Goals for 2011

• Lose the 5 lbs I gained over the holidays...and keep it off.
• Get on a regular work out schedule. I say this every year. The first half of 2010, I did a great job of this! In April I logged 1,000 minutes of exercise. The second half of the year...I worked out like 5 times. Not good.
• Participate in the Brew-to-Brew run (and hopefully some other 5K, 10K, or marathon relay runs).
• Make at least 3 recipes from my "Top Chef" cookbook.
• Continue to cross off items on my 101 in 1,001 list...in particular the "Buy a House" one.

What are your goals for the new year?

Shopping Spree

I'm a girl and I love to shop. I love buying new clothes and shoes and whatever else I find that tickles my fancy. James and I have been saving money to buy a house so I haven't really been able to shop for clothes lately. Sad, I know.

Well, for Christmas this year I made out rather well with gifts from my students. I got a $10 Starbucks gift card, a $15 Target gift card, a $25 Visa gift card, and a $200 Town Center gift card as my class gift from my very generous class. With all these gift cards, I had no choice...I HAD to go shopping today!

And now...my livingroom is covered in bags. My purchases today included:

• K-State Christmas decor
• K-State t-shirt
• pair of jeans
• 2 sweaters
• 3 pairs of shoes
• 2 bras
• a coat
• 2 scarves
• pair of mittens
• 4 games
• wall calendar
• pair of sunglasses

Again, I don't normally go "all out" like this so I have to say...today was lots of fun!

Recently tried recipes

Here are the links to some recipes I have tried this past week.

Oreo Truffles (made with white chocolate, of course!)

Mint Chip Cookies (I used Andes mint chunks instead of mint chips)

Braided Burrito (made with ground turkey)

French Toast Casserole (Next time I think I may do a light layer of cream cheese and strawberries on top)

Sausage and Egg Casserole (I gave the crescent rolls a 7 minute head start before adding the rest of the ingredients)

Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup (less carrots next time)

And in case you were wondering...

Yes, my apron is the same one Charlotte wears in Sex and the City 2.

Christmas Deliciousness

As it always is, Christmas this year was full of yummy deliciousness. The food festivities started with our Annual Secret Santa Christmas party that I do with my girl friends. Our spread included cheesy death corn casserole, chicken empanadas, stuffed mushrooms, caprese bites, tomato zucchini salad, some yummy dips, cookies, a Kentucky Derby pie, and lots of wine.

The next food extravaganza took place at our friend Nate's house. He had us over the eve of Christmas Eve. I brought over a bunch of the Christmas cookies I had spent all day baking and he had tons of homemade Christmas candy and cookies. It was total sweetness overload!

Christmas Eve James and I headed to McPherson to do Christmas with my family. That night we kept things simple and did chili, cornbread, and cinnamon rolls. I spent that afternoon prepping a couple casseroles which I threw into the oven Christmas morning for breakfast. I took my chances and made two things I'd never made before: a sausage and egg casserole and french toast casserole. They both turned out great if I do say so myself (note my adorable new apron).



Then for Christmas dinner my mom made a Christmas ham, prime rib, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, and strawberry pretzel dessert. And Nicole brought a strawberry rhubarb pie. We definitely weren't short of food AT ALL!

This morning we did Christmas with Rory and Jen. Rory made us biscuits and gravy for brunch.

I feel like this past week I've done nothing but EAT EAT EAT! Everything has been so delicious but I think it's time for me to get my butt in gear and start working out again. Why wait until the new year?

Random Act of Kindness

Last weekend I was making stuffed mushrooms for a Christmas party with friends. I was running late and had just gotten back from the store and realized that I needed an egg. I didn't have time to go back to the store so I did what they did in the olden days...

I went over to my neighbor's and asked if I could borrow an egg. This was kind of a big deal for me. I don't know my neighbor's name and we've never really talked aside from saying "Hello" in the parking lot. Her son plays outside a lot and really likes our dog though...so I wouldn't say we're COMPLETE strangers.

Anyway, she happily let me have an egg and thus saved my stuffed mushrooms.

So today I spent all day in the kitchen baking cookies. I made:

• Chocolate Andes Mint Chip Cookies - made with chocolate cake mix and chunks of Andes mints
• Peanut Butter Caramel Surprises - peanut butter cookie with a hidden Rolo in the middle, topped with roasted marshmallows
• Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Cookies - peanut butter cookie with both chocolate and peanut butter chips
• White Chocolate Covered Oreo Truffles - crushed oreos mixed with cream cheese and covered in white chocolate (one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten in my life)

So my cookies have now cooled and I made a cookie plate with a Christmas card for my neighbor. It's my way of saying "thank you" for the egg.

Little Miss Sunshine

Just now I was finishing the last of my present wrapping and singing "The Drummer Boy" at the top of my lungs. Kahlua starting giving me a funny look so I got in her face and sang to her. She looked at me in the same way Olive looks at the pageant guy who's singing to her in "Little Miss Sunshine". Kind of that "Stop singing and get away from me" look.

It made me smile.

2 hour crying session

Communication is important. Whether it's in your job, your romantic relationship, or just your day to day contact with people...your life can be very directly affected by communication (or lack there of) with those around you.

Right now, I'm feeling really horrible about myself.

My grandmother has Alzheimer's and despite my family's best efforts, she was recently moved into a nursing home facility about 3 weeks ago. Prior to this, my family (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) was taking turns giving her around-the-clock care. A couple months ago I signed up to come for a few days to help take care of her.

When I found out she was no longer going to be living at home, I assumed I wouldn't be needed for the three days I had originally been scheduled for...since she was going to be receiving care from the nursing home staff. I knew my grandparents would still enjoy frequent visitors, so James and I were planning on stopping by to see them on Christmas Eve before going to Margie's.

I just got a call from my uncle wondering why I wasn't in Junction City with Grandma and Grandpa. He told me I still scheduled to be there for the next three days to help keep my grandpa company. I, of course, start crying because I feel terrible. I really had no idea they were expecting me to be there. And because I thought I didn't need to be there, I had made appointments to go look at houses this week.

So now I'm left to decide whether or not I should drop everything, cancel my appointments, and head to JC or if I should stick with my original plan of going to visit them on Christmas Eve. I hate to let down my family by not going, but if I do go then James and I will have to take separate cars to McPherson this weekend...which means 6 hours of driving alone in possibly bad weather. The other option would be for me to drive the 2 hours to JC today then come back (2 more hours) to get James on Christmas Eve then drive the 3 hours to McPherson together and then the 3 hours back Christmas night. But that seems pretty unreasonable as well...

So basically, I don't know what to do. I've been crying about it for the past two hours.

Water for Elephants trailer

"Water for Elephants" - one of my all-time favorite books. I really hope the movie doesn't disappoint me. Release date is set for April 15th. Can't wait!

This is really cool

Itchy McItcherson

Last night my body decided I hadn't had enough of feeling horrible and that it wanted to give me yet another slap in the face. As if a month of suffering from a severe sinus infection followed by 3 days of the stomach flu wasn't enough...it turns out my body made the choice to reject the antibiotics I've been taking for the past week. I'd already missed 1 1/2 days of work from the stomach flu and then...just when I thought I might actually be able to start eating real food again and maybe go back to work, I look down and I see that my arms are all red and splotchy. I took a couple Benedryl and called my sister, Maggie, who is a nurse. She told me I should be fine, as long as the reaction didn't spread to my face and cause my lips/tongue/throat to swell. She said if I started to feel anything around my lips or tongue to go to the ER. At this time James kind of started freaking out because my entire face was bright red and I told him my lips felt a little bit tingly. I assured him I'd be fine and that I was going to go to bed. At that point the rash was mostly just on my arms.

I woke up around 4 AM and felt itchy all over. I stripped off all my clothes because they were hurting me and I went to the bathroom to see if the rash was still there. At this time it had spread to my entire body...from head to toe. And it itched SO BAD! So I scratched and cried for a while in the bathroom then took a couple more Benedryl and went back to bed...and somehow ended up going back to sleep.

I woke up again around 6 AM and though my stomach felt better, I knew I couldn't go to work in this condition. So I went up to the school (again) to make early morning sub plans. As I left the school, I called and made a Dr. appt. They couldn't get me in until 11:00 so I went home, called my mom and complained about 30 minutes, then writhed in pain for a while and finally fell asleep again.

When I woke up, I had just enough time to take a quick AGONIZING shower (seriously painful), dry my hair, and head to my appt. Luckily, for the first time ever, I didn't have a long wait and was able to get in within a couple minutes. I kind of wonder if it was because I looked like a leper. A male student nurse from JCCC took my vitals and informed me he was following around a nurse for the day. At that point, Anita (my nurse) came in. People...if you ever go to College Park Family Care on 112th Street, you should see if you can get Anita as your nurse. She is the best! After seeing Doc, we confirmed that my skin rash was very likely due to my antibiotics. Doc pitched my old bottle in the trash, added the Sulfa allergy to my file, and prescribed a new antibiotic (Zithromax), a steriod (Prednisone), something for my stomach/allergy (Zantac), and suggested a new everyday allergy medicine (Zertec). On top of all that, he said I'd have quicker relief if I got a Prednisone shot while I was there. I agreed to it, since I was feeling miserable. So Nurse Anita came back in. She informed me that the student nurse volunteered to administer the shot, but she wouldn't let him. She told me she "had my back". So she gave me a nice big needle in the butt and then had me lay down for 20 minutes, during which time she brought me a "blankey" and "tucked me in" so I could be comfortable. She told me she had a daughter about my age and that she would feel just terrible if this ever happened to her daughter. She said since my mom lives 3 1/2 hours away, she'd be my mom for the day. Seriously, good nurses are the best!

