Unwanted Visitors and Meg's Birthday Card

This morning started off on the wrong note.  I woke up around 2 AM to some scratching noises in the ceiling.  RJ was pacing around to get a sense of what was going on.  Oh, great.  I have some unwanted guests living in the roof.  I pulled up the animal control website on my phone and tried to tune it out as much as possible.  As soon as I relaxed enough to fall asleep, the creature picked that time to be active again.  When I got out of bed for good, I called the animal control people and the lady on the phone was not surprised that I was having issues.  "Oh, this is the time that animals are having their babies.  It could be three things: squirrels, flying squirrels and raccoons.  Would you like us to come for an inspection?"  I wish they had an available appointment today, but apparently they were booked and tomorrow was not a good time for me because I have to be at the office.  Wednesday it is.  If anything, I hope they can at least identify where the animals are coming in and patch it up so there are no more unwanted tenants.

When I IMed Julie when I got to work, she was like "At least it wasn't spiders."

On a brighter note, I got my car serviced this morning and the maintenance guy gave me a 15% discount because I bought it at a partner Honda dealership.

Meg's birthday is coming up soon, so in preparation, I made her birthday card last night.  I was inspired by our recent trip to the San Diego Zoo and her love of flamingos.  I used this origami site as a reference for the origami model.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Sour Apple, Warm Green, Yellow Citrus
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), K.I. Memories- Garden (grass), TPC Studio- Cupcakes (balloon)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Other: Black Ultra Fine Point Sharpie 

Target Clearance Luck

I had good intentions of going to spin class this morning, but that just didn't work out.  I vowed to do a Fitness Blender workout later on in the day to make it up.

I saw that Target was having a sale on workout clothes, so I went to the one that wasn't my regular one just to see what they were offering.  On the way out the door, I slipped on the walkway today. You couldn't see the ice because it was hidden under a layer of water. I went down slowly, thankfully (unlike my boss who broke her wrist last February when she slipped on the ice).  The winter has done a lot of damage to the walkway with the water freezing and refreezing.  The roads have so many potholes!

Anyway, I didn't find any workout clothes that worked for me, but I did come away with some tights on clearance.  I totally love the leopard print ones that I got months ago.

After taking a nice afternoon nap, I went to the mall closer to me to get some Fitbit steps in.  I saw that JCPenney was having a sale on workout clothes and I was hoping to have better luck than Old Navy and Target.  I found a few workout capris that I liked, but instead of buying them there, I came home to buy them online.  They were offering free to-store shipping, an additional 25% off and Ebates was doing 15% cash back on them tonight too.  Mwah ha ha.

I held myself to the promise I made this morning about doing a Fitness Blender workout.  The one that I did tonight was the one called "Fun Fat Burning Cardio Workout At Home to Boost Endurance and Get Fit Fast."  Fun?  Mmm, I wouldn't say that it was fun because now my thighs and shoulder muscles will be feeling it tomorrow.  But I did it! :)

New Card and Samples from CVS

My goal today was to get a new pair of jeans, so Julie and I went to the mall today and made a beeline for Old Navy since I had a coupon from my email.  I tried 3 pairs and none of them fit right.  Blah.  Oh well.  I didn't walk away empty handed from the mall though because I took care of my Chik-fil-a craving.

After dropping Julie at home, I went to CVS to get some rubbing alcohol and the cashier gave me this bag of beauty samples.  Hooray!

I went to another mall afterwards to get some steps in as well as go to Costco.  Mom got me this really yummy spinach salad from them and I already finished it so I needed to get a refill.  Plus, I needed to get some strawberries and blackberries.  A 2 lb. container of strawberries was $2.99.  I might have to go back to get some more tomorrow.

I went to Joann's because Safeway spit out a 50% off coupon.  I came away with a new Spellbinders die.  For some reason, the coupon didn't work so the cashier had to override it and gave me the coupon back to use for another day.  :)  I figured the decorative vase could be use for a variety of cards: sympathy, birthday, every day, etc.  I, of course, had to use it for a card tonight.

Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Brads: American Crafts- Mini Jewel Brads in White
Die: Spellbinders- Filigree Vase
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Fitbit Goal Met and Snow Day

I met my Fitbit goal of doing 10,000 steps per day for the month of February.  I was actually able to continue to the streak through Monday, but then because of traveling and being lazy on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, I didn't hit 10,000 steps on those days.  But I'm back on track today!

OPM closed the federal government today so I didn't have to work. However, because there was so much snow today, about probably 6 inches, I still worked to keep me occupied. It felt really nice to sleep in though.  No matter what OPM says tomorrow, I'll have to work because I'm scheduled to telework on Fridays. 

Spring MPH Event

I stayed at my parents' house last night since it was icy outside. I had 1 conference call this morning and for the rest of the day, I was catching up on email while I was out and then it was time to head to the UMD campus. My friend Jenny (far right) invited me back to the UMD campus for an MPH alumni event.  Not as many undergrads came to this event compared to last fall, but it was nice to talk to the students that did show up.  She strategically placed me and Jessie at the same table so we could catch up, which was nice. 

After I left campus, I went to Safeway to get some groceries since I pretty much emptied my fridge before I went to San Diego. And snow is supposed to be coming tomorrow, so I need food! I dropped by my parents' house to get RJ and hang out for a bit since I was in a rush to leave this morning so I could telework at my own place.  I also bought Julie a mini pie and wrote an apology note from RJ since he was waking her up at 5:30 AM for breakfast while I was out of town.  Eeek, sorry.

Mom's non-helpful helper.

San Diego, Day 3: SeaWorld and Little Italy

Today's goal was to get Meg's rental car and the go to Sea World.  It was cool to see the marine animals swimming around.  We made sure to see all the animal shows: killer whale, dolphin and sea lion.  They were entertaining, but I wish there was more of an educational piece rather than the pomp and circumstance. I guess that's more of an aquarium thing?  I dunno.  A part of me also felt guilty about being there and supporting an organization that puts these large animals in tanks when they really should be out in the open ocean.  I didn't have that sense of guilt when I went to the zoo the day before. They did, however, mention something about rescuing many sea lion pups the past few months, so I'm hoping our admission ticket helps pay for those rescues. 

 

After a long day of walking, we definitely earned our dinner tonight.  We went to Filippi's for some Italian food in Little Italy.  I got the chicken parmigiana and Meg got the eggplant parmigiana.  OMG, the portion of food was huge.  In addition to the food seen in the picture below, we also got soup and salad.  Whew, but it was amazingly delicious!

San Diego, Day 2: San Diego Zoo

Meg tried to get her rental car today, but that was a bust because no one at the government travel agency was picking up.  I don't know if it was because it was Sunday, but I would imagine that travel issues can come up on Sundays and would need to be addressed.  Good thing it wasn't like she was traveling internationally and got stuck.

Anyway, we had breakfast and took a taxi to the San Diego Zoo.  Because it was raining, we decided to hope on the guided tour bus.  Afterwards, we walked to the animal exhibits that we wanted to see.  My favorites were the koalas, giraffes, elephants, lions, jaguar, and the tiger. 

Seeing the tiger was the best part of the zoo trip.  He wasn't in his normal enclosure because it was currently being renovated.  We went to his temporary home and didn't see anyone home.  A woman in zoo gear and galoshes came up to the fence.  "Conner!  Conner, I'm going home.  I wanted to let you know!  Conner!  Bye!"  All of a sudden, a tiger emerged from the back of the enclosure, his cave, and came as close to the fence as he could.  Ah, this was his keeper.  "Go get your toy!  Why are you rubbing against the wall, you silly boy!"  She was talking to him like I would talk to RJ.  The tiger even looked like he knew what she was saying.  Once she was out of sight, he climbed back up the hill back to his cave and away from public view.  It was pretty cool to see this interaction.

 

 

 

After our trip to the zoo, we went back to the hotel and hung out to rest our feet after walking around (with hills!) for 4 hours.  For dinner, we went to Pappalecco where I got a caprese sandwich and a slice of apple crumb pie (the sandwich was better.  I thought I'd like the pie like regular apple pie, but it was meh).  Meg had the same sandwich and some chocolate gelato.