm still at #3 on my Fitbit leaderboard, but I'm hoping that I can catch up by tomorrow.

Books #5, 6, 7 of 2014: I borrowed the Kindle version of the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day from the library.  Yeah yeah, it's 50 Shades of Grey-ish, but I found Gideon and Eva more likeable than Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.  I could only get through Book 1 of the Grey because I thought it was so poorly written, so this was a nice change of pace.  Book 1 and 2 of the Crossfire series were good, but Book 3 felt like filler.  Looks like the sentiment is shared in the reviews on Amazon.  I guess this series was intended to be a trilogy, so I can see why fans would feel jipped because there was a lack of closure at the end of Book 3.  I hope Book 4 and 5 will have more substance and offer these troubled characters some much needed help with their jealousy, stalker-ish behavior and dark pasts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake: I tried this recipe tonight, but I think this previous one that I tried was better.  The one I tried tonight had you mix everything together, but I kinda like having the blob of peanut butter in the middle like the previous recipe offered.

Books #3 and #4 of 2014

My library books were due this morning, so I had to quickly finish up Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World  so that I could return it after work.  I also recently finished Bobbie Thomas's The Power of Style.  I was curious to see how this book would compare to Stacy London's style book and I liked Stacy's more because I like how she used real models and I felt the book had more personal stuff in there that I could relate to.  Bobbie's book was a nice quick read though.

Book #2 of 2014

I picked up this book up at the library recently: The Truth About Style by Stacy London.  It was a quick read and I really enjoyed it.  It was like reading What Not to Wear, minus the appearance of Clinton Kelly and add in London's personal stories. 

She made over several women throughout the book and each makeover was documented with what the style (or emotional) hang up was, how does London relate to that problem, what the final makeover look like, why it works, and some reflection to tie it up. 

I found London refreshing on WNTW (so sad the show is over!), but some of show's appeal lies in the interaction with Stacy and Clinton.  With the book, it's about London and that's okay.  She's entertaining all on her own!  There were parts of the book that made me laugh out loud (thankfully, I was by myself) and others that made me nod my head in agreement.  I found myself relating to what she had to say on her skin, weight, and marital status.  She even has a cat.  Maybe we can be friends!

There's a shopping guide in the back of the book and I thought it was cool that she included places where people on a budget could find clothes: Target, Old Navy, New York & Company, etc.  Style and fashion shouldn't just be for the rich and famous.  Everyone should be able to feel confident in cool clothes at an affordable price.

I finished reading it last night, but wished there was more to read!  I thought reading this book was very timely since the TODAY show is doing a week-long segment on body image and self confidence.  #loveyourselfie.

One thing I found amusing while I was reading this book was that a previous reader of the book was upset about the misuse of words.  "Flare" was crossed off and replaced with "flair" and "nerve-racking" with "nerve-wracking."

Book #1 of 2014

I finished Sophie Kinsella's Wedding Night last night.  I enjoyed her previous books (i.e. the Shopaholic series), and I thought this one was pretty funny.  However, I don't think it's something that I'd buy to read again though because the pace is a little slow and the book is rather long (400+ pages).

Family Dinner

Yard Sale: I didn't really have much luck getting rid of some stuff this morning.  I sold a gently used computer bag for $4 (the guy was trying to go from $5 to $3...no, I can meet you in the middle with $4).  And another person bought a Nintendo DS game that I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago.  I sold it for $5 which was the price that I bought it for, so no profit there.  But at least it's out of the house.  The rest of the day was spent indoors making food and camping out on my couch.

Book:  My sister Julie recommended the book Click, so I finished that while I was outside babysitting my yard sale table.

I made a large salad for lunch, while the yams that I bought last night were in the oven.

This was the spread at my aunt's house when I went over there for dinner.  Lot of veggies, salad, steak and seafood alfredo.  I'm glad I did my workout DVD before I went to dinner because afterwards, I didn't feel like doing anything.  When I sat down to dinner, my aunt told me that she had a dream recently that I showed her a picture of my boyfriend.  Um, what boyfriend?  Clearly this was a dream as I'm not dating one at the moment.  "He looked like Sean Connery."  I looked horrified.  "Akim, he's old!"  Then she explained that it was Sean Connery when he played 007.  Still, that's weird!

My aunt got this Galileo thermometer.  And its reading actually did match the thermostat in the house.

Easter Decorating at Meg's

I went over to Meg's place tonight and hung out with Meg and Robyn and celebrated Meg's birthday for the 2nd time.  This time with presents.  Her birthday was while we were on the cruise, but I didn't want her to lug her present around during the trip.  I went with a hot pink picture frame and a $25 gift certificate to Shutterfly since I know that she loves making those photo books.  I did it strategically so that she could make a book out of the cruise pictures.

