cutting grass

I just tried out the new mower. It works pretty good. My arms are tired, but it only took 30 minutes. Its a lot different than a self propelled mower, but i eventually got the hang of it.

I visited Cathy and her son yesterday. He is adorable. She's still trying to pick out a name. When I was there Nevin was in the lead. I got to hold him for awhile and rock him to sleep. What a neat feeling, but i'm sure glad i don't have to do that everyday. :)

What awesome weather to start the weekend. Say a little prayer that it won't rain this weekend!

i'm outta here
I'm getting ready to leave work and not return till Monday. What a cool feeling. Can't wait to start the weekend. I'll let you know what happens! :)

IT'S A BOY
Yes Cathy Lantz gave birth this afternoon to a baby boy!!!

Its incredibly exciting. I can't wait to meet him.

oh baby
Monday night we had a baby shower for Cathy. She is due May 4th. Which isn't too far away. Her feet are so swollen, I gave her a foot massage. She seemed to really appreciate it.

I was also able to catch the sopranos monday night. That's a relief. I didn't want to miss a week. I also got caught up on my ironing, YUCK!

Tuesday was kind of a quiet day. I was really productive at work, closing 36 work orders! YAY! My to do list is much smaller. I had lunch at the little grill with Diann. It was great to catch up with her. We hadn't really talked since Simon was born. I had a yummy bbq telephia. In the evening I attended part of the EMU recognition dinner. I left early to go home and work on my CD cover project.

This morning I woke up in time to work out! Amazing. I even had enough time to lift. It feels great to be active again. I really have missed working out. Hopefully I can keep this up.

I continue to struggle with decorating issues. :) I can't figure out what color to make my bedroom. I want to get a new comforter and I think it should be a duvet. This would allow me to wash it frequently, which is very important since it will be covered in cat hair. My problem with selecting a color is that the cat hair will be black or grey. Which means it will show up on dark or light covers. There is no way to camoflague it. Give me a shout if you have any helpful tips. I like blues and purples. I'm seriously considering this one in amethyst or sapphire. Let me know what you think. I like to have other people's opinions.

Another decorating decision is what color to make the downstairs bathroom. I was thinking about a jade green, but i don't think that will work. It is right beside the kitchen which is mystic smoke. Any ideas? I'm currently thinking that maybe a dark brown would look nice. I'll have to check out the paint samples.

I also need to figure out what to do with my extra room. I thought it would be an office, but I never spend any time there. I have stopped using that computer. Now it has junk and cat stuff. I don't need a guest room. So what else could it be? A library? Billards room? Cat play room? Conservatory? I have no idea. I'll keep thinking about it.

I've signed up for a new yoga class! I can't wait. My body needs to be stretched out again. The class is Mondays 5:30-6:45 and starts May 3. YAY!

i did it!
Yep, thats right. I got up early and went to the fitness center. Snaps to me. I did a little running, but mostly spent my time on the eliptical. It felt good to be back at it. Hopefully i won't feel tired later.

I missed the sopranos last night. So don't tell me what happened. I'm serious!

schools out for summer!
The students have moved out, the seniors graduated. Now it will be quiet on campus. The only good thing about this is that I will be able to get a parking space closer to my office.

here's the scoop since my last post:

Wednesday: i had a blonde moment. i drove out to church for youth group to discover that there was no youth group this week. in fact we don't have myf until May 5. Yeah i was feeling pretty stupid. The other funny thing that happened wednesday was that i took 2 lunches. Julie and I went to mr. j's for an early lunch and then sam & i went to panera for my second lunch. It was a beautiful day and we ate outside. When i first got to panera, i was on my way to the rest room when people began calling my name. I looked over to see Dawn, Rebecca, Kathy and Steph. They had been out shopping and were getting lunch. It was great to see them since it had been awhile.

Thursday: Nate came by and cut my grass. Yay! I have ordered a lawn mower so hopefully i will be able to cut the grass all by myself. Its the kind that doesn't have a motor so it should be good exercise too. Alex and I had dinner at Bravos and then stoped by Ney's for funado. It was great to see the funado gang again. Its been too long. I'm gonna have to host it so i can see them! Then we went to Dave's to meet friends. It was an interesting evening. This was my econ celebration.

