Monday, August 28, 2006

16 Days to Go!!


Woo hoo! That picture is from our last big camping trip to Townsend, TN/Great Smoky Mountains. I'm so very excited. Things are coming together quite nicely. There are a few more things that we need to purchase, but everything is still a go. I spent some time yesterday organizing all of my notes and/or printouts into one binder, so I can start condensing. Chris claims that I enjoy preparing for the trip more than the actual trip. I do enjoy planning, so its like I get to enjoy our vacation that much more! Anyhow, I am doing a lot of planning, but its not like I'm micro-scheduling every minute of every day. There is actually big blocks of time, where it will just be free time. I'm just trying to think through as many things as I can, so there will be less chance for a disaster. Plus, some of the things that we want to do require reservations.

I have posted a poll below. We have one day of sight seeing in Colorado Springs. In the morning, we will be visiting the Garden of the Gods. At lunch, we will grab something simple in Manitou Springs, and then head to Pikes Peak to ride the Cog Railway to the top. Right now, I'm trying to decide what to do for dinner that night. I'd like to do something fairly nice/unique, but we will also be dressed for outdoorsy stuff, so I don't want anything too fancy. I did some research and came up with the following choices. The first one has been recommended to me by multiple people. The next two are ones that I found on the internet, and look really interesting. Can't promise that I will abide by what the poll results are, but it would be nice to get some other feedback!

***poll removed****

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

no officer, i don't know why you pulled me over

continuing saga of the wedding programs. we got the black high yield ink. it worked great, but it did NOT print the stated 1200 pages that the review said it would print. more like 700. so I had to make another walmart run at 11:30 at night. I HAVE to get these programs done tonight. so i decided to stop at Kroger since it is much closer and see if they have it. right as I was turning into Kroger I saw the flashing lights and heard the siren. i have to admit a few choice words slipped. turns out she pulled me over because we have a head light out. when she asked if i knew why she pulled me over, i said that i didn't know. kind of a fib, cause i had a good idea, but i didn't KNOW for sure. she gave me a warning for the headlight. i knew there was a chance when i went to kroger, because sometimes there is a cop across the street clocking people. but i so desperately wanted to get it and get back home. still ended up at walmart, cause kroger didn't have it. grrr. so i'm finishing the programs. should be done a little after 1:00am. I hope.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

procrasitnation + treen/amrine luck = bad combo

A friend from work is getting married Saturday. Way back in December when she got engaged, I volunteered my husband to make the programs. So we had MORE than enough time to do them. But of course, as usual, life got in the way, and we put them off until the last minute. Chris started the drawing about a week ago. He completed it last Saturday (and it looks fabulous - see picture). I finished up the layout using publisher the day before. We wanted my friend to approve it before we started printing it, so I showed it to her at work and we made our final edits. It turned out REALLY cute. So tonight's plan was to print a big batch of them.

The thing is, I didn't quite realize how many programs we would be printing. She is having a rather large wedding, and wants 350 programs. We are printing them on our inkjet at home. The programs are 2 pages, front and back on each. That is 700 pieces of paper, but 1400 prints. Dude. Thats a lot. Never fear, Lexmark has some high yield ink cartridges. I told Chris to pick some up at work since he gets a nice discount. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the number of the ink cartridge for the black cartridge, and the stupid girl behind the counter didn't know what she was talking about. When I tried to install the new cartridges, oddly enough, the black didn't print. AHHHHH. Did I mention that I have to have the programs done to take to work on Wednesday so we can fold them. My friend is only work a half day thursday and taking Friday off. So it is imperative that I at least get some printed tonight. SO I headed back into Lex to try and find a high yield cartridge. Couldn't find one anywher. Not Best Buy, Office Max, Office Depot or Walmart. So I headed home empty handed. There was still a little black left in the current cartridge, I would see how far that went. Not too far, only about 25 pages. Not good. So I head to Walmart to get a normal cartridge. 250 pages later, and the black ink is almost empty. Worthless cartridges. (BTW, I also spent about 1.5 hours trying to install office 2003, couldn't get the download to work, then I couldn't get the cd to burn, then I couldn't get the product key from my email).

So. It is 10 till 1:00 (am) and I'm still printing. I am going to be dead tomorrow. But I'll have even more stuff to do then. Here's hoping I have used up my allowance of bad luck, and tomorrow will go smoothly.

YEAH RIGHT!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Colorado Trip


We are still planning our trip to Colorado. We ran into a bit of a road-block when I re-examined our budget. Apparently when I was figuring out the cost of gas, I used the gas mileage for Cora (the corolla) instead of Ghengis (dodge ram). Quite a difference. Almost a $400 difference.

