Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Dammit. Nobody is reading...Does this mean....

i have to live blog the Academy Awards by myself?

Friday, February 21, 2014

7 Things I Am Really Jazzed About....



1. I am loving Breaking Bad. We're on the 3rd season so please NO SPOILERS....we have a ways to go! How does a TV show have such good writing that can make you love people who sell and use meth?

2. I love bowling. I don't know why i love bowling so much, i  only have a 114 average and this comes about from sometimes bowling a 92 and then another game bowling a 158, as i did last week. (Maybe it's because i surprise myself with the 158.) Plus my husband and my brother are on my team and my other brother coordinates the league. And also my favorite nephew bowls too, so it's a family thing.

3. American Idol. I watched for years but when Simon left years ago we quit watching. Now they have three new judges and i love them all. Keith Urban is so endearingly sweet to me that i can get over him being married to Nicole Kidman. I crack up most at Harry Connick Jr and he fulfills my need for not being too nice to the contestants. (He's a tough critic.) And Jennifer Lopez doesn't bother me at all as i expected.

4.  Retiring. My retire/rehire part-time work is almost over. I think March 28.  Enough said.

5. Cortona, Italy! Yesterday we wired the money to pay for our house that we are staying for two weeks this spring. Now we have to book our airfare. I've been doing some research online and found a series of travel videos on YouTube on the town. It's a cute small town with lots of culture, though it is somewhat touristy now because the town is the same one where Diane Lane lives in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.  (I did not know that before we booked this trip.) It looks perfect for us. Brian has a friend that will already be there who will show us the ropes and pick us up from the airport. This is how i like to travel!


6. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has been awesome already in his first week. I am pulling for him like he was part of my family. I just love him. How could you not? I loved the charades game he had with Tim McGraw, Emma Thompson and Bradley Cooper.  Part 1 is below.

7. Nothing horrible has happened at the Olympics in Sochi. I was so worried. And Bodie Miller won a medal.



Notes to Self:

Sunrise: 7:06 am
Sunset: 5:43 pm (21 more minutes of daylight since my last post!)
High/Low temp today: 46/38
Longest Run: 40 minutes, but i'm not sure because my stopwatch broke.
Number of cat photos i hid on Facebook this week: 3
Word count: 413
Idea for next blog post: Stuff that people post that i hide on Facebook

Saturday, February 15, 2014

A Good Week...includes my favorite Olympic Moment

These are salt and pepper shakers that my mom bought me a few years ago because we bowl. They are so incredibly goofy that i love them. 
It's been a good week. Here are some small reasons why:

1. iTunes: I haven't bought anything from iTunes in awhile but just recently found two songs thanks to equeyaya for Passenger's "Let Her Go" and SNL for introducing me to Imagine Dragons and their song"Radioactive".

2. Running: Finally hooked back up with friend and running buddy Karie today. She started a new job and we have not run together since September.

3. Book:  Started going to the library again. Found a book The Returned which has been made into a TV series i have not watched yet. But i like the book so far. And i like going to the library. (Plus it will save me money!)

4. My job: My job was finally posted yesterday. It closes on Feb. 27. I will train my replacement in March and after 25 years will be totally done. It's been so nice to transition with my 18 hour week. And i will probably be sad that day i turn over my key and leave, but i am looking forward to it. I've already been packing up.

5. American Idol: I LOVE Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban too. And i never expected to like Jennifer Lopez but i do. (I just wish she would quit calling everyone 'baby'.)

6. My favorite Olympic moment: the American skater Jeremy Abbot fell on his very first jump and stayed down for quite awhile before getting up. It looked like he would leave the ice but the crowd cheered and he went on with his program and did very well. When he was done the crowd gave him a standing ovation. It almost made ME tear up watching. Years from now, this is what i will remember about these Olympics.

7. Bowling: We started this week. I haven't bowled since last April so when my very first ball was a strike i had high hopes. But then i ended up with a 92 and a 94 on my first two games. But my third game? ...I bowled a 158!  (Don't know how i did that. I think that second beer loosened me up. )

8. Richard Sherman wants our photo: His people asked me if i would write a review about the four 'You Mad Bro' shirts i bought for our bowling team. So i wrote about how he was my favorite Seahawk and how our bowling team was called the SuperBowlers. They wrote back yesterday and asked if i would send them a photo of us wearing our shirts so Richard Sherman could add it to his Facebook page. hahaha...( Does Richard do his own Facebooking really? )

9. Jimmy Fallon! Can't wait for him to start on Monday!

10. Snow: One week ago we had a lot of snow! We didn't see much of it since we were at a charity auction but it was fun to come home to.