Friday: Work was weird. I was really tired! Over lunch a group of us (jeremy, adam, & andy) went to harrisonburg honda to pick up my car. it is now up to date in its inspection and had the 30,000 checkup. then we went to luigi's for lunch. YUM! I hadn't been there in a really really long time. The pizza was really good. I definately need to go back. Having a full stomach made me even sleepier. So i ran to mom&dad's for a 30 minute nap. Now i know what you're thinking. Taking 2 lunches, naps sounds like i'm a lousey worker. But don't worry i get my time in. My job is getting done. After work, I went to see Ted & Lee with Amy, Audrey, Patty, Megan and Vince. The show was funny. Definately worth seeing. "People gotta eat, they do". then I hooked up with bill to check out some of the graduation festivities. We hung out for awhile then i headed home.

Saturday: Patty & i left for a shopping spree at 8:15am. We got through Potomac Mills pretty quickly. I was pretty disappointed because we left empty handed. The aerosole store was closed. I was really hoping to get clothes for work and it didn't happen. I was also looking for new tevas, but didn't find any :( At Ikea, I got more picture frames to expand my wall of cd covers and more tea light holders. Adam was very excited to learn that i got sticky things to put under my rugs. On our way home we stopped at Manasas mall. Where I finally got to buy a shirt. Patty was way more successful she spent a boatload of money and got some awesome clothes. Our last stop was Old Navy where I actually found jeans and shorts. Finally! so the trip was ok. I still need more work clothes, so i'm not done shopping. I had been hoping to find a bedspread at Ikea, but i didn't like any of them. so my search continues. i can't paint until i find a new bedspread. Any ideas? I'm begining to think of just getting some solid colored thing.

I've been trying to think of some deep philosophical topics to write about, but haven't had much luck. So you'll just have to put up with the lengthy detailed updates. Maybe soon i'll have more meaty entries.

last econ post
I just found out my final grade for econ. I am very happy to announce that i've earned......(imagine a drumroll) a B+. I am completely satisfied with this grade. In fact i think it is awesome. Yay for me.

I still need to celebrate.

monday monday
It was a pretty good day. Things are starting to pick up at work. It looks like the restructuring is going forward. Begining in May my team will consist of four other people. I will be their boss. How incredible is that? Pretty incredible. This will make my job much busier. I will need to have 1-1 meetings with each person and then a regular team meeting. Which means 5 hours a week in meetings (if we have them weekly). Wow, its hard for me to believe that my team is doubling. I can also tell that Jack is trying to hand over more responsibility. That is exciting to me. I just hope that i can handle everything that is thrown my way. Fortunately, my team is awesome.

It was so nice to not have homework tonight. I actually was able to clean my bathroom and pay bills. How exciting is that. I know not very, but it had been awhile. Its also great to be able to think about making plans for the weekend. I'm feeling a shopping urge. The warm weather is making me want a new wardrobe. I also need to think about a new bathing suit. Which means I should try to make it to the gym soon.

Maybe tomorrow morning....

the end of econ
Yep it over. Let the celebration begin! I haven't figured out the appropriate celebration. Don't worry, i will. Not much to tell, i'm just really happy that its over.

It was a nice weekend. Saturday i played frisbee golf and went shopping. Then in the evening i went to jer & joe's house warming party. It was a blast. Today i worked on finishing econ most of the day. I did spend some time outside when i was studying. I love this weather!

office space
Tomorrow is the big day. They tear down the walls and put them up in new places. Then Greg will finally have a place to set his 17" powerbook. So I spent the afternoon boxing up all the crap on my desk. Since I started in May 2000, this will be the seventh office/desk that I've had. That's just crazy.

Tonight was the last counterculture. We had yummy pancakes and even a little karaoke. I'll miss you guys. What will i eat on tuesday nights?