So now...I'm home. I've taken my meds (as well as a Benedryl topical cream) and though I'm feeling better than I was earlier, I'm still rather itchy. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. At least my tummy ache has let up (knock on wood)!

Marion makes the news

My hometown of Marion, KS has a population of around 2,000 people. In a town this small, things don't get too exciting. However, recently Marion has been in the news. The husband of one of my sister's former classmates was recently arrested for stalking members of the Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps and his crew). Ryan Newell is a retired war vet whose time in the military was cut short when he suffered a severe accident over in Afghanistan and lost both of his legs. He's been in the news before when "Homes for Our Troops", a non-profit organization built a new handicap-accessible home for him and his family. The articles I've read have stated that Newell was arrested for following members of WBC while armed with an M4 military assault carbine, a .45-caliber Glock pistol, and a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol in his car. Newell has been arrested and his bond has been set at half a million dollars.

Below are some articles about Newell:

War vet charged with stalking church that protests soldiers' funerals
Veteran charged with stalking protesters
Felony charge for vet accused of targeting Westboro

And now, members of Westboro are coming to my hometown this weekend to picket at 5 different churches in Marion....one of them being the church where I grew up. These people are sick. What bothers me the most about this is the fact that young children will be leaving Sunday School that day seeing people with signs that say "God hates fags", "Your pastor is a whore" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". It disgusts me.

Ryan Newell's community prepares for Westboro protest

Grandma and Grandpa Taylor

My Grandma Taylor has been battling Alzheimer's for almost 3 years now. Through the amazing support of my grandpa, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins Grandma has been able to live at home with my grandpa all this time. She requires around-the-clock 24 hour care. In addition to my grandpa constantly helping with her, we also have a calendar of other family members who come help out, usually for a week at a time. Most of my family has used up all their sick time at work to try and be there for Grandma. I had added myself to this calendar to help out for a few days before Christmas

I got an email today from my Aunt Bonnie. My grandpa's health hasn't been too great lately and he finally made the tremendously difficult decision to admit my grandma into a nursing home. Tonight will be her last night at home.

My heart goes out to my grandpa. I don't think anyone can love as deeply as he has my grandma. He is truly one of the most amazing men I've ever known and after almost 70 years of sleeping next to his wife, he will go to bed alone tomorrow night. It just breaks my heart.

I love both of these people so much and I hope for the smoothest of transitions for them during this very difficult time.

Xmas Card 2010

Seasonal Chic Noir Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

DMV....arghhh!

Ugh! I knew I had a tag renewel that I needed to take care of and didn't really think of it until this weekend. Turns out I'm 4 days late and now can't do it online. GRRR!!! Now I have to go to the stupid DMV which has incredibly unaccommodating business hours. 7:30-4:30 M-F? Really?!? Frustrated!

December is here!

The hubby and I decided to celebration the beginning of our favorite time of year with a steaming cup of hot cocoa...made with milk, a shot of Kahlua, and topped with Cool Whip and Ghirardelli's Peppermint Bark shavings. Delicious!

25% off entire purchase @ Coach

Apparently I'm a "Coach Preferred Customer" now and today I got a coupon in the mail for 25% off your entire purchase at any Coach store or the Coach website. This would normally excite me to no end, however I recently purchased 3 new Coaches at the Coach Outlet in Osage Beach (all for less than one regular Coach) so it'd be in my best interest to not use this coupon.

So if any of you (three) blog-readers would be interested in this coupon, let me know and it's yours. It's only valid from 12/3-12/12 so you better get to shopping!

**I realize pretty much no one actually reads this, but if more than one person HAPPENS to respond to this, I will have to give it to whoever answers first (or whoever I like better).

Hooray!!!

About 5 minutes ago something very exciting happened. I paid off my credit card! This is very happy news for me.

Overall, I consider myself to be very financially responsible. However, there was a time around the end of my sophomore year of college when I didn't work for a while. It was really only about a month, but my parents did not pay for my college nor the cost of living that goes with that...so a month of no income meant using my credit card for pretty much everything. That was also the year I spent $2,000 on a computer for myself, which also went on my credit card because I couldn't pay for it at the time. So needless to say, I became someone who carried around a credit card debt. Despite making regular payments, that debt increased throughout the rest of my college career. It wasn't that I was spending money all the time on things I didn't need. I wouldn't let myself use it for clothes or "party money". It was more that I would need gas or groceries and not have the money at the time to pay for them. So...I would just put them on my credit card.

When I moved out here to Overland Park in June of 2006, I decided I was no longer allowed to use this card. I would make regular payments on it and get it paid off. Sadly, I had such a high balance that it took until now for this to happen. Exactly a year ago, my debt had dwindled down to $3,333.99...still a very sizeable amount of money. I was becoming really frustrated with all the APR money I was paying on this stupid card. I knew I would be getting a tax return in the spring and that I would be getting a raise since I had gotten my Masters degree. So I decided by the end of 2010 I WOULD have this card paid off. Today at around 3:00 PM that $3,333.99 balance became $0.00. And as far as I'm concerned...it will stay that way. I'm perfectly content putting that $300/month into my savings instead.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 25

Day #25 - I'm thankful for my friends and family. I'll be heading to McPherson/Salina tomorrow for our family Thanksgiving and I'm honestly really looking forward to it. There's nothing like good food (and drinks) with the people you love most.

Also, a HUGE congrats to my friends Paige and John who got engaged yesterday. I couldn't be happier for you both!

Things I'm thankful for - Days 21-24

Day #21 - I'm thankful for music. I got to go to the Lady Antebellum concert Saturday night at the Midland with Lisa, Diane, and Jenna. We had a blast!

Day #22 -I'm thankful that I have a college degree from the best school ever! Go State!

Day #23 -I'm thankful that I pretty much have all my Christmas shopping done.

Day #24 - I'm thankful for my nieces and nephews. James and I got to spend the day today with our niece, Juliana. She just had her 5th birthday so we thought it'd be fun to spend the day together. We bought her a Buzz Lightyear toy for her birthday that she's now OBSESSED with. After a long day of playing games at Dave & Busters, she was all cuddled up in bed with her Buzz as we left to head home. TOO CUTE!

Things I'm thankful for - Days 18-20

I've been sick with a sinus infection for the past few days, so I haven't posted.

Day #18 - I'm thankful for my home. I may complain about not having a big enough closet or about the centipedes that have moved in (shudder) but I am fortunate to have a roof over my head.

Day #19 - I'm thankful for the common interests that I share with my husband. If you know both of us, you know that we are very different from each other. However, we share a lot of the same interests: poker, board games, beer, cooking, camping, puzzles...

Yes, you heard me right. My husband and I spent our Friday night watching "Any Given Sunday" and working on a jigsaw puzzle. We're nerdy like that.

Day #20 - I'm thankful for the weekend brunch/coffee tradition that James and I have. Every weekend if we're both around we take turns making a big breakfast. Sometimes we even sit at the diningroom table and enjoy each other's company while sipping coffee. It's something I just love!

Cutest skirt ever!

http://reviews.anthropologie.com/5310/18872895/reviews.htm?sort=submissionTime

One of the student teachers at my school wore this skirt today. A-DORABLE! Seriously, I love it! However, she got it at Anthropologie and I looked it up and it's "no longer available." Sad. Probably a good thing though...it was $98.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 17

Day #17 - I am thankful that I have a reliable car. Sure, she has a big dent in her front driver's side bumper (STUPID SONIC!) but she gets good gas mileage and gets me from point A to B. I'll admit it. I love my Honda!

Things I'm thankful for - Days 15 & 16

Day #15 - I'm thankful for my health. One of my coworkers who teaches two doors down from me was admitted to the hospital last week. She was having really bad stomach pain and it turned out she had gastritis and a colon infection. By the end of the week, her colon had completely shut down and she had to have emergency surgery to remove it. She's currently in the ICU and I just pray that she'll recover from this. She's one of those people who's just a ball of fire and the thought of something like this happening to her is devastating. It makes me thankful that I'm alive and healthy.

Day #16 - I'm thankful for my students. Even though they drive me nuts sometimes, they're such amazing little people. I love seeing them succeed. I have one student in particular who has just come so far this year. It's very exciting to see.

Things I'm thankful for - Days 13 & 14

Day #13 - I'm thankful for "girl time". I love my husband and consider him my best friend...but sometimes you just need someone to giggle and shop with. This weekend I went to Osage Beach at Lake of the Ozarks with my friend Diane and her boyfriend's mom. We went and watched the K-state game at a lakeside bar and then shopped til we dropped. We had a blast! I'm so thankful for weekends like these.

Day #14 - I'm thankful that I finally got over my "fear" of cooking. Years ago my cooking skills were limited to eggs and macaroni and cheese. Now cooking has become something I love to do and I think I might have inherited my mother's cookbook addiction. Last night I made creamy smothered chicken burritos in my crockpot. Later this week? Potato soup. Yum!