We got carry out from the Burger Joint, and I went with the veggie one.  On the cruise, I read a book called Food Rules and the basic premise of the book was "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants."  That stuck with me so this past week, I ate mostly salads, fruit, yogurt and nuts.  I did stray a little bit though- the trail mix did have some chocolate in it, the cheesecake at Mom's birthday, and the leftovers at the office did include chicken.  Anyway, the veggie burger was really good and so were the sweet potato fries.

We reminisced about the trip and at the office antics that happened this past week.  Meg talked about having to get communion bread for church, which resulted in Robyn and me asking lots of questions about the bread since neither one of us goes to church.  Then the conversation veered into Easter.  Robyn asked Meg if she was going to decorate for Easter and I can't remember what she said in response, but somehow it got to Meg taking out her box of Easter decorations from the closet and the 3 of us on the floor and unboxing everything.  There were quite a few lambs, chicks, and rabbits after all that unboxing.  "I don't have that many Easter decorations."-Meg.  Mmmhm.  Well, that's true, in comparison to her Christmas decorations.  My favorite would have to be the large squirrel next to Robyn's feet.

Thank you, Veterans

Day off: We got the day off today for Veterans Day, so I spent the say mostly lounging around. I tried a new crock pot dish: beef stroganoff (Recipe #13). I didn't follow any recipe in particular, but rather got the gist of what needed to go into the crock pot based on what I found online. It turned out pretty good. 

Dog walking: My friend Beth asked me to walk her dog Lilly this afternoon.  I couldn't tell if the dog was excited to see me or excited to be able to get out of her crate or excited about going for a walk.  It was probably a combination of all those things.

Book #6 of 2012: I finished James Patterson's Private Games a few nights ago.  It was a good book, and I would recommend it.

It's back to the grind tomorrow...at least it's a short work week!

Fall-To Layout #204

Book #5 of 2012: A while ago I watched Brené Brown's two talks on TED Talks: The Power of Vulnerability and Listening to Shame. I thought that these were interesting topics so I Googled her name. Her book called The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are popped up, and I was able to download it from my library to my e-reader. It talked about living life wholeheartedly and offered tidbits on how to do that and squash the mental gremlins that knock down your self esteem. It was a nice quick read.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #204. My circle punches and circle die definitely got a workout!
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Stampin' Up- Elementary Elegance
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Darling Dear
Punch: EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch), Recollections
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Update on 2012 Movies and Book

Movies: On Friday, I watched the movie Warrior on Redbox which was surprisingly good despite its intense violence. And last night, I went to see Magic Mike with Meg and Robyn (finally). We had originally planned to go see it opening weekend, but with the huge storm and power outage, that was just not going to happen. We were really surprised that there was a family of several children in the theater. Did the parents just not do their research before they came to the movie? The previews alone would give them nightmares! Fortunately, the parents were smart to leave within the first few minutes of the movie. The movie was very entertaining, despite there being a disturbing drug background story. Channing Tatum, sigh.

Oh, by the way, this was a super funny clip of him with Jimmy Fallon. "Ew!" Ha ha.

Book #4 of 2012: I forgot to mention that I finished Catching Fire during the whole power outage event a few weeks ago. I thought the beginning was a little slow (I almost gave up), but I stuck it out since, well, what else could I do with no power? I'm glad that I did because the last half of the book was more action packed. I started Mockingjay when I was waiting for a friend to go see Brave a few weeks ago and was able to find it at the library not too long after that.

An Unexpected Visitor

An Unexpected Visitor: I was vacuuming my living room this afternoon and as I turn it off, I turn to see the next door neighbor's kid peeing in my front yard! Hey, pee in your own yard, mkay?! One part of me was thinking, "If you gotta go, you gotta go", but at the same time, someone should have been watching him to tell him that that was not appropriate behavior.

BBQ Dinner and Movie: I went to hang out with Meg and Robyn for dinner and a movie. We went to Red Hot and Blue. They seated us in the same booth we had sat in a few months back. The waitress came to get our drink orders. She was the same waitress we had last time, and she recognized us too! After a full dinner, we went to the grocery story to pick up dessert (double stuffed Oreos and ice cream bars) and a DVD movie (Valentine's Day). It was good and something that I would see again, but I probably wouldn't buy the DVD for myself.

Book #3 of 2012: I finished a book called Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. I have to admit that the cover caught my eye while I was browsing in the library. It has a cupcake on the front. Ha ha. The author wrote about her experiences as a person that has some severe food allergies (dairy, beef, soy, eggs, etc.). It was an interesting book because I personally don't have any food allergies so I felt like I learned something.

