Trip to MN

Well, my trip to MN was very interesting. Kind of a huge waste of time, work-wise. We left on Tuesday to get things set up for a judging that was taking place on Saturday. There simply wasn't enough work to justify being gone that long and I was pissed cause I've been traveling way too much. We stayed in kind of a crappy part of MN, very industrial. The block we were on had a nice restaurant right next door to Sex World. No, I'm not kidding.

I did have a couple of really nice meals while I was there. I went to Jax, which is apparently a local institution, and had walleye, a fish that is only found near MN. I also had walleye and a great meal at Cafe Brenda, another restaurant that's been around for a long time.

I got together with a friend of mine that I met as a junior in high school and I hadn't seen since. Even though I don't really know her that well, we were never at a lack of conversation, and she took me on a driving tour of some of the local lakes around the city. It was really beautiful, and some of those homes must have cost a pretty penny. As opposed to the cool new lofts they're putting in near Sex World, which were running in the 100s and low 200s. It almost made me want to buy one as an investment and rent it out. I really envied people their lifestyle. A lot of people had an extra home on a lake, or lived right on a lake. Almost made me want to move to MN. But not quite. Too cold.

I didn't get back until last night, and had to work today, so needless to say I'm not very happy about all that. I have a scratchy throat and feel kind of crappy, so I'm trying not to get sick. I am going to a new yoga class at 7:30, and hoping that maybe that will transform my current malady into health. We'll see.

Thursday Night Fun

Jeffro's band, Jeter has a show coming up this Thursday, April 26th at Bistro Europa in Old Town Alexandria. They'll be starting around 9:30 and playing ‘til closing, so come on out with some friends, and get your Thursday on. No cover.

www.myspace.com/jeterband
www.bistro-europa.com

Minnesota Bound

I'm headed to Minnesota for work this week. I'll be gone all damn week and I'm not happy. I hope, at the very least, to get to see the Mall of America, touted as "the largest fully enclosed retail and entertainment complex in the United States." It should be an interesting trip. Have a great week.

Bathroom Done!

My bathroom was finished last Friday, but I had to go straight from work out of town, so I didn't get to see it until yesterday. They did a fabulous job, what an improvement!

Bathroom Pics, Part 2

This is my bathroom under construction.

Vindicated

Can I tell you how proud and gloating I am after my Tuesday night prediction of Sanjaya finally getting kicked off came true? Well, I guess I just did. Outta here until after this weekend . . .

Face the Fat Facts

This cool new site from the American Heart Association explains the fats in your diet and helps you to figure out how much of which ones to eat. What's really great is this fat calculator, where you put in your personal info and get a specific amount of fat grams to shoot for each day. This is the part I always find confusing, trying to remember what percentage of your diet fats should be and how many grams that translates into. This new calculator makes it easy. Just remember, though, just because it says 0 grams of trans fat on the label, doesn't mean there's no trans fat in there. If the amount is less than a certain amount, they don't have to list it on the label, but if you read the ingredient list, you see where they sneak the trans fat in . . .

Bathroom Pics

I got home from work tonight, eager to see the progress in the bathroom. Here's what I came home to . . . a demolition zone! Tomorrow they're putting in the tub. Apparently when the shower was put in years ago, they didn't line it with anything, which is why I had such a bad mold problem. The contractor said the entire drywall was moldy and rotting. Lovely! Glad I breathed in that air for the past 7 years . . . so now I get to go clean my downstairs bathroom, which we'll need to use for the next 3-4 days while everything is being installed. I can't wait to see the final product!

Crazy American Idol Prediction

Ok, I'm going to say that this week the impossible will happen . . . I think that it's finally time for Sanjaya to be kicked off. This was, by far, the absolute most abysmal performance of his to date, and there have been some pretty bad ones before this. We are getting down to the heart of the competition, and while I'm sure all of this has been fun for those out there voting for him just cause he's awful, I think there's going to come a point when America has to "keep it real" as Randy would say. I also think unfortunately LaKisha is at risk this week too. She took a very popular song by a former Idol winner and tried unsuccessfully to "make it her own." Just not a good performance. So we'll see if my prediction about Sanjaya is right . . .