Things I'm thankful for - Day 12

Day #12 - I'm thankful for my lazy bum of a dog. She's a good snuggler. And she makes me laugh.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 11

Day #11 - I'm thankful for my coworkers. I work with a great group of people and I couldn't drag myself out of bed everyday if it weren't for them.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 10

Day #10 - I'm thankful for my niece who turned 19 years old today. Despite being only 8 years old at the time, I remember the day she was born. I remember my dad coming into my room at 11:31 PM and telling my sister Margie and me that Monica had been born. I was so excited to go to school the next day and tell my friends. After school, we got to go to the hospital and see her. I was such a proud aunt...and I still am.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 9

Day #9 - I'm thankful that I have a husband who cleans house. A lot of men leave it to the wives to keep the house clean and I gotta tell you...unless I was unemployed, that simply just wouldn't fly with me. I'm one of the lucky ones though. Yesterday I came home to a clean house and a shirtless husband vacuuming the diningroom. Nothing could be hotter! :-)

Things I'm thankful for - Day 8

Day #8 - I'm thankful that I have the time and money to go out and do fun things. I often complain about being "broke" but really I'm lucky to have enough money to pay for the things I need (and sometimes the things I just want). This past year I've been fortunate enough to be able to go on a couple mini weekend vacations (Colorado, Table Rock Lake, Chicago, float trip) and I've gotten to go to a couple concerts (Dixie Chicks & Zac Brown Band) and a few ball games (Royals and Chiefs) this year as well.

I'm going to try to appreciate these things while I can, because I'm sure things will be MUCH different when we have kids.

Things I'm thankful for - Days 6 & 7

Day #6 (yesterday) - I'm thankful for my God-given mad poker skills and the $45 in my wallet from Friday night's poker game.

Day #7 - I'm thankful that I have a home with heat! Earlier this week (when the temps finally hit below freezing) our heat was not working. It's up and running now and our house is nice and toasty!

Things I'm thankful for - Day 4 & 5

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but I want to keep this going, so I'm going to post yesterday's and today's.

Day #4 - I'm thankful for my Book Club. It's seriously one of my favorite "womanly" things I do...and I just love those girls. Last night we met at Rachel's to discuss the book "Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler. Rachel totally outdid herself with a vodka theme. All the food (homemade pizza, buffalo wings, bruschetta, and chocolate covered strawberries & peaches) was made with vodka. And the best part? In addition to wine, she had stuff for martinis!

Day #5 - I'm thankful for my amazing husband. I know people are always saying this, but I'm convinced mine really is the best one out there. I came home today from work to a house smelling of chili. He had come home over his lunch break and started a Crock Pot of chili. I love him (and chili)!

Things I'm thankful for - Day 3

#3 I'm thankful for the grant our grade level got earlier this week for literacy funding in our classrooms. I'm particularly thankful for my friend and colleague, Lisa, who wrote the grant for us!

Things I'm thankful for - Day 2

#2 - I'm thankful for the wonderful staff appreciation committee we have at our school. Those ladies took very good care of us last week (conference week) with a Jose Peppers caterered dinner Wednesday evening (complete with homemade desserts) and a luncheon Thursday with Jersey Boyz subs, Sunset Grill's chopped salad, and three Crock Pots of homemade soups. The soups, of course, were my favorite part. Yum!

And again, today at our Early Release meeting, we had a spread of pumpkin/apple/cherry pies and hot apple cider. It made it just a little bit easier to get through the afternoon.

Things I'm thankful for - Day 1

I've made it my goal to write one thing I'm thankful for everyday from now until Thanksgiving. Here goes:

#1 - I'm thankful for days off of work. This sounds pessimistic but I promise it's not. I love my job but it's very physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. Last week was no exception. It was conference week and I put in a 45 hour work week in four days. It was exhausting, but come Friday...I got the day off. What did I do with my time off? Massage and shopping! What else?!? My wonderful husband got me a gift certificate to Par Exsalonce back in July for our 1 year anniversary. I've been waiting for that "perfect day" to get a massage. And boy was Friday THE PERFECT day for it! I went in and got a foot soak, followed by a one hour massage, which was then followed by an amazing steam shower. It was so relaxing! Afterwards I went shopping at Frankie and Jules and then went and bought some new shoes from Off Broadway. By the time I got home, James was home from work. We had plans to go to dinner together at Bonefish. However, we didn't make a reservation and by the time we got there and the estimated wait time was 2 hours. We decided to go to Avenues instead. It's a new restaurant in Mission Farms (where Zest used to be). We enjoyed a nice dinner (next to Gary Lezak) and then ended our night at the bowling alley with our friends Lisa and Jenni.

It was one of those days that was just really nice. Hurray for days off!

Ticketmaster Sucks (100th post)

Dear Ticketmaster,

The fact that I just spent nearly $17 for a $28 concert ticket makes me hate you.

Unhappily yours,
Becky

Visiting Baylee

Yesterday James and I drove down to Hesston to see our new niece Baylee. 6 hours of driving in one day is never fun...but she was worth it.

So precious...I didn't want to put her down

Baylee with her very first stuffed animal

She woke up for Uncle James

Geography Sporcle

I know this makes me super nerdy, but I LOVE www.sporcle.com ...particularly the geography section. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but have always been not-so-great with geography. Recently I decided to teach myself all the countries in each continent via sporcle.

The first one I did was South America. It certainly wasn't hard since there's only 12 countries and I already knew like 11 before I started.

Then I did North America (including Central America and the Caribbean). That ended up including 23 countries...all of which I had at least heard of besides St. Kitts & Nevis.

Next I moved on to Asia. I'm not sure why I decided to do Asia before Europe, because I definitely knew more of Europe before going into this. With its 48 countries, I expected Asia to be pretty difficult. Surprisingly, it wasn't. The hardest part of it was learning to spell everything.

Following Asia, I did Europe. Western Europe was easy but there was quite a bit of Eastern Europe that I had to work on. My most commonly missed out of the 47 countries were the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and San Marino...and I had to learn how to spell Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Oceana was next. Right off the bat I knew Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Micronesia. The Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Tonga, and Somoa were easy but it took a little while for me to learn Nauru, Palau, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

My newest Challenge is Africa. This is definitely going to be the hardest by far. There are 53 to learn and right now...I know like 17. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

Yes, I am a huge nerd.

I made these tonight

http://thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com/2009/08/grammies.html
Yum!

October 13, 2010

October 13, 2010 - A day to remember...for so many reasons.

Yesterday was one of those days. It was just perfect. I woke up to a phone call from my mom around 6:40AM saying my little sister Rose had had her baby. This put me in a really good mood.

I went to work and our staff had a "tailgate party" in the lounge to celebrate the Sunflower Showdown. The lounge was decorated with K-State and KU decor and we had TONS of food, including the purple popcorn I brought. From the time I got to school to the time the kids came in they played both team's fight songs on the intercom. It was just nice friendly rivalry. So fun!

I ended up taking a half day because James had scheduled our hot air balloon ride. So we roadtripped to Parsons, KS and were fortunate to finally get to go up in our balloon! Words can't express how amazing our flight was. The scenery was beautiful and despite James' fear of heights, we both REALLY enjoyed it.

On our way home from Parsons, we listen to the KU/K-State on the radio. I'll be honest, I couldn't stop laughing. Everytime we scored, I just thought..."This is truly the perfect day!"

And it was.

I'm an aunt (again)!

My sister Margie called me around 8:00 last night saying she was on her way to the hospital because our little sister, Rose, was going into labor. Rose was due last Saturday so we knew it would be any minute. I just got the phone call from my mom. Baylee Ann was born at 6:12 AM. She is 7 lbs. 14 oz. Both Mommy and Baylee (and I assume Daddy) are doing well.

Fall

As a kid, I never really had a favorite season. I enjoyed summer because we had time off school and got to go to the pool a lot. I liked winter because of the snow and all the childhood fun that comes with that. Spring and fall were just seasons that fell between...but because of the mild weather, I liked them too.

Now, as an adult, I definitely have a favorite season. I absolutely love fall. I love the beautiful colors. I love the cool weather. I just love it all!

Here are some of my fall highlights this year (so far):

• Somerset Ridge Winery
• Winfield (Walnut Valley Festival)
• Party at Paige's...complete with campfire
• Chiefs game
• One final Royals game
• Weston Irish Fest
• KC Pumpkin Patch

And one that I will (hopefully) get to add to my list by the end of this week: HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE! We're scheduled to go Thursday. I can't wait!!!

Twitching

Yesterday my eye wouldn't stop twitching. Today my upper lip keeps twitching. What is wrong with me???

Student Loans affecting my Credit Score

I've always had excellent credit. To me, I don't feel like it's that hard. Pay everything off. Anyway, I used to have a credit card that would give me my credit score for free. It was a very nice perk. However, a couple years ago they got rid of that feature...so I cancelled the card. So now it's been years since I've known my credi score. I guess I assumed since I've been making regular (over the minimum payments) every month that my score would still be super awesome.

James and I have a CitiCard and I recently saw on their website that they have an identity protection service that gives you your credit report/score. It's a bit costly, but the first month is free (as long as you remember to cancel before they bill you). So I subscribed to this service...just long enough to find out my credit info.

