Website Update

There are updated pictures on the website - St. Patrick's Day this year and some old ones from last year (Cody's Birthday, our runs, Mardi Gras 2005, etc.). Enjoy!

And on and on it goes . . .

Winter, that is. It just won't stop!!! Sorry for two posts in a row about the weather, but I'm just so tired of it. It's cold, dreary, and everything is about as dead can get. I beginning to think I will never see the green again! There are 12 months in the year and four seasons - that would logically mean that each season gets 3 months. Well, winter's three months are offically over! Give it up and turn it over to spring already!!! While I love St. Louis and I love our life here, I told Cody I don't know how many of these winters I can take (and they say this one wasn't that bad). . . .

On other notes, Cody got new contacts today. His left eye got a little worse, but the right stayed the same. Poor kid is blind as a bat. I went to the dentist - no cavities - though that one crazy tooth is still crazy. I also ran a pretty good five miles on the treadmill - 46 minutes and 47 seconds - that's not too shabby (for me) on a treadmill. Well, it's almost ten p.m. and we both got home less then an hour ago and just finished "dinner" (he had left-over chilli with some chips and salsa and I had two bowls of Frosted Shredded Wheats). Time to get ready for bed (my doctor says I don't get enough sleep).

Welcome to Spring . . . now get out the snow shovels

So today is the Vernal Equinox, typically my favorite day of the year. It means finally the days have caught up to the nights and they're just getting longer until the Summer Solstice. So typically, a time to celebrate winter's end and spring's joyous arrival. But not in St. Louis. This morning as I left the house for work it was simultaneously raining, snowing, and sleet/hailing. Tonight we're forecasted to get 2-4 inches of snow and another 1-3 inches tomorrow. Fun, huh? Bring on the shorts and tank tops!

Black Bean and Corn Salsa - and how we plan to make our million

We like salsa, actually we love it (especially Cody). It's the only way I'll ever eat chips (and then only if they're baked), but I love it with pita bread, on chicken, or pretty much any way you can serve it. My favorite is Sam's Choice (Wal-Mart brand) Corn and Black Bean Salsa, while Cody prefers Pace Chunky that he adds tons of hot sauce to. And therein lies the quandry - I like as much healthy stuff as possible and Cody just wants it as hot as possible.

So this weekend he decided to make some homemade salsa. He found a Black Bean and Corn salsa recipe we both could agree on online (though he was disappointed it contained no habenaro peppers) so we decided to give it a shot. Yummy!!! It has black beans, corn (as the name implies), two tomatoes, an onion, red pepper, juice of two limes, fresh cilantro and cumin. He bought some Tostito's with a hint of lime (I was very apprehensive about this at first) and they are awesome with the salsa.

So, we've decided that's how we're going to make our millions (forget this engineering and law thing)! We're going to keep testing out salsa reciepes until we make one of our own we love and then market a healthy version and a hot and spicy version. We'll sell our "local/ homemade/ fresh" salsa at local farmer's markets until the grocery stores will pick it up - then we'll move world wide! Now we just need a catchy name and we'll be off!

Happy Halloween from the USPS

As a lot of people know, I love mailing stuff - for some reason I really enjoy writing out letters, putting stamps on them (along with an enormous amount of stickers), and dropping them in the blue box in hopes that the United States Postal Service will deliver my letter to its proper locale. Turns out this is more hoping then you would imagine. My letters have a tendency not to arrive timely or sometimes not at all. For instance, I sent Cody's mom a thank you card once and it took 11 days to get to Tallahassee. Another time I sent Cody's sister and her family a letter with the correct address including the +4 zip code, only to have it returned as "undeliverable." I then put the "undeliverable" card in an envelope addressed identical to the first and it made it there just fine. The most recent example was a Halloween card I sent my mom.