This is my last week of econ. There is only one chapter and 4 problems of homework. Then a final exam consisting of 75 mutliple choice questions. Shouldn't be too hard, but i'm ready to be done. My grades have continued to improve, so i'm feeling more confident about taking classes. I'm just not sure about the time committment. Fortunately I won't have to decide anything until fall semester. We'll see how i feel then. Now i just need to focus on finishing this class.

the long weekend
What a weekend! Hold on, here we go...

salmon is more than a color
Thursday night, I had a yummy salmon dinner. Good food, good company, good evening. Alex made dinner at Jack & Nadia's house. What a great house. Jack and Nadia are both Jewish and recently married. What a neat couple! In addition to salmon, we had steamed broccoli and wild rice. Everything was delicious. After dinner we went to the dodger and fin's to see who was hanging out. It was pretty slow so we called it a night. :)

quality time with ...me
I spent most of friday by myself. This was strange since 99% of the time i am with other people. (ok, i might be exaggerating a bit). It reminded me that i really am an extrovert, in the sense that I like to be around people. But it was good for me to relax and just hang out at home. I tried to work on my homework, and was semi successful. I finished the first chapter which was about the money supply. It was kinda interesting. I thought about going out shopping, but was too lazy. Then at 10pm I got a craving for Patty's yummy bean dip. So I ran out to krogers and got the fixins and made bean dip. I watched a little sopranos and went to bed.

holy procrastination batman
I slept incredibly well, until 11am. Unbelievable! It was a gorgeous day. I opened all my windows. Since friday had been so lazy, i wouldn't let myself procrastinate by being a couch potato. So I cleaned. It started in my kitchen. I washed down the cupboards, counters and appliances. I even cleaned and washed out the fridge. ::gasp:: I dusted and washed windows. Then moved all the furniture and swept and mopped the floor. It was clean! Unfortunately that doesn't' last long. How can one person be so messy? I guess the answer is easy if the one person is me.

hellboy, 2 hours of hell?
Saturday night I went to dinner and a movie with alex and cooper. We ate at el charro. I had my usual cheese enchiladas, beans and rice. Then we saw hellboy. I guess i was expecting it to be sorta good, and i was disappointed. It has a dark look and strange creatures, usually ingredients for a good movie. But not in this case. I won't go into detail, because its a waste of time. Just be warned, any other movie might be better.

has anyone seen my cat?
Sunday morning started at 7:30 when I got up to feed the cats and discovered that i was missing a cat. After a quick examination of the house, i determined that Misty was not in it. As i thought back over the day before, i remembered that spooky had been acting funny late in the afternoon. I hadn't seen misty since then. Its my best guess that she snuck out during one of the times that i was out shaking rugs. When i realized she was gone, i threw on clothes and looked outside for her. Nada. She was no where to be found. It was then that i started crying and praying. I took a nap until it was time to get ready for church.

It was good to get out and forget about Misty. The service was nice, lots of singing. :) After church, Mike and Sarah took me to L'Italia for easter lunch. I had my usual manicotti. Yum. We talked to Mom and wished her a happy easter. I was hoping to see Misty sitting at the door when i got home, but she wasn't. it was a really long afternoon. I had a tough time concentrating on homework. Which was unfortunate because there seemed to be more than usual. Around 3:00 Adam called and needed help making lines on the walls of his new apartment. I jumped at the opportunity to procrastinate and get away from worrying about Misty. It didn't take very long to use the chalk line and snap the walls. I still had quite a bit of homework, so I didn't stay to help paint.

Patty got home late in the afternoon. I went over to distract myself. It worked for a little bit. Then i kept plugging away at the homework. At 8:45 i did a check of both doors looking for Misty. When i opened the backdoor, i heard a "meow" it sounded really sad. Low and behold there was my favorite fat grey cat. She came in and kept meowing. I immediately fed her special wet food and welcomed her back. She's been pretty quiet since and won't say where she's been. I guess it must have been some adventure. Any ideas how to get her to talk? I'm glad she's spayed.

Spooky seems a little sad that she's not the only cat in the house again. There's already been some hissing. While misty was away, spooky became my best friend. i think she may have liked being by herself.

Now the weekend is over. I submitted my homework and took the quiz. One more week to go. YAY! Bring on monday!

what dreams may come
For the second time in 5 days I had a dream where i died. Its kinda freaky. The first one was on Sunday morning. I was walking through the parking deck downtown. I saw a car coming so i slowed down to let it go by. They slowed down like i should go first, so i did. Thats when they hit me. I don't remember anything happening after that, but i woke up with a strong sense of sadness.

The second dream was more bizarre. I was out in a prairie with a large group of people. All of the sudden we were surrounded and arrows were being shot at us. Chaos ensued and people were getting hit. I could feel the pain of arrows when they would hit me. Those of us getting hit started gathering together. Eventually i had too many hits and drifted away. Thats when i woke up. I had only been asleep for 2.5 hours, but it felt like i should get up for work. I was completely awake. In fact i couldn't get back to sleep, so i got up and emptied the dishwasher. Very bizarre. Why would my brain come up with such a strange way to die?