After looking over my credit report, I'm a bit disappointed. My credit score is 779. This is considered "good credit" which I should be happy about. But I'm not. It's lower than it's been in the past so I looked into my credit report more deeply to see why this was. It turns out the reason my credit score has gone down is because of my recent student loans that I took out for my Masters. This frustrates me. Why am I being penalized for furthering my education? James thinks once I consolidate my graduate loans that things will get better. I hope he's right....I want my EXCELLENT credit back!

I'm nerdier than you

http://www.sporcle.com/games/presidents.php

I can get all 44 in exactly one minute. Yes, these are the things I do for fun.

Car-ma

This weekend was the big Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield. This festival is a big annual tradition for my family, so Friday night James and I made the 3 1/2 hour trip to southeastern Kansas to meet my parents at the gate at midnight. The weekend was full of lots of eating and drinking and listening to music...and very little sleep. Our nights would end around 4AM and then the day would start up again around 7 or 8AM. Despite the lack of sleep, it was a great weekend.

Our trip home was...let's just say...eventful. James drove to Winfield Friday night so I agreed to drive home today. We were in Augusta, stopped at a stoplight when a van plowed into us from behind. I was driving James' (new) car, a 2010 Ford Escape, so I immediately freaked out. James stayed calm, recognizing that I was in no way at fault and motioned for the van to follow us into a nearby parking lot. We got out and assessed the damage. The other car was totally fine but from the looks of it, James' bumper would probably need to be replaced. We exchanged insurance info and called the police dept. to see if we needed to file a report. The police came and helped us fill out some paperwork. The whole ordeal delayed our getting home almost an hour, but at least we were both okay.

We stopped in Emporia to get gas. James went inside to use the restroom while I got out to gas the car up. I tried to insert my card into the pump but it keep beeping at me and reading "Card can not be accepted at this time." I was about to go inside and talk to someone when I saw "Prepaid $97.17". A little confused, I went ahead and filled the car up. Afterwards the pump said "Get change inside." I figure it was already my luck that I got a free tank of gas and that going inside to take the change that didn't really belong to me would be pressing my luck. So I left, in hopes that the person after me would also get a free tank of gas. I figured us getting that free tank of gas was good "car"ma for us not getting mad at the guy who rear-ended us. Sometimes it pays to be nice.

Marathon Relay

www.waddellandreedkansascitymarathon.org/marathonrelay.php

About 5 months ago, I got back into running. I was running 2-5 miles a day, 6 or 7 days a week. During this time, I decided I really wanted to do a marathon relay. My sister, Nicole, is a runner and has a good friend who she ran track and cross country with in college. I asked the two of them if they would want to do it with me. They said they did. So then I talked to my friend, Jenna, who is also a great runner. She said she was interested as well. We hadn't really decided on our 5th team member, but figured we would be able to find someone.

So now, months have passed by and needless to say I haven't been running (at all). Now this marathon relay is a little over a month away and I'm totally out of shape. So I have to decide...do I want to train over the next month in hyperspeed so I can still do this? Or do I want to accept that I waited too long to make this happen and try again next year?

The shorter legs of the relay are only 3.1 and 4.0 miles. I feel like I could get myself there within a month....though I wouldn't really be "fast". I'm guessing I'll talk to the rest of my teammates and see what they think...

This is why I do it...

I just got home from one of the longest days ever: headed to work around 7:45, taught all day, had to deal with class pictures (getting 23 6-year-olds to all stand still and smile at the same time is damn near impossible), 2 meetings, Back to School night with parents until 8:00 and then Book Club. Needless to say, I'm exhausted....possibly too exhausted to fall asleep, which is why I'm blogging.

Every year, after the first couple weeks of school we do a Back to School night where parents come and you talk to them about your classroom procedures, curriculum, etc. It's funny, because my first two years of teaching, I remember getting so nervous that I would almost throw up. Now, I don't really get nervous, though it's a very LONG stressful day. Basically from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM I had to be totally "on" today. I showed my smiley teacher face to my kids all day then turned around and showed it to their parents (during two different 45 minute sessions).

As exhausting and stressful as this whole ordeal is, tonight I actually felt like it was worth it. I had three different parents come up to me tonight and say that their child didn't really like school last year and that they would often come home crying or complaining about something....and that this year, they come home so excited to talk about their day. Hearing that kind of gave me the extra push to get through the last few hours of my long day. I'm not by any means happy to hear that these kids had a bad year in kindergarten, but it's nice to hear that they "LOVE first grade and LOVE Mrs. Asher". This is why I do it.

A Great Day With My Wonderful Husband

James was particularly cute yesterday. We got up in the morning and he made me french toast for breakfast (one of my favorites). Then he suggested we go see Inception because we've both been wanting to see it. So around 1:00 we went to a movie. When we got home, he let me read my book while he made dinner...turkey burgers and stuffed mushrooms. Yum! We watched a few episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadephia" when he said he wanted to go do something with me....but he wouldn't tell me where we were going. So we hopped in the car and headed down K10 to a golf course called Smileys. He's been playing a lot of golf lately and last week he mentioned that I should learn to play. I'm not sure whether that's a good idea or not due to my lack of coordination. So anyway, I thought he was going to try to take me to the driving range and teach me. But instead we played mini golf. I happen to LOVE mini golf even though I totally suck at it. So we played two rounds, had a beer, then went home around 9:30 and just chilled. It was a really fun day!

Mr. Skunk....I hate you

The dog got attacked by a psychotic skunk tonight. I took her out to go to the bathroom and a minute later, I heard her yelping hysterically. I went out there and saw that notorious striped tail. I started yelling at Kahlua and the devil skunk charged at me! Luckily, I closed the door right before it came into the house but poor Kahlua got it in the face. We went around the house to get her. After numerous saline rinses to the eye and a 40 minute bath (involving every remedy you can possibly imagine) I think we might be borderline okay. What a night!

Favorite things to spend money on...

1. Books!!!
2. Traveling
3. Gifts that you know are going to be "just perfect" for someone
4. Clothes
5. Anything K-State

So, you know, if you're ever wanting to buy me presents...refer back to this post.

It's official...

After finishing my Masters program in mid-March, I finally got my diploma in the mail yesterday. I guess these things take four months...

Anyway, it's official now. Woo-hoo!

Holy Productive Day!

I'm amazed at all the running around I did today. So much so that I'm making a list of all the places I went (because it's a lot):

Doctor's Office
Einstein Bagels
Walmart (on 135th)
Bed, Bath, & Beyond
Dick's Sporting Goods
Bank
Library (on 87th)
Supply Closet
Dollartree (on 87th)
Home (for lunch)
Michaels
Library (on Black Bob)
Mardel
School
Walmart (on Metcalf)
JoAnn's
Dollartree (on 151st)
Target
School
Home

Yes, that would be 20 places. I don't EVEN want to know how many miles I put on my car today!

Wow, I can't believe it...

Larry Schnackenberg has been found alive.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/24429447/detail.html

Missing Person - please see link below

I went to college with the daughter of this man. I can't imagine what her family is going through right now. If you have any knowledge to his whereabouts, please call the Lenexa police at 913-477-7301 or the TIPS hot line at 816-474-TIPS.

http://www.kctv5.com/news/24194733/detail.html

Sixteen

What is the number of toads the hubby and I saw jumping across the sidewalk on our walk tonight...

Currently Eating: The Perfect Sandwich

Whole wheat bread with fat-free cream cheese, dill, turkey, pepperjack cheese, goat cheese, spinach, and guacamole. Mmmm!!!

13 out of 100 (KC's Best Restaurants)

*I'm adding Blanc!

BB's Lawnside BBQ
Blanc Burgers & Bottles
Blue Koi
Blue Nile
Fritz's
Garozzo's
JP Wine Bar
Manny's
Minsky's Pizza
Nick & Jake's
One80
Thai Place
Zest

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

It's hard to believe that exactly one year ago at this time, I was getting ready to have my hair and make up done for the best day of my life. Many people say your wedding day will go by so fast and that you will hardly remember everything. The day DID go by in a flash, however I was able to step back and take in everything. I happen to be blessed (or cursed...depends on how you look at it) with an extraordinary memory. Because of this, I remember my special day quite vividly.

I remember:

• Not sleeping at all the night before because I was so excited and nervous
• Finally getting out of bed around 6:00 AM because I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. After being awake for about an hour, Diane woke up and we went to Panera together. She told everyone we ran into "My friend is getting married today!"
  
• Crying for no reason at all while getting my make up done.
• Looking into the mirror in the bridal suite at Berg and feeling beautiful
  
• Seeing James for the first time...in the alley outside the elevator doors
• Walking down the aisle and seeing the smiling faces of my wonderful friends and family
• The amazing spread of food...and realizing that the macaroni and cheese bar was worth every pretty penny we spent on it.
• The stress of trying to get around and say hi to everyone
• Cutting the cake...we had no idea what we were doing
  
• Our first dance ("When You Say Nothing At All" - Keith Whitley
  
• The crowded dance floor during "Jump On It"
• Showing up at our gorgeous hotel room at The Raphael...and then realizing I didn't have my overnight bag: no toothbrush, no face wash (washing layers of MAC make up off with hotel soap is pretty painful), no change of clothes, no sexy wedding night lingerie...somehow I didn't let it bother me and we ended up having a great night regardless.

