Tumbalalaika

Training for: Freedom Springs Triathlon

maybe - just found out the pool near my house is finally reopening. I think I need more time to train since this is my first tri - looking for one in the early fall.

Cardio: 0 today (yesterday I did a quick 2 miles)

Weights: 3x(upper body 4x20, abs 4x20, lower body 4x20) alternating exercises for each of the 3 sets

Food: Breakfast - Oatmeal - 160

Lunch - San Miguel's (B-day lunch today courtesy of the coworkers)

Dinner - Steak with steamed veggies, soba noodles, and ginger sauce (find it here)

Self Confidence: 9

So - another thing to cross off my Resolutions list - #5 - I'm 30 - and I feel pretty good. Although, the reality that I'm a real adult is starting to sink in. And while society says you become an adult at 18, I don't think I really acted like a real adult until around...oh.....age 25 if I'm lucky.

A little over two weeks until graduation. That means less than two weeks to finish my remote sensing project, which, I am having issues with by the way. Thanks for asking. Due to my self denial of taking the class, more or less actually having to do assignments for it, I have backed myself into a corner, pretty much becoming the epitome of procrastination. I actually entertained the thoughts about what would happen if I just decided to blow off the whole project. That lasted a day or three, and well, here I am. Running some crap analysis that is taking forever hoping that I can get a decent enough result to fudge a report with. Lucky for me, I have somehow 'wowed' my teacher with my profound GIS abilities and have found favor in his eyes. I have unintentionally turned into "teacher's pet" with pretty much zero one-on-one face time. As bad as it sounds, I hope this works to my advantage when I turn in my project (if I turn it in......only kidding!).

Because of this project and other random stuff, I have been in a sporadic workout routine. (I just laughed at myself for using 'sporadic' and 'routine' in the same sentence) I've been averaging 2-3 days a week...max. Which, is ok I guess. I'll be running another 5K on Saturday. I don't anticipate a record performance by any means, but it would be nice to stay under that 30min mark.

On a side note - I've been playing a decent amount of piano lately. Well, keyboard if you want to get specific, since, I don't own a piano. I've self-graduated to "Level 2" and one of my favorite songs is the second in the book. You can watch a gal play it here - and, only those of you learning the song, or who know the song, would know where she screws up. I must say, her mistakes are better than mine, since, she is able to keep tempo and plow through them. I haven't gotten to that phase yet, when I screw up, I pretty much have to stop, and restart a measure or two before. But hey, I'm still learning. Either way, its one of the few songs in these cheesy beginner piano books I actually enjoy. If I were to give one critique for her (which, would satisfy my friend's resistance to middle school musical style) is that she pay attention to her dynamics! There are clearly two parts that require a dramatic crescendo, which we do not hear. I am working hard on incorporating those into my practice, and hope that this makes you proud Jenn!

Gotta love grad school

So, one of our semi-assignments for my GIS in Social Sciences class was to create a webpage. Kind of funny considering I already have this blog (for one), a myspace page and a facebook page. How many pages does one girl need? Anyway, I figure this site could be strictly used for my graduate studies, and a way to build my GIS portfolio. I put a bunch of maps I have published on there. I'm considering putting my research papers on there as well, but before I do I need to be sure to save them as PDFs. I just hope no one tries to plagurize me. Well, at least if they do, I have proof its really mine!

Anyway, here is the site:
http://jes.rogers.googlepages.com/

It really needs some sort of a comment box area....I'll have to look into that

14 min till I gotta take off...

Thought I would try to get in a quick update before I leave for class. Here it goes:

As far as the house hunting goes....we've probably toured about 10 houses. We have 3 "tentatively" on our list. But, we'll be looking at 4 more this week (hopefully). Figures the ones that we wanted to tour most are the one's under contract. Guess that just means we gotta get the ball rolling fast if we see something we fall in love with. Its a hard process, because we're so anxious to get out of our crappy apartment, but, at the same time, it is a HUGE investment. And both Steve and I have decided we're not going to settle for anything. We're going to hold out until our "dream house" plops in front of us. Well, dream house within our price range that is. We've seen several "dream houses" all the way upward of a cool million. Yeah, don't think we'll be checking those out, though, it is fun to pretend! And something to strive for!

As far as school goes, I think I'm doing ok. Only 3 more weeks before my first exam. Which, they are both *right* before HRBabe's wedding. But, that is a good thing because they I don't have to bother with trying to study for an exam when I should be playing Maid of Honor. I will probably do some chapter readings on the plane, but, otherwise, should be a relaxing time....in the sense of a wedding day! haha

Anyway, that's pretty much it so far. About to head out the door. OH, so, I'm out of oatmeal, and, we got a free "weight loss proten powder" deal from Steve's coworker (we like whey protein). Anyway, it was "Tropical Fruit" flavored, and, I was skeptical about it from the start. Well, I had every reason to be! That crap tastes like that so called *bubble-gum* flavor they used to put in the liquid pennicillin when you were a kid. Its NASTY. And, I even made a smoothie out of it with milk, rasperries and a little bit of the tropical fruit V8. I think I will stick to vanilla thank you!

oh, one last thing....Only made it to the gym 4 times last week. I was striving for 6. But, I guess considering that I haven't really been going at ALL lately, that's not too bad. I want to make it at least all 5 weekdays this week, and if I can get some extra cardio in on Saturday, that would be great. But, we do play softball on Friday night, so I might not need to worry about cardio so much over the weekend. We'll see. Certainly won't hurt me! Only about 4 weeks till MOH day!