Now to pick up where I stopped in Catching Fire.

St. Paul, Day 3 and Crazy Happenings, Part 2

Travel: Yay, it is SO nice to be home! Yesterday was a little interesting. I think the policy forum ended on a positive note. I was able to meet up with my committee chair for lunch because she works very close to the hotel that I was staying at. I'll be talking to her on the phone on Monday for a committee call, funny enough.

At the airport, I saw one of my coworkers, and it turns out that she was going to be on the same flight as me to Atlanta. She mentioned that a funny thing happened to another coworker and a participant of the forum (these two are from the same state). At the forum, we learned about how to talk to our legislative representatives and how to give an elevator speech if the opportunity ever presented itself. This other coworker spotted their state representative at the airport and strongly encouraged the forum participant to go to talk to the representative and she did! Who would have thought that she'd have to put her new skills to the test right away?!

We got out of MN late, unfortunately, and I was really nervous that I would have to RUN to my connecting flight to DC. It was a miracle that the next flight was at a nearby gate, so I had a chance to run to the restroom and then jump on the plane. There were people already on it! Whew, that was close!

RJ was very clingy when I got home. :)

Book #2 of 2012: While I was traveling, I started and finished I Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. Kinsella has always been a consistent author for me, and I've enjoyed all her books, and this one is no different. The footnotes were an interesting quirk in the book, but I didn't think they were necessary. I finished this book just in time because Catching Fire (Hunger Games, Book 2) came in from the library and I picked it up today, yay!

Crazy happening: Which brings me to today. I dunno what it is about this week. It must be "Tina is a Weirdo Magnet" week, but no one thought to inform me. First, it was the down-on-his-luck guy earlier this week. And then today, someone came by the house this afternoon to set up an appointment to give an estimate on replacing windows to make them more energy efficient. There was no opportunity in there to say no, so I set the appointment up. The guy kept talking to me and started to creep me out by asking personal questions about me and RJ and standing in the doorway. I was equally freaked out that RJ would run outside. Once the guy left, I promptly went to the hardware store to get a door guard for the front door for extra security. The hardware store guy helping me asked who I was trying to keep out. "Uh, scary people." (Obviously, duh.)

"Well, yeah, you never know these days. Don't worry. If that person comes around again, I'll come help you."

(By now, I'm thinking, "Oh, great. Are you a crazy person too?")

"Do you want some mace?"

(o_0 Uhhh, say what? Ok, I'll give him a chance. Maybe he's actually trying to help me out.) "Uh, sure."

He goes and gets the mace from another part of the store and I picked one from the selection he offered. "Hopefully you'll never have to use this." He said something else about if I needed some extra protection, and he pointed to the taser that was clipped to his belt. WTH?! "What do you need THAT for?"

"To keep the scary people away."

(Oh, you don't want to mess with this guy. I guess his scary people are scarier than my scary people.)

These two incidences this week have really elevated my paranoia and hermit tendencies. This is kinda messed up, huh? I want to come across as an approachable person, but this seems to be more trouble than it's worth!

CARDS Magazine Sketch Challenge

Book: I finally finished The Help and of course, I loved it! I have some travel coming up this week, so I'm hoping I can finish another 2 books (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the new Sophie Kinsella book, I've Got Your Number) while hanging out at the airport and on the plane.

Card: Here's my take on this week's CARDS Magazine challenge, which focused on this sketch. To ensure that all the patterned paper matched, I stuck to one paper pack. The only part that I was stumped on in this sketch was what to do with large flower on the left. I suppose I could have used a die, but instead I cut out one of the large flowers in one of the sheets of patterned paper.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Round Frames
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Carla Craft sakura punch, Marvy Uchida Jumbo Daisy
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Other: Liquid Pearl in White Opal
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow, Recollections

Taking Mobility for Granted

Post-CrossFit: Recovery from Saturday's CrossFit class continues. My legs are feeling much better, but my arms. Ugh. It hurts to raise them. I have to grit my teeth while putting on a hoodie and tying my hair up in a ponytail. These are normally very simple tasks, but now I know what it's like when it's not so easy and not to take mobility for granted. Thank goodness for IcyHot.

Books: Since I couldn't really do much last night, I finished The Hunger Games. I'm glad that I was able to finish it a) so that I could give it back to Jennifer at the office and b) when I go see the movie, I'll know what's going on. I put the second and third books on hold at the library, but then found out that I'm like #200+ in line. Maybe I should go back and get The Help while I wait for my turn to come up.