It was an amazing day and every day since has been another memory to add to the books. Happy anniversary, Baby. I love you!

Cooking

It's so hard for me to believe that I have become a person who enjoys cooking (and is good at it). Eight years ago, I was the girl who could make mac & cheese and ramen...and that was about it. I had a phobia of raw meat and wouldn't go near it. Over the years, I've come a very long way. Now, not only can I follow a recipe...I've become someone who can create. This pleases me.

This morning, I made Russian Crepes for James and myself. A couple years ago, before I got married, my students threw me a recipe shower. I got this recipe from one of my kids...a super sweet Russian boy. I'm not exactly sure how this recipe differs from just regular French crepes, but I do know this....they're delicious!

Here's the recipe, if you want to give it a try. They're really easy!

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
2-3 tbsp. olive oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk. Batter will be runny.
2. Cook in a skillet or griddle in the same manner as you would pancakes. They will cook considerably faster than a regular pancake, since they're so thin.
3. Serve with your choice of topping. The recipe from my student recommends sour cream, honey, maple syrup, or jam. James and I like to put cream cheese and blueberry syrup in ours. I think they would also be really good with fresh fruit.

I also add vanilla extract and cinnamon to my batter. Hope you enjoy these as much as we have!

Busy Summer

It's really hard for me to believe that it's already July. It seems like my summer break just started but now it's already halfway over. Here have been some highlights of my summer:

• Colorado Trip - Over Memorial weekend, we road-tripped out to Green Mountain Falls, CO for my niece's high school graduation. It was a nice weekend with the family full of good eats and karaoke. We were also lucky to get to see Braden and Diane while we were there. Good times.

• Girls Weekend at Table Rock Lake - Earlier in June, I went out to Table Rock with 7 super fun girls. We spent all day everyday either laying out on the dock or out on the boat. I tried water skiing for the first time, which was hilarious to watch, I'm sure.

• Concert in Chicago - A couple weekends ago, I went to Chicago with my friend Lisa to see the Dixie Chicks, Keith Urban, and the Eagles. The concert itself was the best I've ever been to. I've always been a HUGE Dixie Chicks fan and this is the first time I've seen them live since 1992 (pre-Natalie). I also really enjoyed Keith Urban and the Eagles. We rest of the trip had many hilariously random moments that will forever be remembered.

• 4th of July weekend - This Sunday will mark my 1 year anniversary to my wonderful husband, James. We're going to spend our 4th at the beautiful Raphael hotel down on the plaza. I can't wait!
  

While I have Glee on the mind...

I decided to come up with a list of my all-time favorite Glee songs. Here they are:

• Keep Holding On
• Alone
• Defying Gravity
• Like a Prayer
• I Dreamed a Dream
• Journey Medley (mostly Faithfully)
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow

What are your faves, Gleeks?

A Night of Great Music

Tonight has been full of amazing music because:

1. I watched the Glee finale. LOVED the Journey medley (particularly Faithfully). Wow!

2. My friend Lisa posted a video of the Dixie Chicks covering Train's "Soul Sister" from the Toronto concert last night. Lisa and I are going to Chicago next weekend to see the Chicks (and The Eagles). This will be the first time I've ever seen the Dixie Chicks live since I was a kid and it was Martie, Emily, Laura Lynch, and Robin Macy Lynn. I've been a fan for many years and have sang many a' open mic nights/karaoke to the Dixie Chicks (SO wish my sisters could make it to this show). After watching that Soul Sister video earlier....I was definitely in the mood. So I added all the songs from the Toronto setlist to a Grooveshark playlist. I'm very content right now.

I won!

I won poker last night. Woot woot!

I WANT TO MOVE!

I'm currently uncontrollably crying right now. I just saw a 2 inch long (NOT exaggerating) centipede crawling up the wall in my house. Those of you who know me AT ALL, know that I have a severe irrational fear of centipedes. I can't even look at a picture in a book without flipping out.

James is sick and in bed so I had to kill it myself. It took me about 5 minutes to get my breathing under control because I sure did go into full on anxiety attack mode...you know the hyperventilating and sobbing and whatnot. And now I'm too afraid to go to bed because they're probably crawling all over my bed.

I know this probably sounds silly to most of you, but I honestly can't think of anything worse. I'd rather have a bucket of spiders and snakes poured over me than have to live in the same house as a creepy bug with a million legs. And this one....was....huge. And I bet his family is still out there just waiting to attack. I'm going to have nightmares all night, IF I ever get to sleep.

I seriously want to move out.

Water for Elephants movie

I just saw that they're making a "Water for Elephants" movie. It's supposed to come out some time in 2011 and will star Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. I can't wait. I LOVED this book and hope the movie lives up to it.

http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2010/05/robert-pattinson-hones-his-circus-acting/

Another update on KC's Top 100 Restaurants

We got to add One80 to our Top 100 list last weekend.

Current List:

BB's Lawnside BBQ
Blue Koi
Blue Nile
Fritz's
Garozzo's
JP Wine Bar
Manny's
Minsky's Pizza
Nick & Jake's
One80
Thai Place
Zest

Lea Michele + Idina Menzel = The Perfect Duet

In this week's Glee episode, Rachel (Lea Michele) and her mom (Idina Menzel - from the original Wicked cast) end up singing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. Ever since I watched that episode a couple days ago, I haven't been able to stop listening to this song. I've always loved the music from Les Mis and hearing these two PHENOMENAL women sing this song brings tears to my eyes.

Simply amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8B56AsKfJs

Apparently I sleep walk now

So I woke up a couple times this morning, once around 6:00 and again at like 7:50. Both times I rolled over and went back to sleep. I didn't end up getting out of bed until around 9:30. When I woke up, James was already downstairs making coffee and breakfast. He asked me what time I got up...and I told him "Just now." And he said "Really? When did you plug in your hair straightener?" Apparently at some point earlier in the morning (or maybe even in the middle of the night), I woke up and thought I needed to get ready for work, so I went DOWNSTAIRS and plugged in my hair straightener then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I don't remember this at all. Kinda scary. If this sleeping walking thing continues, I might end up burning down the house!

Update on KC's Top 100 Restaurants

My friend Paige and her boyfriend John are celebrating their birthdays tomorrow at Ernie Biggs Dueling Piano Bar in Westport. James and I were thinking of grabbing some dinner in Westport beforehand, so I decided to consult my "KC's Top 100 Restaurant" list to see if anything sounded good. While looking at the list, I realized I have a couple more restaurants that I can check off our list: BB's Lawnside BBQ and Zest.

We went to BB's for Jenni's birthday a few weeks ago. They had good food and a live band...it ended up being a fun night. Zest is where Rory, my brother-in-law, works. James and I have been there numerous times. The food is great...they have a really fun menu, sort of a gourmet comfort food. My favorite is their gouda macaroni and cheese. SO GOOD! We love that place so much that we had our rehearsal dinner there when we got married. Good times.

So my current list stands at:

1. Blue Nile
2. Blue Koi
3. Fritz's
4. Garozzo's
5. Manny's
6. Nick & Jake's
7. Thai Place
8. Minsky's Pizza
9. JP Wine Bar
10. BB's Lawnside BBQ
11. Zest

I'll update again if we end up eating out tomorrow night.

Random Act of Kindness

Today I got to be on the receiving end of a random act of kindness. This made my day for a couple reasons.

I've been sick on and off for about a week. Last Friday I got hit real hard with a nasty bout of death. Luckily it didn't last long and by Saturday, I pretty much felt all better. I felt good for a few days then on Tuesday, I started feeling sick again. Then yesterday and today it has pretty much been full blown sickness again. No fun.

So anyway, back to my RAOK story. This morning I was heading to work for my weekly 7:45 PLC meeting with my teaching team. It was about 7:42 and I was actually going to be on time, but I ran out of cold medicine and didn't think I could make it through the day without any. So I texted my teammates and told them I was going to be a little late because I was stopping at Walgreens. I get there and run up the door, only for it to be locked. I look at the hours...open at 8:00. Crap. There was no way I could wait for them to open. This is one of those situations where I just wanted to cry. All I wanted was some cold medicine and some cough drops. So I run back to my car and start it and I see one of the Walgreen workers run out to my car (in the pouring rain). I roll down my window and he says "If you need something, I can go ahead and open the store." HOW NICE IS THAT? So I go inside, thank him about 100 times, and get myself some cold medicine and cough drops.

It made my day...first off, because I didn't have to be miserable without meds. But also because someone went out of their way to do something nice for a complete stranger.

Thank you, Walgreens worker. You are a nice human and I appreciate you.

Eww, Jenny Humphrey

Okay, I'll admit it. I watch Gossip Girl. What was with Jenny's hair this past episode? It looked like a twisted up mass of owl vomit. It was disgusting.