I wish i knew more about dream interpretation. The sites i checked out suggested that dying in a dream symbolizes changes that are going to occur. They aren't necessarily good or bad, just change.

I wonder how i'll die next time? Any ideas?

econ master
Yes i am the econ master. At least for this week. Not only did i get my best quiz score ever (YAY). I also got a PERFECT on my homework (double YAY). This is especially ironic because I spent very little time on econ this weekend. Amazing. There are only two weeks to go and I'm ready for it to be done. But my self-confidence has been given a big boost and I might actually consider going for and MBA. Wait who said that?

until it sleeps
I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep from the weekend. Not much has happened since the weekend. Work is going fine. We have been trying to develop a new office layout to make room for Greg. We finally have a plan that everyone has agreed on. This was not easy.

Today i had trouble focusing on work. I'm excited about having friday off! I'm not sure what to do with a 3 day weekend, but i'm confident that i'll do something. One idea is to paint my bedroom. Another idea is to do a shopping trip to ikea and potomac mills.

I just found out that on April 16, Something Corporate is part of a bandfest at Longwood College. The concerts are all free. Unbelievable, I might have to go. It would be awesome to see SoCo live.

Time to sign off before I fall asleep on my computer. Thanks again to the counterculture gang for the good times tonight.

MACROCK weekend
The weekend went by in a whirlwind. Friday night started with dinner at the texas steak house. I had a yummy tuna steak and tried a shrimp. Then we were off to Macrock. The first band was murder by death and they were really good. Next was +/- and I thought they were good too. I was surprised to run into Alison and Robin Fletcher. It was great to see them again. By this point we needed a break so we (mave, alex & me) went to the Artful Dodger. After giving our ears a rest, we headed back to the JMU ballroom to hear Pedro the Lion. I enjoyed them too, but the funny part was when the lead singer would stop and ask if there were any questions at this point. He did it several times. One of the questions was about what a certain song meant. His answer was that he didn't really know. I found this extremely funny. Next stop was the bowling alley. There was a party celebrating Angie's last day at FLT. They were pretty much done with bowling by the time we got there. Someone let me bowl their last frame and I got a strike! Then gutter and 8. Yay! The last stop was Finnigans where there was a funky band playing. The bowling people were really getting their groove on. It was fun to watch. Maybe sometime I'll get over feeling uncoordinated and self consciences. It was a really fun evening. I stayed up way too late but I wouldn't change a thing.

Saturday I skipped yoga since it had been a late night. When I finally got up, my attention was on homework. I also worked on laundry cause there's nothing quite like sleeping on fresh sheets. By evening I was ready for more Macrock. It was the same group Mave, Alex, me with the addition of Sarah. We spent the evening in the Court Square Theatre. We saw the Rosebuds, Summer Hymns, Sufjan Stevens. They were all good. We left during All Night Radio. The atmosphere was getting really intense. They took a long time getting ready and started 20 minutes late. They were having a lot of problems with the sound and making the sound guys frustrated and they were frustrated with the sound guys. The audience was starting to grumble, so it seemed like a good time to leave. One of the funny moments was when the lead singer was trying to get his mike turned up and the sound guys yelled back that they couldn't without having feedback. The lead singer came back with "i'm a quiet guy". You probably had to be there, but it was really funny. We ended up back at the Artful Dodger. Once again I ran into Robin Fletcher. :) I enjoyed hanging out with Mave and Sarah. They are a really neat couple and very sweet. Eventually it was time to head over to Finnigans where I had some yummy crab dip. Boy was it good. I got two compliments on my shirt. Snaps to me! I got to bed earlier. Yay for sleep.

Sunday started slow. I was planning on being at the church all afternoon, so I spent the morning catching up on sleep. My task for the afternoon was to transform the fellowship hall into a beach oasis. We did pretty good for a limited budget and only a few hours. In fact we got several compliments on the atmosphere. I was able to spend a few hours on homework. I got home in time for sopranos, otherwise known as bada bing night. The best part of the evening was later when i finished my homework and took the quiz. I got the best score ever; 48/50! YAY! It was a great end to a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. :)