It all started when Cody's mom had this great idea to make scrapbook-type birthday cards for Cody and I last year. They were the greatest things you could imagine - it was a long accordion fold-up card that she put pictures from different birthdays on in scrapbook style. I still have them sitting out and show them to just about anyone who will look at them. Anyway, as I was organizing some old pictures, I came across some from various old Halloween photos and thought I would put them into one of those mini-scrapbook cards for my mom. So I spent quite some time getting everything together (Cody even helped) and finally made a card that I thought was really special and meaningful. I mailed it off on October 24th and even made sure to take it to the Post Office to ensure I had enough extra postage on it.

Well, Halloween came and went and everyone else got their Halloween cards, except my mom. I filled out a lost mail form at the Post Office and nothing turned up. Months and months went by and it really irked me that of all the mail I send, this one card really meant a lot to me and had some really old pictures on it and this is the piece they lost. I filled out more lost mail forms and again nothing came up. Well, Friday night when Cody and I were out celebrating St. Patrick's Day my mom called. And guess what - of all things, she finally got the card in the mail!! FIVE MONTHS after I mailed it, my Halloween card finally arrived!! She said it was in good shape, didn't look beat up or anything, and was even postmarked 10/24/05. On one hand I can't believe it took them FIVE MONTHS to deliver the card, but on the other, I'm just so very thankful it was finally delivered at all. So, Happy Halloween Mom, from the USPS!

A Great 5.65

Today I planned to go to the gym and work-out on the eliptical machine since I ran yesterday (I'm trying to run a lot, but not too much before the 1/2 marathon since I've had wicked painful shin splints for a few weeks now). But Cody called and felt like running - not just his normal quick one mile speed run, but felt like running an endurance run - around Forest Park - and I just couldn't resist this rarity. The big loop around Forest Park is one of my favorite runs in St. Louis - it's a pretty easy 5.65 miles with some great scenery along the way. I try to run it at least once or twice a week. So today I ran with a partner for only the second time in a year (the first time was with Marissa in the 5 mile St. Pat's race on Saturday) and for the first time with Cody. While Cody and I are both relatively physically active, our abilities do not match up well -he likes fast short runs and I like long slower ones - as you can imagine, this doesn't lend itself to working out together often - or ever, as the case may be.

So we set out to run together. I honestly thought I was going to kick his butt since I'm the endurance champ and he's only got speed, or so I thought. He really impressed me - we ran a pretty quick 5.65 miles and he had energy to sprint the last 1/2 mile! I had such a blast running with him too! First, I figured out I psyche myself out too much when I run distances so I don't run fast enough to hit my peak performance out of fear of not finishing (or having to walk some of it). Cody really had me keeping a good pace the whole run. Second I realized how bored I can get and how fun it was to have someone to chit chat with along the way. Not that I want to always run and chit chat, I enjoy the solidarity of the sport and the time of reflection, but it was a nice change. Of course, since he's used to running less then 10 minutes at a time, Cody thought it was boring to run that long. I've got to think of something to barter with him so I can talk him into running around the park with me once a week or every other week. . . . either that or find someone who wants to run 5.65 miles at a 9:30 pace with me - what do you think, Marissa? :)

On another note, the Tourney started today! As a result, I got nothing done at work as I hit "refresh" on my computer for hours to watch the scores. At the risk of discussing work on a blog (something I avoid like pickled beets), I've just got to tell this story. Our computers are equipped with a program called "Websense" that restricts our use of certain websites. We are allowed 60 minutes of Quota Time per day (which must be used in 10 minute increments) to view these "restricted" pages falling into categories such as "Travel," "Society/Lifestyles," "Entertainment," "Financial Institutions," and of course, "Sports." Of course things like "Weapons," "Pornography" and "Illegal" are totally restricted and you cannot use those even if you wanted to use your Quota Time.