Chicken & Artichoke Lasagna (easy and delicious)

Okay, so here's the recipe for the lasagna I made yesterday. It was delicious! All the measurements are estimated, since I kind of just made it up on the spot.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast
8 oz. part-skim ricotta
8 oz. fat free cream cheese (softened)
2 cup shredded mozzarella
1 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
2 eggs
6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts (chopped)
1 jar Bertolli's roasted garlic alfredo sauce
1/2 jar Bertolli's sun-dried tomato sauce
1 package Barilla's no-boil lasagna noodles (saves a ton of time)
Your choice of spices (see below for the ones I use)

1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees.
2. Cook chicken on stove top. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and oregano. I go pretty light on the salt and pepper, a little heavier on the garlic, basil, and oregano. Cut into small pieces (or shred) and set aside.
3. Mix ricotta, cream cheese, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup parmesan (save remaining shredded cheese for layering), and eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add in a generous amount of parsley and the chopped artichoke hearts.
4. Mix the two sauces together.
5. Layer ingredients into a 9X13 baking dish. I believe I did mine in this order: sauce, noodles, ricotta mixture, chicken, shredded cheese (repeat until ingredients run out). I think I did 3 or 4 layers, the top layer being noodles with shredded cheese on top.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes. Take foil off for the last 5 minutes.

Ideas for the future...possibly add in spinach? I'd also like to try making my own white sauce, but I wasn't feeling quite that adventurous this time around.

Trying something new

I've decided I'm going to make a white chicken lasagna today. And...I'm just going to make the recipe up as I go. This is the first time that I've done this. Usually I'll find a recipe and then kind of make it my own by adding or taking certain things out. This time, I'm simply going off what I think will sound good. How hard can it be? I'm kind of nervous, but really excited too. I'll let you know how it turns out!

I've always thought this....

"You can take these four chords...repeat them...and pump out any pop song ever written."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

So true.

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and so today my room mom brought in a gift basket full of teachery supplies from my students...post-its, markers, paperclips, etc. One of my little girls got me a gift card and in it was this note:

than (thank) you Mirs. Ashre for tething (teaching) me evin win Im inoing (annoying). Love from __________ (her name).

I couldn't stop laughing. First of all, the spelling itself was pretty entertaining....and this girl is so far from being annoying. Too funny.

I feel...accomplished

If you've been reading my blog at all lately, you know that I've really gotten into running lately. And I've been feeling great! Our school has a "walking program". Each month, if you log the time you spending walking (or any form of exercise, really) you get to wear jeans on Mondays. I don't really go walking all that often, but I spend a decent amount of time at the gym, running, etc. For the past couple years I've recorded my minutes each month so I can wear jeans on Mondays...you'd be surprised how much better your day is when you feel comfortable!

Anyway, it's actually been pretty interesting to see how much my exercise minutes vary from month to month. For example one month I only exercised 240 minutes, another month I did 610 minutes.

This month I've been a running machine. So on Monday, I was curious how many minutes I had exercised so far this month. When I realized I had already logged 800 minutes, I decided I was going to make it my goal this week to finish the month strong. I figured I could put in another 200 minutes, giving me a total of 1,000 minutes for the month of April.

And....I'm happy to report that 20 minutes ago, I put in my 1,000th minute of exercise this month. Go me! I feel so accomplished!

Running Log - 4/25-5/1

Sunday, 4/25 - 3.74 mi.
Tuesday, 4/27 - 4.28 mi.
Wednesday, 4/28 - 4.15 mi.
Thursday, 4/29 - 3.47 mi.

Total - 15.64 mi.

Running Log - 4/18-4/24

Sunday - 3.1 mi.
Monday - 3.13 mi.
Tuesday - 4.6 mi.
Thursday - 2.29 mi.
Friday - 3.68 mi.
Saturday - 3.46 mi.

Total - 20.26 mi.

mapmyrun.com

One of my Facebook friends (a girl I used to run track with in high school) had this link posted on her profile today. I decided to check it out, and....I love it! Super fun for any outdoor runner!

www.mapmyrun.com

Race Results from Sunday

The results from Sunday's race have been posted. My one wish is that they would have had someone yelling split times at the mile markers or at least the half way point. I meant to start my Nike+ when the race started, but I totally forgot...so I had no idea how fast I was running. I think if I had known, I would/could have gone faster. Oh well.

Out of 394 runners...

Overall place: 41st
Female place: 22nd
Female/Age bracket (20-29) place: 6th
Time: 28:54.8

Keep in mind, this is only the 2nd 5K I've ever done. I used to run road races with my sister when I was in middle school....but I believe all of them were 2 mile fun runs. So the Hospital Hill was actually my first 5K. I'm planning on doing it again this year. Can't wait!

Sad!

Apparently Dylan Meier (former K-State quarterback) died this weekend in a hiking accident. How sad!

http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/apr/19/former-ksu-quarterback-meier-dies-while-hiking/

Running for the week

I ran a 5K today. So naturally last Monday, I decided to start training. Better late, than never, right? So I've been using my Nike+iPod Sports Kit. It basically calculates how many miles each of my runs are. It's not 100% accurate but it gives me an idea. Most the time the mileage it says is slightly more than what I actually run. But anyway, here's my mileage for this week.

Monday - 3.63 mi.
Tuesday - 4.15 mi.
Wednesday - 2.25 mi.
Thursday - 3.29 mi.
Friday - 2.22 mi.

Total - 15.53 mi.

I'm going to try to continue keeping track of this.

Glee - Madonna Episode

A sneak preview...

http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2010/04/listen-the-cast-of-glee-like-a-prayer/

I can't wait!

Dreams

So I've been having a lot of bad dreams lately. Here's a description and my interpretation of each of them:

1. The "Running a Road Race and Ending Up at Church and Losing My New Purse" Dream

Description: In this dream, I'm running a road race and decide that I'm tired and think I'm going to cheat and take a shortcut. In all fairness to my dream self, there were a lot of other people taking the shortcut too. I wasn't the only one. Anyway, the shortcut ends up taking me into a church where I'm being chased by "bad guys". That's all I really know about these men. I have no idea why they are chasing me and how I know they're bad...but they are. Anyway, I end up having my new Coach purse with me. Why am I running a road race with my purse? I end up needing to hide the purse. Either it's slowing down my running or I'm worried the bad guys are going to catch me and steal it. So basically the dream ends with me finishing the race with a really awesome time (but without my purse). I don't want to admit to anyone that I cheated...so I guess I just end up leaving my new purse at the church. Super suck...I loved that purse.

Interpretation: I think the key elements in this dream are the running, the church, and my purse. I recently ran a road race and will be doing another one in a couple weeks, which I'm sure is why I dreamed of running a race. I'm guessing I cheated in my dream because in real life I know I'm not in shape to be running a 5K. The church thing is something that often makes appearances in my dream. My best guess here is that God is mad at me for not ever going to church and is trying to make me feel guilty through my dreams. The purse...well, I got a new purse and I love it. In my dream, I ended up losing my purse because I cheated during the race. I guess I deserved it. Cheaters never win.

2. The "Blood-sucking Leach" Dream

Description: This is totally sick but a couple nights ago, I had a dream I was covered in leaches...hundreds of them. And I kept trying to pull them off, but the more I pulled off, the more there were. It was really disgusting...and painful.

Interpretation: I'm not too sure on this one. Perhaps the blood-sucking leaches symbolize my students sucking the energy from me. Or maybe they symbolize the stress I'm feeling from possibly not having a job next year. In a way the Blue Valley School District is sucking away all my positive thoughts...leaving me with a disgusting pit in my stomach pretty much all the time.

3. The "Creepy Man Taking Pictures of Me While I Sleep" Dream

Description: I'm still freaking out about this one. I had a dream that I was laying in bed and I heard a sound...like someone trying to open my front door. I look over and James is in bed with me, so I'm worried that someone is trying to break in. I continue to lay there, listening...but no one ever comes into the house. So I close my eyes to go back to sleep and I hear this clicking sound following by a flash of light. Then it happens a second time and I open my eyes to see someone at my window taking pictures of my husband and I sleeping. SUPER CREEPY!

Interpretation: I don't know if it's because the Waldo Rapist is still out there or just the fact that bad creepy people exist...but I think this dream was a reminder to me that you're never truly safe. Particularly if you're a woman, at any moment someone could violate you. This dream was very real and I'm not gonna lie...I woke up feeling very on edge. I think I'm going to have to start wearing pajamas to bed now. If someone DOES somehow make their way up to my second story window, I don't want them getting pictures of me naked!

This is for Lisa...

P.S. I can't wait for June 13th to be here!

Master Asher Throws a Party

About a month ago, I finished up my Masters program at Webster. I was wanting to have some type of get-together to celebrate being done. So one of my friends from class, Valerie, offered to let us have a party at her house. She has a nice big house, so I was happy to accept the invitation.

Earlier this week I was talking to James...trying to figure out what food to make and when I'd have time to cook everything. I was kind of stressed about it, because this week at work was very busy and hectic. I was hoping I could take Friday afternoon off, come home early, and get everything together. But then I ended up having an IEP meeting that I couldn't miss. So that was out of the question. My husband, being the wonderful guy he is, offered to take off work and spend the day in the kitchen. I told him it wasn't necessary but he did it anyway. And wow....just wow.