What's On My Mind

I haven't blogged in a while, I've been busy as always. I haven't been feeling well, so I actually took a day off work yesterday cause I have a really busy 2 weeks ahead and couldn't afford to get sick. I'm even skipping a concert tonight cause I don't want to be out too late.

I had a bad day at work today, and I'm just not happy overall with my job.

I'm on the brink of finally getting my bathroom shower redone. It's a total disaster and I can't wait to get it fixed up. The problem is, the price is $500 higher than when I had it estimated last June, which really sucks.

I also want to gripe about the weather. I just cannot stand one more friggin cold, windy day. Is this not April? I'm so depressed about it . . . and yesterday in all that wind, the gate to my yard was completely destroyed. The only good thing about that is it's the condo association's responsibility to fix it, thank God.

This weekend I'm going to NY to visit my grandfather. He sold his house since it's hard to take care of after my grandmother died, and he's moving closer to his son, which is good. However, he chose now to do this and I'm just pissed about it. Couldn't he have waited until things settled down with my sister a little more? So I have to go up there and see if there's anything I want. Then next week I have to go to MN for work for almost the entire week.

Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty stressed out these days. I also was pretty upset about yesterday's incident at VA Tech. Having something like that happen is horrific, and the fact that part of it could have been avoided had officials closed down the campus really pisses me off. I just feel horrible for all of those students, who were looking forward to the end of the year. This hit me pretty hard, I think partly because we had a suicide on my hall my sophomore year, and that was just awful to go through. I can't imagine having to deal with a loss of this magnitude.

Martina on Idol Tonight

Don't forget to watch Martina McBride tonight on American Idol! I'm very interested to hear what she'll have to say to everyone's favorite contestant Sanjaya.

Ode to Zoe

A good friend of mine's dog died last night. I found out at work today and had to go into the bathroom cause I was crying. Non-pet owners might not understand, but often dogs are like children, especially those of us (like me) that will likely never have kids. Zoe'd been sick for a while with various and serious problems including congestive heart failure, so we knew she wasn't long for this world. My friend and I got our dogs around the same time 13 years ago, so this has been doubly hard, because I'm dreading the somewhat impending demise of my own dog. My dog is doing relatively ok, but when a dog gets to be that old, you just never know. I'm just so sad for my friend, and the empty spot in her heart and home that was Zoe. She worked at home, so Zoe was always around, which is going to make things even harder. This pic is the way I like to remember her, one ear up and one ear down. Zoe used to go absolutely nuts whenever I'd visit, and her mom got angry that she got so wild and crazy. But it just made me smile that she was such a happy dog. RIP, Zoe.

George is Gone!

I reported back in January about a new radio station, George 104. Well, believe it or not, it's gone already, changed over to some gospel station. Gospel? I'm very disappointed, to say the least. Apparently George is still around on some HD station, so maybe that was their ploy. Come in strong, get people hooked, ask them to switch over to HD. That really sucks!

In other news, I spent the weekend in NJ with Jeffro's family. It was a pretty good trip. This whole month is packed with travel. I'm going to NY next week to see my family, then going to MN the end of the month for a work trip. My goal in May is to stay home, have things slow down a bit, but we'll see if that actually happens. It's unlikely.

DC Wins Iron Chef

Congrats to local chef Jose Andrés from Jaleo and Zatinya, among others, who battled and beat Bobby Flay on tonight's episode of Iron Chef America. How exciting! There was a viewing party at Jaleo, I just wish I'd gotten my act together to go over there to be a part of the victory celebration!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I posted, guess things have been busy. Did I mention I finally did my taxes last week and I'm getting a huge refund? I can't wait, I already know what I'm doing with the money.

My weekend has been WAY too short. Yesterday I spent the day at the ballet. Before you get too excited, it was a ballet my nieces were in, so a bunch of kids in tutus. Yes, it was cute, but not how I wanted to spend the one really nice sunny day of the weekend. The good thing about yesterday was I got to spend a little time after that with my sister who has cancer. I haven't really gotten to spend much time with her since she moved back here. I had a few things to get off my chest, and I was able to do that. Despite that, we did have a nice visit overall.