So basically the theory is they don't want you messing around on the computer all day searching for tickets for your next trip, reading about Jessica Simpson's new boyfriend, or balancing your checkbook. . . . you can still do those things, but only on your Quota Time. Aside from the fact that I think this is ridculous as a professional to have Quota Time (after all I still have to bill my required time whether or not I chose to spend an extra two hours at work reading about the Ides of March), I swear we spend more of our time figuring out how to get around these blocks then we would if we just had free access to the sites to begin with. For instance, the Tourney started at 11:30 and the Gator's started play around 2:15 - obviously, I could not sit and hit "refresh" on ESPN Scoreboard for that length of time or I would run out of Quota Time before the Gator's started play. So I spent a great deal of time figuring out if I could find a site that had scores that wouldn't charge me Quota Time. No, I didn't want to sit there for hours on end and simply watch the scores change, but I did want to periodically look up from my work and see what was going on - and I would have run out of Quota Time after only 6 bouts of looking up as long as they were 10 minutes apart. Anyway, we did eventually find a way to watch the scores without using Quota Time, but he moral is I really would have spent less time periodically looking up the scores to see what was going on then I did searching for a way around the dumb blocks. After all, since I have to bill X number of hours a month, I think I should be free to sit on the internet all day as long as those hours get billed. More power to me if I manage to read about Brittany Spear's baby and get the hours billed too.

Ides of March, Part II

So, we were discussing the Ides at work today and low and behold, a colleague, who just happens to have the same and middle name as I do (wonderfully popular name in the 70's I guess), also wrote on her blog about the Ides! Luckily she is much smarter then I am and had much more information then I did. Apparently the significance is that Caesar was killed on this day in 44 B.C., hense the phrase in Caesar (the play), "Beware the Ides of March." Anyway, I stole this link from Melissa's blog for anyone interested in further information on the Ides of March - who knew I'd learn so much in one little day!! Maybe tomorrow I'll learn about the 16th of March!

On another notes:

I ran five miles on the treadmill at the gym today in 46:53 - no it's not incredibly fast, but for a treadmill it's not terrible (I run much faster outside on the ground then I do on a treadmill). Only a little over three more weeks until the half marathon! I have three more long runs of 8, 9, and 10 miles and then April 9th is the big 13.1! My goal this year is to run it in 2 hours, 10 minutes or less. We'll see . . .

I finally broke down today and bought the blazer I've been eyeing up for weeks at Old Navy - I have been wavering on whether or not I liked it enough to buy it but then it went on sale for $25 so I broke down. It should work great as a spring jacket/blazer that I can wear with a ton of stuff. We'll have to see. . . .

Cody and I figured out our brackets for the NCAA tourney today. They're due tomorrow for our respective pools. I have U Conn picked to win it - much to Cody's chagrin, I didn't pick Florida. :) I have a classic 5-12 upset (Texas A&M over Syracuse - no matter how "on fire" everyones says Syracuse is), but otherwise nothing ground shattering. I have Iowa doing well but Villanova loseing to Ohio State - we'll see.

Oh, and I actually cooked dinner tonight - first time in a while. My specialty - frozen veggies, terriaki chicken and brown rice. But thanks to the Girl Scouts of America, we had a special dessert tonight of Thin Mints and Samoas. :) Nothing additional to see here I guess. :)

Happy Ides of March

As yesterday was a reference for all the math people, today's reference is more for the Latin folk (the dead language, not the nationality). I'm not sure what the Ides of March has to do with Latin, but that's where I learned about it so that's what I associate it with. I think it had to do something with the Romans and something they did on March 15th. . . probably some festival or something.

Anyway, today I learned something new about the Ides - I thought Ides pretty much meant 15th, but as my dictionary.com Word of the Day informed me, Ides refers to the 15th day of the month only in March, May, June and October and the 13th in other months. Who would have known? Well, to answer that, actually my brother would have known since I emailed him this tidbit of information and his response was "Cmon, you forgot the rhyme? March, July, October, May: that's when the Ides are on the 15th day." I guess I must have been sleeping in class that day. Maybe he can tell us what the Ides stands for in the first place. :) Thanks Bo!!

Happy Pi Day

For the math geek in all of us, I wish everyone a Happy Pi Day. Today is 3-14, for those who might not get the reference. Someone I used to know in high school (though I can't recall now who exactly it was -probably my brother) memorized Pi out to some obnoxious number of digits. Here's the first nine: 3.14159265. So enjoy your day of Pi.
p.s. This is my 50th post!