Notes to Self:                                                            
Sunrise: 7:17 am
Sunset: 5:33 pm (30 extra minutes of daylight since last week's post!)
hi/low temp: 53/37
Number of cat photos i had to hide on Facebook: 4
Number of Valentine's flower photos i had to hide: 5
Word count: 479

Added because i mention in my comments: i found this house for louie to buy, which is only a mile from our place. It's on my running route and it's on the golf course and very cool inside! 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Damn You Phillip Seymour Hoffman....plus other stuff.


I had a whole long blog post on this and just deleted it and decided to say this: Damn you Phillip Seymour Hoffman for denying all of us the future of movies without you in them. You were one of THE most amazing actors in this era. It's sad that you couldn't beat your demons. Rest in Peace.



OK, on with the rest of this. All random stuff. As usual, i have no idea what i'm about to say.

1.  Seattle had a huge Seahawks parade today and over a half million people showed up in the streets. The news reports that many teachers were not at school today, and some schools reported more than 1/3 of the students absent. I saw on Facebook a couple of teachers post photos from that parade and i can only hope that they took a personal leave day instead of a sick day!

2. I was emailing louie this morning and watching The Today Show when they showed the winner of The Biggest Loser. Her name is Rachel Frederickson. And as i was writing louie i told her  thought this girl now looked like she was heading towards anorexia (even though everyone was oohing and aahing about how great she looked).

Here is a photo:

I didn't know at the time, but now Google is filled with stories about this girl being far too skinny. She is only 105 lbs and 5'5 - her body fat is under 18%. Jillian Michaels needs to be stopped!

3. Facebook folks, have you seen the new video you can make of your Facebook life? hahaha.... complete with music just by clicking a button! AND the photos even keep pace with the music. It's actually pretty cool how it works, but it's also kind of creepy how they choose what photos or posts to put up there.

4. Allow me one more thing about the Seahawks and why it was so important for many of us. It brought us all together, regardless of political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, age, race, economic background. I haven't seen that in a long time. It was refreshing to be a part of something so positive and un-polarizing with the way things are these days.

5. I am SO looking forward to Jimmy Fallon taking over from Leno. David Letterman should also consider retirement  - he is starting to remind me of Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino.

6. I just deleted my thoughts here about Chris Christie. I don't know what i think really. It's kind of how i feel about Amanda Knox too. What is the truth? I just wish it could be flushed out with real evidence or put both stories to bed.

7. My job at work is being posted next week so i will TOTALLY be done around March 28th. My own union (who presides over all of us in the whole state) didn't like me working emeritus because they want every vacancy to be posted full-time.

I was asked to stay on to keep things afloat as we tried to merge councils with another that is already top heavy with associate staff. I agreed as long as it wasn't full-time (and also because i love working with my Council President who is also a friend.) I still believe in unions but i do not like my own state's union leadership at all. And i have often butted heads over the years because of their hard core militant union stance. So it's time for me to go. Management doesn't want to arbitrate my staying on. And i get that.

However, i have to say this: it is my union contract that has allowed me the opportunity to retire at my age with a decent pension. So there is that. I just know a different president of my union would have seen the benefit to saving members' money by waiting for the merger.

8. Having said that, i am ready to be gone from work and have been since last summer. So i am not unhappy that it will be coming soon. I plan to go back to volunteering. AND louie and i plan to do some sewing together, maybe go to the YMCA and take up yoga...start a book club....i'll stay as busy as i want to be! I am very lucky!

Notes to Self: 
Sunrise: 7:32 am
Sunset:   5:18 pm (extra 12 minutes this week)
# of cat photos i had to hide: 2
Book: Atonement
Netflixing: Breaking Bad: On Season 2, episode 10. I LOVE this show. Now is see what all the fuss was about! It's genius how they make you care about these characters who make and sell meth. Reminds me of how Pulp Fiction made me root for and love assassins.
Hi/Low temps: 34/18 (super cold this week!)
Word Count: 666. Screw it, when i saw that number i decided to let it rip. (this is not counting caption and Notes to Self.)
Follower of the Month: amulbunny...for nearly always being first!