So...*yawn*....tired!

So, I felt crappy yesterday cuz of allergies. Therefore, I didn't cook dinner. Steve & I went out & met up with a friend who's wife is out of town and had wings ($.40 wing night at hobbit hoagies). Well, I went home around 8:30, and he went to his friends to play tiga' tiga' woods ya'll ya'll...EA Sports....sorry, I get caught up in the theme song! Anyway, I passed out on the couch, woke up at 9:30, and went to watch TV in bed *slash* fall asleep. Well, I fall asleep, turn off the TV, then Ash keeps freaking me out by thinking he's hearing things. I am a wuss and can't sleep well when Steve is gone (constantly paranoid about something). But, I finally manage, and Steve gets home around 11:30ish I think.

Well, I fall asleep, but, wake up at like 2am. Go back to sleep. Wake up at 4am. Think "I still have 2 hours to sleep!" Go back to sleep. Wake up at 5am to the sound of a cat puking in our bedroom (lovely lovely sound). Luckily, Steve volunteered to clean it up. Finally fell back asleep. Woke up at 6:30.......6:30?!?!? My alarm was set for 6am. It never went off.

A few months ago, the radio on my clock radio stopped working. I HATE the buzz sound on my alarm, so I always woke up to the radio alarm. Plus, it was quieter also so it wouldn't usually wake up Steve. Well, I guess the buzzer part has finally gone out too. I mean, I have only had this clock radio since I started college 10 years ago! Gaw, you'd think a $10 alarm clock would be of higher quality!!

At least I can be scrubby to go to campus. That's one thing I miss about college life. Screw what you wear!! I wish I could be scrubby at work sometimes because, some days I just don't give a poop! haha.

Goals today:

• Get registered
• Get back in time to take Lokie to the vet (his favorite!)
• Workout (if I'm not feeling too crappy, I skipped yesterday)
• Go to BB&T for our FHA loan application
• Go to the driving range (if its not rainy).

Pretty packed for my "Day Off!"

Myspace Duplicate Posts!

Ok, if you guys read my myspace blog then, read no further. You have already been filled in on the annoyances of my life. Otherwise, if you haven't read my myspace, why, by all means continue!

Part One - I expected Grad School to be fun

So, I got to class early today for a few reasons...one: parking. Parking is horrendous at FSU. EVERYONE who enrolls in even one credit gets a parking pass. Not to mention, they don't have separate parking areas for dorm kids vs. commuters like CSU did. So, basically, if they live on campus, they can park anywhere, which is annoying. Two: I cannot register until Friday. So I had to get a waiver from the professor saying yes its ok to add me to your class. Stupid state employee waiver deal is turning out to be a crock. I have to wait until AFTER add/drop has closed, then I have to physically walk down and turn in my paperwork. Pretty annoying if you ask me, especially if the class is a required credit.

Anyway, I get to class, relieved to be in AC again, and who shows up. A coworker. This *particular* coworker tends to strut around like he is a know-it-all when in fact I know that he really doesn't know jack. That, and, he was snotty to me in an email, after I did what I was *asked* to do by his bosses boss. And, he got snotty because he was in the dark, and he was in the dark because he chose not to show up for a meeting. Needless to say, I'm not to fond of this person. Well, I was pissed because, I'm going back to school so I can get OUT of my job, and get away from these types of people. Now, I have to spend an entire semester dealing with a person I seriously dislike from work. And, its not like I can be rude and ignore the guy....I guess I just have to hope that he doesn't ask to work on a group project or some crap with me. Ug!

Part Two - What annoys me about gym goers:

• People who save cardio machines by putting a magazine, water bottle or towel on it *BEFORE* they go into the locker room to change. Yes, the gym is crowded, but you don't have special priveledges.



• I realize its a gym, and there will be sweaty people, but, if your stank is permiating into my workspace, then you need more deodorant!!! Just because everyone smells, doesn't mean you can skip the Degree applciation!



• Girls who show up in tiny sports bras and mini shorts. They are never there to actually "work out." They are there to strut their anorexic-selves around to show off to the guys. Their "workout" consists of abotu 10-15 minutes of walking on the treadmill, a few crunches, and about 2 sets of 10 curls with 3lb weights. Break a sweat why dontcha!