I had made a list of different hors d'oeuvres and appetizer foods that I thought sounded good and told him he could choose a few things from the list. Well he decided to make EVERYTHING on the list...and more. And everything he made was from scratch. He made turkey meatballs with a homemade sauce, stuffed mushrooms (I helped stuff), caprese-stuffed tomatoes, tortilla roll-ups (I rolled and cut them), deviled eggs (aside from boiling the eggs, I actually made these), guacamole, spinach artichoke dip, and pudding-filled sponge cake with fresh berries. On my way home from work, I picked up a meat and cheese tray...just in case we didn't have enough food. Totally not necessary. We had a ton of food, but surprisingly, a large amount of it got eaten.

My friend Valerie also provided a chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows, and pretzels, which was fun. And my friend Melissa brought a "Congratulations Becky!" cake and champagne...super sweet.

We bought a pony keg of Bud Light and a couple boxes of wine (classy, I know) to drink. We have quite a bit of both those left, but K-State plays today so I don't think we'll have a problem getting rid of it.

It ended up being a really fun night. Around 20 people showed up, which I thought was a good turn out. Nothing like a night of good food, good drinks, and good friends!

Reasons why it's GOOD to get home after 2:00 AM

Actually, I can really only think of one reason why it's good to get home after 2:00 AM. Here it is:

Taco Bell is closed (sad) so I'm forced into eating half a bagel with fat-free cream cheese, dill, and sliced tomato, cucumber, and orange peppers. I'm estimating less than 200 calories...which is much less than whatever I would have gotten at Taco Bell (even if I had ordered from the Fresco menu).

Manhattan's St. Patty's Day Run - The Most Unorganized Racing Event of the Year

Last Saturday, the hubby and I made the trek down I-70 to good ol' Manhappenin, KS. Aggieville was having Fake Patty's Day Part Deux, so we decided we wanted to partake in the festivities. Part of this included the St. Patty's Day 2 Mile Fun Run. My sister, Nicole, and her friend Lexy decided to join us. Nicole and Lexy ran track and cross country together all throughout college and are actual "runners". James and I each used to run back in high school, but haven't really done much since. So our expectations for the race were slightly different than Nicole's and Lexy's.

Overall, the actual race went fine. I was a little surprised by how much 2 miles kicked my butt. But at the end of the race, I was able to kick it into high gear and pass a bunch of people at the finish line.

Here are my complaints about the race:

• My sister was unable to pre-register, due to a problem with her debit card. So when she went to register Saturday morning, they had run out of t-shirts. So, she didn't get a shirt. Let's be honest, most people who run road races, do it for the shirt. So not getting one sucks.
• In addition to running out of shirts, they also ran out of shoe tags (the chips they use to record your time). So my sister (and MANY other same-day registerers) did not get one of those either. We figured that wouldn't be the sole way they had of keeping track of times and places...so it must not have been a big deal. We were wrong.
• After the race, we went and had some beers at Pat's with my parents. They ordered food, which looked delicious. But we all opted out, because we were going to get "Free BBQ" at the awards ceremony. I thought I loved free BBQ, until we got there and found out that it was Burger King hamburgers with Kroeger chips. I'm not sure what makes Burger King "BBQ". There wasn't even BBQ sauce. Lame.
• At the awards ceremony, they were supposed to announce the top 10 finishers in each age bracket. We all figured Nicole was going to win her age bracket (30-34) because she was one of the top 10 overall female finishers. When it came to announcing the places, she (according to them) didn't place at all. However, the winning time for the 30-34 age bracket was 16 minutes and some odd seconds. Nicole's time was 15:16. So, she SHOULD have won it...but they screwed up and she walked away with no recognition and no medal.
• When the announced the top 10 finishers for my age bracket (25-29) I was not mentioned. I figured it was because I sucked and wasn't one of the top 10 finishers. Turns out I got 9th...they just messed up, again.

James called me this morning to tell me the times and places from the race were posted on their website. Despite the race coordinator's screwing up 100 times on race day...here are the actual results.

Nicole Taylor - 39th place overall (that includes men and women), 9th in the overall women's category, 1st in the 30-34 year old women's category, with a time of 15:16.

Lexy Schwartz - 57th place overall, 13th in the overall women's category, 2nd in the 25-29 year old women's category, with a time of 15:46.

Becky Asher - 115th place overall, 48th in the overall women's category, 9th in the 25-29 year old women's category, with a time of 17:25.

James Asher - 142nd place overall, 75th in the overall men's category, 7th in the 25-29 year old men's category, with a time of 18:14.

So, as you can see...all four of us placed in our age brackets, yet only one of us got her medal (we accepted Lexy's on her behalf, because she left early). I want my medal, Manhattan!

Poker Pro

For those of you who don't know me well, I play poker every Monday night at Jerry's Bait Shop. It's a bar just down the street from where we live. I'm not a fabulous poker player, but I do alright. Lately, I feel like I've been doing rather well, so I decided to check the poker league's website to see my ranking. I'm currently the point leader at Jerry's for the month of March. Number 1, baby!

Family Feud Question

Q: Name something that has teeth.
A: A bird!

Really???

I'm getting old...

Is it bad that instead of Cosmo or People, I now read magazines like Midwest Living and Family Circle?

I might have to order a subscription...

New Coach

Okay, so a couple Christmases ago, James got me a Coach purse. A black and gray Carly...she's adorable. Anyway, I use it as my everyday purse and needless to say, it's started to fray pretty bad. I've had it for about a year and a half and I guess I just figured I was really hard on purses.
So, I've been saving up to buy a new one. BUT I found out this weekend that I might not need to be saving my pennies.

Saturday night James and I (and a bunch of our friends) went on a pub crawl. We had party buses transport us around to each bar. Fun times. While on the bus I had a random stranger notice my frayed purse. She informed me that the same thing happened to her Carly and that it was actually recalled. She told me if I took it to the Coach store, I can get a new purse. They don't make the Carly anymore, but from what I understand...I'll just get a store credit and be able to get whatever I want. I can't tell you how excited I am. I'm thinking I might go after work some day this week and see what I can do!

Dexter

James and I finished the first season of Dexter (Ice Truck Killer) this weekend. SO. GOOD.

Healthy Feels Good

In February, I made it my goal to go to workout at least 3 days a week. It's not a ton...but it's something. It was sometimes difficult to get my 3 days in....just because of my busy schedule, but it's something I'm going to try to continue to do. It's apparently been paying off. I've been tracking my weight online http://www.blogger.com/www.weightchart.com. In the month of February, I lost 5 pounds.

Also, in February, I went to a cooking class with my friend Diane. It was something our school district did. The focus of the class was how to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. This is something I've always struggled with. I'm not sure I learned all that much from the class, but it got me "in the mood" for veggies. For the past 3 weeks, I've been visiting Hen House and stocking up on lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. At any given time you can find oranges, bananas, grapefruit, blueberries, fresh spinach, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and red peppers in my kitchen. I've been much more satisfied with what I've brought in my lunches.

My new favorite (healthy) thing to bring in my lunch...veggie pita. I get the whole wheat flat bread pitas from Hen House. In it, I put a thin layer of Philadelphia Spinach Artichoke cream cheese (you should try it...SO yummy). Then I stuff it with spinach, grape tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, and goat cheese (YUM!) with just a tiny little drizzle of low-fat caesar dressing. It's to die for!

Tonight James and I made an awesome salad. It just looked pretty and tasted delicious. It had shrimp, roasted red peppers, cucumber, grape tomatoes, avocado, and goat cheese. I also decided to experiment with making my own dressing. So I made an olive oil/balsamic vinegar concoction with a little bit of honey, garlic, basic, rosemary, and tarragon. It wasn't too bad. We also toasted some pita in the oven that was lightly brushed with the dressing. SO GOOD!

Update on February Goals

Earlier this month, I posted three goals that I wanted to accomplish during the month of February.

1. Floss daily.
2. Take vitamins daily.
3. Work out at least 3 times a week.

I'm happy to report that I accomplished all three of these goals this month. I've made these three things become part of my daily/weekly routine and will continue to do so from here on out.

9 out of 100

Add JP Wine Bar to the list of Top 100 KC restaurants that I've been to. Thumbs up!

Running Schedule

This is mostly just for me. I don't assume anyone cares about how much I run each week, but it's a good way for me to keep track of it for myself. Everything has been on the treadmill this week, as it's been too cold to run outside.

Sun. 2/7 - 1 mile
Tue. 2/9 - 2 miles
Wed. 2/10 - 3 miles
Mon. 2/15 - 2.5 miles
Wed. 2/17 - 3 miles
Sat. 2/20 - 2 miles
Wed. 2/24 - 3 miles
Fri. 2/26 - 2.25 miles
Sat. 2/27 - 2 miles
Wed. 3/10 - 1 mile
Thur. 3/11 - 2 miles

Just wanted to add that I've ran everyday this week...each time around 3 or more miles. Go me!

Running

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I used to be a runner. My (4 years) older sister Nicole ran track and cross country in high school. When I was in middle school I wanted to be a distance runner just like her. After two years of running the mile in middle school track meets...I was undefeated. I would also run the 1/2 mile and 2 mile run. I was never beat in the 2 mile and was only beat once in the 1/2 mile. I'm not trying to make this a bragging session, but let's just say I was good and I LOVED it.

In high school, I did both cross country and track. In cross country, I was decent, but I was no longer the best person on my team and it took a while for me to be okay with that. However, I still loved it. The cross country girls had a comradery that, to this day, I will never forget. Despite being from completely different cliques in the school (kinda like in Glee), we were all extremely close and the State Cross Country meet my freshman year still ranks as one of the most memorable days of my life.