So after stressing for awhile, and throwing up every conceivable option, we have decided that we are still going, but we will be renting an "intermediate SUV". All of our stuff won't fit in Cora, and taking the truck could turn into a disaster. I was talking over all of this with the people at work, and my boss has offered to let me work some overtime on a special project. So cool beans. Very generous of him. Chris may work some overtime as well. We will also be tightening our belts for the next month cause there are a number of things that I would like to purchase. Right now, the plan is for us to camp in Colorado Springs for 3 days, and then go up to the Cache la Poudre area, and camp for 5 days.

I will post more details in the next few days. I may be posting a few polls so people can vote on what they think we should do in Colorado. I will also be finishing up our road trip saga. :)

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Finally made it to the gym

Well, we made it to the gym this morning. Yesterday was a disaster. We got up and got dressed for the gym, but DH forgot to put his tennis shoes in his bag, and it took 20 minutes to find them. Then we left, and we were running very late when I remembered I left something for work on the kitchen counter, and I had to have it. So we gave up and went home and just got ready for work.

We did go today. I almost caved, but I wouldn't let myself. I only walked the track, and I didn't even keep track of how many laps I did. My knee started to hurt after 2 laps, so I didn't push it too hard. However, it was very empowering to be there and doing anything. I thought about how far I have to go, and how will I stay motivated. I still have my big goal of 120 lbs. However, I just can't focus on that because it is so far away. So I'm setting up a mini-big goal:

I WANT TO LOSE 20 LBS BY THE TIME WE GO ON VACATION (SEPT 12).

So that is the first milestone that I'm working towards. It will give me something to focus on. It isn't so tiny that I think it is inconsequential. It is a decent goal.

I will try and take a picture and post it on here to help keep me motivated.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Road Trip Part 2

Friday:
We woke up around 8 or so, and got ready to leave. The motel had the lamest continental breakfast ever. It started raining as we loaded the car. Our first destination was Milwaukee. We had picked up a number of brochures in the hotel, and decided to try and visit the Miller Plant (beer) in Milwaukee. Of course, it proceeded to pour down rain. We also re-discovered, that you really can't trust the maps on the backs of brochures, because they are very rarely accurate. After getting twisted around, and instead of finding the Miller Factory we found the Miller Memorial Football stadium (quite nice), we decided to stop for some breakfast. We stopped at an iHop, and Chris decided to try and mimic the Wisconsin accent throughout the whole meal. It was quite entertaining. Milwaukee as a whole was kind of nasty and not very impressive. I didn't help that it was raining like crazy. We finally found the Miller Factory, only to discover that the tour was an inside/outstide tour, and it would take an hour. We poked around the giftshop and then decided to get back on the road.

We noticed a town on the map called "Osh Kosh" and decided it wasn't very far out of the way. We headed that way. The Wisconsin country-side is SOOO picturesque. We kept seeing all of these gorgeous dairy farms. Big red barns, and rolling hills, and quaint farmhouses. It really was beautiful. Chris hadn't got much sleep the previous night, so he tried to nap. We made it to Osh Kosh around lunch time, so we had a lunch in an interesting little coffee shop. Osh Kosh definitely had the college-town vibe going. Lots of little shops, but not a lot of people shopping. I always wander how places like that make it. We got back on the road, and headed to Green Bay.
Now, one of the appealing things about Wisconsin, is that it is well known for its CHEESE! And we all know how crazy I am about cheese! We had only passed one open cheese place so far, and I didn't stop, cause it was really tiny, and we didn't see it till we passed. I was so sure that we would see tons more. I didn't see ANY cheese stores on our way to Green Bay, and I was begining to think the made up the whole "cheese state" thing. We got to Green Bay, and went to the visitor's center, to see if they had any brochures on cheese places to go. We didn't find any that would be on our way, so I decided to stop worrying about it. We got to see Lambo field, and it was really cool. Now we were on our way to the UP (upper penisula) of Michigan. We stopped in this tiny town called Menominee in Wisconsin before we crossed into MI to get gas. I stayed in the car while Chris paid. And he came out with TWO kinds of cheese. My thoughtful honey. The first one was a cheddar mixture, and the second was a smoky mozarella. The cheddar was great, but the smoky mozarella was VERY salty, and it was hard to eat more than a few bites.

to be continued . . . .

blech

so far, not so good. didn't really "start" trying to lose weight. not seriously, at least. i brought a WW meal to work today, but i didn't bring any snacks, and i didn't eat breakfast, so that didn't work.

but i'm going to the gym tomorrow. and i will try and plan my meals/snacks ahead a little bit better.