we've already won

Get ready for the cutest little thing you've ever seen EVER.

{via}

The most adorable booboo you've ever seen and she's in Seattle, at the Woodland Park Zoo. Now I want to go see her. Actually, I just want her. Givehertomenow!

In other news, I went to the gym! There's a gym that's equidistant from the house and my work (about a ten minute walk) and when I was walking past the other week, they gave me a free 2-week pass. So I made Nate go down and get a pass too, so we can go together. It's relatively cheap for the monthly fees, but there are "joining fees" so we're trying to see if we can get those waived/sorted out so we can either not pay them or fit them into our limited budget. We'll see.

The gym itself is really cool. It's in a super-old building that was a bank from 1917 to 1981, and the door leading into the locker rooms is the huge bank vault. Also, they have a hot tub w/ a waterfall, steam room, sauna...tanning beds (not that I use those) and lots of machines. Plus, they aren't crowded on the weekends because they're downtown, so a lot of their patronage is only there during the work-week. We went at lunch today and there were plenty of machines open, which is awesome. They have a limited class schedule, but I'm ok with not necessarily going to classes and just hanging out in on the hot tub treadmill or elliptical. I think we get a couple personal trainer sessions for free with our membership, too. Exciting! My plan is to go during lunch and run/walk/jog/crawl for half an hour because -- let's face it -- 30 minutes is better than nothing. I'm blessed not to sweat very much, so I can get away with just changing and some deoderant, but I'll probably get some facial cleanser wipes just to get the band of perspiration around my hairline all squared away.

In anycase, I am one thirsty mofo. But I need to pace myself, cause I can only fit so much water in my belly at once before I start feeling like a water balloon.

Lastly, my booboo made me this awesome signature that will (eventually and hopefully) one day tie into a theme that he will make for me. But that's a story for another day. Check it out!

you can't be too careful anymore (wee bit wednesday)

Link up here, with Leigh Ashley!  {one} when was the last time you used a pay phone (if ever)?uhm....high school? I think my first cellphone was 10th grade, so probably 9th grade. to call my Dad to come pick me up. because I was too lazy to walk the mile and a half home. And there was a giant hill between my house and school! {two} did you ever fail a subject in school?yes and no. I never failed because I didn't do the work, but I did almost fail Algebra II in high school because of absences. I did fail swimming my last semester of college, because I just stopped going for a while. But it was a pass/fail class, so it didn't affect my GPA or nothin'. {three} where do you go to get your favorite hamburger/cheeseburger?I'm a Wendy's girl, through and through. I'm also a fan of Krystal. Honestly, I like fast food burgers better than homemade/restaurant burgers..but I think that just because they no longer taste like ground beef. I'm not a big beef person in general. Unless you're talking about Poe's in Charleston, SC. Their burgers are delectable.
{four} have you ever served jury duty?Nope, never even been summond. I think I move to much. (excuse me while I knock on wood.) {five} how old were you when you moved out of your parents’ house?I moved into the dorm my first year of college, stayed there for my second. Then I moved into a townhouse, but wound up moving back home halfway through the year. I moved out the summer after and haven't look back since, besides a small period of time between my lease ending Tallahassee in August and my lease in Boston not starting until September.
{six} what is your favorite color to wear?Green or teal. I also like purple on me. I have a collection of favorite colors to wear, not really just one. But I guess, green.
{seven} do you have a pair of shoes that you wear all the time?I love my Toms, and wear them as much as possible. I also have a pair of zebra-stripe metallic flats from target that are my go-to work shoes.
{eight} do you enjoy talk radio?Depends. I enjoy Car Talk and things like This American Life, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and All Songs Considered, but I don't listen to them on a regular basis. And I have no desire to listen to anything news-related on the radio.
{nine} if you could turn one unhealthy food into a healthy one, what food would it be?Pretty much anything junky. I love junk food. Maybe Coke, though, that's a drink. How about...cinnamon rolls!
{ten} who is the best speaker you’ve ever heard in person?I've heard Stephen Colbert speak live, and that was awesome. Honestly, I'm not much one for speeches. I get distracted -- I guess I'm just a bad listener.

the ones we trusted the most (ten on tuesday)

1. What is the weather like in your city today?

High of about 55, 20-30% chance of rain, party cloudy.

{via}

2. Do you like the zoo?

I like most zoos. I understand that most animals in the zoo cannot be released back into the wild, and I enjoy seeing them. But zoos are still kind of sad.

3. Do you eat coconut?

Love it =)

4. Have you ever hammered a nail? Are you good at it?
Hah, yes. I'm ok at it. I have bad aim, though. And I get impatient and sometimes bend the nail.

5. Does your family have a vacation destination that you visit often?

When I was a little kid we used to go to BC every summer to visit my Aunt (Mom's older sister,) Uncle and closest-in-age Cousin. Then when they moved, we went to visit them in Nova Scotia. As far as I remember, we went almost every year from the time I was about 4 until my 9th grade of high school, when summer show at my theatre started creating scheduling conflicts. My sister kept going for a little bit after, though.

6. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Two, usually. One slightly firm one and one very squishy one. I use three to sit up and read (two firm, one squishy,) and every once and a while, the one firm and one squishy become just one squishy. I'm a stomach sleeper, so sometimes two pillows makes me feel like I can't breathe.

7. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

Usually look at my e-mails/Twitter. Then, bathroom =)

8. Will you send your kids to summer camp?

Absolutely. Although, not sleep-away, unless they really want to go. I went to a couple summer camps, but just day camps. Most summers we were traveling, so I wasn't around for any one entire "session" of summer camp, and since my Mom worked for herself when my sister and I were younger, she was home with us, anyway.

9. What do you put in your baked potatoes?

Cheese, sour cream. Bacon bits and chives are good, too. And butter. Lots and lots of butter.

I get down with Paula Deen.

10. Did you take swimming lessons as a kid?

I learned to swim before I learned to walk! Consequently, I'm an excellent swimmer. Though, I'm not too bad of a walker, either ;) My mom took me to lessons at the YMCA.

(oh, and I totally forgot that you should link up with CHELSEA who hosts this! sometimes most of the time, i'm forgetful.)

"through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth"

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannon drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing wars–must be broken, ore we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

(Martin Luther King, Jr. - The Strength to Love)

I am currently doing a lot of waiting. Because of this, I'm glad that I have a job that, recently, keeps me somewhat busy. It keeps me from thinking. Sorry to be to vague, but I'm not feeling up to dealing with the truth.

-C



ugh

alternately titled: why can't you just leave our crap alone?!

(in +/- form, because I don't have the energy this morning to make intelligible paragraphs.)

+ new dress from Express for a wedding in June. It has pockets!

(Mine is white with floral print, not black. I like it better.)

+ Nate won a giant bag of candy in a raffle at work. And by "won" I mean, you had to be present to win, and he was the only employee not working that showed up for the drawing. The manager that did the raffle/bought the candy actually won, so she spread the love.

+ I have plane tickets to and from that wedding, yay!

- Plane tickets cost almost $400. Boo. Does anyone else remember $200 being the mean advance plane ticket price? I would like that back please.
+ Boy got plane tickets for cheaper using Priceline's 'Name Your Own Price' feature!
- Boy got an e-mail last night from Priceline saying that his flight had been cancelled 'per his request.' Uhm...no!?
+ Weekend weather was absolutely gaw-geous.
- Now, the forecast is rain for ten days.
- Car was broken into AGAIN. Because once wasn't enough. And whoever did it had absolutely no idea what they were doing, because they tried to get our headunit (aka fancy radio/CD player) out by ripping at it with their fingers. In doing so, they cut themself and bled all over the front seat. EW. They also broke the harness that keeps the headunit into its little predefined space. Awesome.
+ Got to watch a police officer swab our car and take fingerprints. It's like, so CSI. (err...is that really a plus?)
+ Headunit wasn't actually destroyed -- they only managed to cut a couple wires. So it still works and Nate can put it back together.
- New TV's USB port doesn't work, so we can't upgrade the firmware. Lame.
+ Target switched it out no problem!
- 2nd new TV's USB port doesn't work. Nate did some (more) research and it's probably because the jump drive we're using isn't big enough to format it correctly with our Macs. Luckily, I have a PC at work. So I'm going to try formatting the jump drive and putting the firmwake package on it here. If that doesn't work, well...we're kinda S-O-L. We'll probably just wait and exchange out our current model for a different/better (ie: more expensive) TV from Target, since we can't just return this one. We have 90 days for that, so it shouldn't be a problem.
- Target couldn't hold onto new TV while we ran to QFC to do grocery shopping, so Nate had to sit with it in the car (because, you know, the window is busted,) so I had to grocery shop alone.
+ Great sales at QFC! (kind of a minus, because we didn't need that much/have that much to spend on groceries right now, so we couldn't stock up on anything.)
+ New coffee maker is awesome!
+ Gym down the street from us is $18 a month, plus $12 a month for a "friend or family" that signs up after you, so for Nate and I to go to the gym, it would be $30 each month, which is totally doable.
- What's not doable is the $50 "processing" fee for each of us. If I'm looking for a cheap gym, I ain't got $100 to spend signing up! Especially when you have to pay first and last, as well.
+ Nate fixed the window. It now looks like this:

(come to think of it, I dunno if this it's legal to drive it like this. But it will at least keep the copious amounts of rain we're currently getting out of the car, so that's good.)

- Death in the family. This should get multiple minuses. Don't know what the arrangements are yet. Don't know if I'll be able to go to the funeral because we just spent all our money on plane tickets for June, and my hometown isn't really near a major city or airport (closest is 2 1/2 hours by car,) so it's going to cost an arm and a leg. And it's on the other side of the country, so it isn't like I can just drive there. Ugh.

-C