Here's a picture of RJ stretching out while watching TV with me.

Tuesday Trigger: Chiclectic

Ok, so I don't have a guy to share Valentine's Day with. Meh, no biggie.

So what does a single girl do on Valentine's Day? Well, THIS single girl celebrated by taking the day off. Well, I mean, I was planning to take the day off to take care of some financial stuff with Dad and it just happened to fall on Valentine's Day. But really, it's a day about love and while most of the focus is on romantic love, I think that loving and taking care of yourself is important too. So how did I do that today? Let me count the ways.

1. Slept in.
2. Read some more of The Hunger Games. I'm about halfway through.
3. Took a long mid-afternoon nap.
4. Responded to work email only once all day.
5. Went to spin class.
6. Watched a new episode of NCIS. At least I have my TV boyfriends.
   
7. Did my nails. French manicure. It got a little banged up while I was making today's card, but who's going to be looking at my nails that closely anyway?

Here's my card for today, using this week's Moxie Fab World's image as inspiration. I never thought to pair hot pink and orange together, but I think it works. Looks kinda modern, right?
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan, Chatterbox, Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Stamps: American Crafts- Herbs
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Pearl: Recollections
Flowers: Prima, Recollections
Brad: Tapestry by C.R. Gibson- Ruby Lemonade

Good Karma

At the office: I didn't really pack a lunch today because I was banking on getting some lunch meeting leftovers. That was until I found out as I was going up the elevator that they had all been taken. Noooooo! I wandered into the kitchen anyway, as if I was the last scavenger to the party and there was nothing left. Wah.

BUT...

Then a coworker stopped me in the kitchen and said "Hey, Tina, I've been meaning to give you some money for the cards that you left out a few weeks ago. I thought you were going to leave a tip jar next to the box, but there was nothing there." Eeeh. Yeah. I mean, I thought about it, but I felt kinda funny about doing that and figured if I was hesitating, it probably wasn't a good idea. Anyway, he handed me some money and it was exactly what I needed to get a sandwich at Subway. What perfect timing! I mean, that was amazing! He didn't have to give me money because I WANTED people to take the cards that I had left in the kitchen. And he had no idea that I was looking for lunch. It was a reminder to me that what goes around comes around. I think it's true: if you do good things, good things will come back to you. :)

Book: I put The Help on hold in order to read The Hunger Games. There was some discussion about it at the brunch last Saturday so, of course, I wanna know what everyone's talking about!

Spin: The last time I went to spin was on Sunday. I missed 2 classes this week and even though I had the sniffles, I really felt compelled to go. And I'm glad that I did. Hello, exercise endorphins. How I've missed you.

Love You Card

At the office: I completed another project for the Big Boss today, and I didn't really hear from him until the end of the day and I saw him through the glass window of the office that I was camping out in. I was on a conference call, so I had the door closed. He draws a square with his fingers and mouthed "Thank you." I had made some slides for him. Ha ha.

We had our January all staff meeting. A few months ago, I nominated one of my co-workers with a staff award for going above and beyond. He has helped me with some presentation posters that I used for some conferences, and even if no one really looked at my poster in depth, at least it looked very professional and my co-worker was really easy to work with. I liked that non-senior staff members can nominate other staff members for this award, not just senior staff. I heard some of the new people walk by later, saying that it was a good staff meeting. I think we made a good first impression, and I think it's equally important to show people how much we appreciate them when they perform well. :)

The IT guys at work were nice enough to download iTunes to my work computer this morning. I was so happy to be able to download some music to my new iPhone and jam out to Kelly Clarkson at the gym after spin class.

Books: I started The Help a few nights ago. I hope to crunch through a bunch of it this weekend.

Card: OMG, I had intended to make a simple one-layer card, but getting to the final product took forever! How ironic, right? Well, I first started with one of the red cards that came in the Recollections pack that I got on Monday. I stamped the large swirly stamp from the calligraphy set with Versamark and then use white embossing powder on it. Well, the embossing powder was sticking in places that I didn't want it to stick, despite running a dryer sheet prior to stamping. I tried that a few times, and I wasn't satisfied with any of them. Then I switched to a white card base with brown ink. I think because it's a large image, it's sometimes tough to get a clean image. The left side might be darker than the right or some part of the image might not stamp at all. UGH. However, after the fifth try tonight, I came up with something I was happy with.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Red
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Calligraphy Stamp Set, The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Nails: I gave my nails a rest for a few days, so now it's time to try another color that I bought but haven't used yet. This shade of green reminds me of Elphaba from Wicked. Base coat: China Glaze in Starboard (2 coats). White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.