When I started track, it was not the same. Being a freshman, I didn't really get any say in the events I did. Coach would always put me in the 4 X 800 relay (1/2 mile each) and the 3200 meter (2 mile), when my best event was the mile. I never got the chance to prove myself because he'd never let me run "my race". Our freshman year our relay team made it to state and despite me running the best 800 time in my life, we missed getting a medal by less than a second. Bummer. My sophomore year of track, I ended up injuring my back and quit the team. It's one of the only things I've ever quit and I'm disappointed that I did it.

I bring all this up because I USED TO be a runner. When I went off to college, I never competed again. I guess I was just done with it. Last summer I ran the Hospital Hill 5K with my friends Diane and Jenna. I trained for about a month beforehand, but nothing too extensive. It ended up being a fun race and after running it, I decided I would have to do more. So just this past week I started running again and I've already decided on two races I'm going to participate in in the next couple months:

My sister and I decided today that we're going to run the St. Patty's Day 2 Mile Fun Run in Manhattan on March 13th. I've always enjoyed Manhattan's St. Patty's Day festivities but I've never actually participated in the road race. It should be fun. I also got an email this past week for a 5K race in April that will benefit the son of woman who works in our district. She's actually the person who hired me 3 years ago. Her son has been fighting cancer for a couple years now and is not doing well. All the proceeds will go to pay for his medical bills. I'm looking forward to the race and I'm glad that I'm able to contribute to such a good cause.

So this is it...I'm getting back out there in the running world. Wish me luck!

February Goals

Outside of my 101 list, I've recently been trying to set some personal goals. This month, my goals are as follows:

• Floss daily
• Take my vitamins daily
• Workout at least 3 days every week

I know it's kind of gross, but I've never really been a regular flosser. I usually just do it whenever I think to, which is usually only a few times a week. So far I've flossed every day in February.

In way of vitamins, I've always had good intentions, but I hate swallowing pills. About a month ago, I bought multivitamin gummies. I love them and never have a problem taking my vitamins anymore!

Working out is always a back and forth thing for me. Sometimes I'll really get into it for a while, other times I have a really hard time making it to the gym. Last week was conference week so I was a little worried about getting in 3 workouts. But I was able to do it. Sunday I went to the gym. Monday and Wednesday I worked out at home. I have an exercise ball, weights in the basement, a Wii Fit, and numerous workout videos. I really have no excuse not to work out...even if I can't make it to the gym. This week has started well. I went to the gym today and plan on going Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

So far I'm doing very well with my goals. I'll keep you updated!

Make that 8 out of 100

A while back I posted a list of Kansas City's Top 100 Restaurants.

http://www.wherethelocalseat.com/Kansas-City-Restaurants/

At the time I had only been to 7 of them...kinda pathetic. I've made it a goal of mine to get out there and try some new places. Today James and I went to lunch at Minsky's Pizza. I've always heard great things and all that was confirmed today. Our pizza was great. We got the Chicken Cordon Bleu pizza. Yummy! Even better...we each ordered a beer and the waitress asked us if we wanted a pitcher because they were cheaper. So we got a pitcher of Boulevard Wheat...which resulted in about 2 1/2 beers for each of us. All for a nice $6. A $6 pitcher of Blvd...not bad! I'm not sure if this is part of their lunch special or if they just have crazy cheap pitchers. Either way, I was happy!

Next weekend, we're going to try another place on the list for Valentine's Day. Where? We haven't yet decided....

Current Top 100 KC Restaurants that I've been to:

Blue Nile (been to twice)
Blue Koi (been to twice...once in Leawood, once in Westport)
Fritz's (been to once...with the kids I watched this past supper)
Garozzo's (been to 3 or 4 times with James...always the one on College...it's the best!)
Manny's (been to a few times...maybe 3?)
Nick & Jake's (been to once)
Thai Place (only been once, but loved it!)
Minsky's Pizza (been to once...just recently)

CRAMPS!

Yeah, I'm in pain.

Hide my scale, please

This time last year my friends and I were competing in a "Biggest Loser" competition. It was a very healthy time for James and me. We were eating really well and working out almost everyday. During the 12 weeks of competition, I lost 15 lbs (11% of my body weight). I was very happy with my weight and my body when we finished the competition and I told myself I would continue to live healthily, even after it was all over.

We managed to do this for quite a while. The "Biggest Loser" ended February 8th and come April, I was still at my finishing weight. During the summer I actually lost a couple more lbs due to wedding stress. In July 09 I was exactly 20 lbs less than I was in July 08. Things were good.

Now, however...the weight is starting to creep back. The holidays, as always, were difficult and I ended up gaining a few lbs. I had a certain number that I told myself I would never see again on my scale (until I was pregnant). Today...I saw that number and it devastated me. Granted, it's not the best time of the month to be stepping on the scale....but I'm not going to allow myself to use that as an excuse. I'm really disappointed in myself and I've decided I need to REALLY kick things into gear.

So James and I went to the gym this afternoon. We usually go to the Gold's in Olathe, but we decided today to go to the bigger one in Merriam. It's actually further away, but takes less time to get to because you can take the highway. Typically at the gym, I just hop on the elliptical or treadmill and do cardio the whole time. Today James made me do a leg workout with him. By the time I was done, I could hardly walk. My legs shook the whole ride home. But, I'm feeling good. Nothing like a good workout!

I kind of think seeing "that number" on the scale gave me a reality check. I've decided I'm going to quit making excuses when it comes to going to the gym. I'm going to start documenting my weight every Sunday like we did when we were doing the Biggest Loser. I need to start eating better. These are all things I know I can do. I've done it before....and it's time to do it all again.

I'll keep you updated, Internet.

Top 4 Reasons Why Today Has Sucked

1. I decided to make homemade broccoli cheese soup tonight. The recipe called for the soup to be pureed in the blender. During this process, my blender button decided to get stuck which resulted in an explosion. Not only did I get broccoli cheese soup all over my kitchen and my clothes, but the scalding hot soup also got all over my face/eye. I've been icing it all night. Still hurts.

2. I made the choice to actually go to the gym tonight with James, but I needed to put gas in my car first. In the short period of time it took to fill up my car, my battery decided to die (left my lights on). Awesome. So James had to push it into a parking spot and run home (literally) to get his car so we could jump it.

3. We got the car started, but the battery still sucks. So we had to make a 9:00 PM trip to Walmart to buy a new battery. I'm now $90 poorer. Lame.

4. After getting home from Walmart, I walked past the corner of my torn up bumper and ripped my pants....yes, my favorite workout pants. UGH!!!

All this has happened just in the last four hours. I guess my title for this post should have been "TOP 4 REASONS WHY THE PAST 4 HOURS OF MY LIFE HAVE SUCKED", but I'm not sure if you can have a title that long.

Thanks, Wii Fit!

Aww, my Wii Fit just wished me "Happy Birthday"....that was nice!

Late night chats in the dark

When I was a kid I used to share a room with my older sister, Margie. I remember we would always lay in bed in the dark and talk to each other until we were both tired enough to fall asleep.

Last night, I thought of this as James and I were laying in bed. Usually, once we lay down, we say goodnight, give each other a kiss, and within 2 minutes James is asleep. It usually takes me 20-30 minutes to fall asleep, which I've always kind of resented him for...but that's another story.

Anyway, last night we went to bed and I guess neither one of us were very tired, because we laid there for about 20 minutes, just talking in the dark. It definitely took me back.

This does NOT mean we're getting bunk beds...

Kansas City's Top 100 Restaurants

We're going to Blue Nile Cafe (an Ethiopian restaurant) for my birthday dinner tonight and I was looking on their website to get their phone number to make a reservation. On their website was a link to this, Kansas City's Top 100 Restaurants:

http://www.wherethelocalseat.com/Kansas-City-Restaurants/

I was curious so I looked through the list and was surprised to see that I've only eaten at 7 of the 100 restaurants listed:

Blue Nile
Blue Koi
Fritz's
Garozzo's
Manny's
Nick & Jake's
Thai Place

All of the above places had great food, except for Fritz's...which was very so-so. However, I'm guessing they made the list, not because of their food, but because of the experience. It's a fun place for kids, so I suppose it can be on the list. Nick & Jake's I was just a little surprised at. I've only been there once. I liked the food there, but I didn't necessarily think it was Top 100 quality. Perhaps I need to go again...

There were a few places on the list that I've been to, but haven't eaten at: Tom Fooleries, Reverse, Classic Cup Cafe, Blanc, and Jerusalem Cafe. I've been to both Tom Fooleries and Reverse a handful of times to drink, but I've never ordered food there. I went to a wine tasting in the basement of the Classic Cup Cafe, so I've been in the building, but I hardly think that counts. James and I went to Blanc once in Leawood, thinking it was Blue Koi (which was right next door). Luckily we figured it out before we were seated. And I ALMOST ate at Jerusalem Cafe the day of Crawl for Cancer. Courtney and I and a bunch of other people went in there to eat but they wouldn't split our checks, so we walked out.

There were a handful of places on the list that I've heard great things about, but I've never been to. I'm going to do my best to make it happen: La Bodega, JP Wine Bar, Gate's, Hereford House.