And the madness begins

Summer in St. Louis (and possibly the entire northern half of the U.S.) is insane. All this pent up energy from sitting inside all winter, watching TV, and eating and eating and eating, tends to cause one to go insane with activity during the summer months. I am no exception to this madness. As of the first sign of spring, the calendars begin to fill up. All winter, weeks can go by without any festivals, events, get-togethers, parties, or even simple happy hours. . . no one has any desire to go anywhere but work (and I wouldn't call going to work a desire, but more of a necessity) and then home to curl up with a warm blanket, the TV, and of course, food (hence the reason I've gained so much weight this winter). It's just miserable outside - the wind, the snow, and worst is the ice. Trips are made to the grocery store only when there absolutely nothing left in the house to eat and then only after 12 layers of clothing and almost as much griping. Low gas lights go ignored with the hopes that there will be one day of respite in the frigid air in which one can fill their gas tank without getting hypothermia. And then just as you think you can't take another day of the weather, the emails begin: Party, May 13th, Happy Hour, April 27th, Bowling Gathering June 24th, Float Trip July 15th. And the madness has begun. Let's call it another form of March Madness, this one not involving endless combinations and permutations (props to the math geeks who know what that stuff means) of brackets, but visions of springtime and an eventual warm up into summer and the madness to get one's calendar filled with fun social events to defrost the bones and provide happy memories for when next winter hits. I swear this is the only coping mechanism to make it through the winter - fill up the summer calendars with all possible forms of fun so when the winter hits one can just sit back and enjoy the memories . . . under the blanket, in front of the TV, and eating, of course.

Kiss Me. . . .I'm Irish

Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but either way I love St. Patrick's Day. What a holiday - dress up in green (does anyone ever really look good in St. Pat's green?), drink green beer and just have general good cheer. This St. Pat's (observed in STL), was no exception. First let me explain that while I am well aware St. Patrick's Day is actually on Friday, St. Louis always does their annual celebration the Saturday before St. Pat's so that was this weekend. And what a weekend it was - typically our weather this time of year is highs in the 50s (or 40s) and lows in the 30s and 40s - but we had this crazy front system this weekend providing a brief, though welcome, oasis of warm weather - we actually got into the 70s!!! For a short period I actually forgot I lived in the artic Midwest (okay, so it's not exactly artic, but to my Florida senses it sure feels like it). Anyway, the day started bright and early with the Michelob Ultra St. Patrick's Day 5 Mile Run. Cody doesn't like to run anything over a 5k, but it's a great pretty easy distance for me. I ran with my friend Marissa and while the course was quite hilly and it was actually pretty warm, we ran a good race. . . . no, we didn't win, but we did well. :) I still find it odd that a race, something put on to promote fitness, is sponsored by a BEER - no matter how they spin the darn beer, it's still beer and it's not healthy! Afterwards we walked with the Hurling Club in yet another parade - that's our second parade in two months- that we were in! Again, thanks to Dude for hooking it up (yes, "Dude" is an actual person - and yes, he has a real name, but no one uses it). And what a day to be in a parade - I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and there were absolutely huge crowds! I'll post pictues on the website as soon as Dude emails me the pictures he took so I can upload them all together. :) Afterwards we met up with a bunch of friends and hung out. . . . more fun was had by all. Now I just have to make it through to week to Friday for another celebration - boy do I love being Irish, or not, but everyone's Irish for St. Pat's Day. :)

Dressed Up Kitty Style

Okay, so this weekend Cody and decided to run some errands on Sunday. Original destinations: Crazy Bowls and Wraps (this great "fast food" place that serves "health food" - I love the teriaki bowl w/ brown rice) and Wal-Mart. But then we negotiated an additional compromise. I would take him to Goodwill (his new favorite store after finding the 3 foot gator a while ago) and he would go to Trader Joe's (a health food store) with me. So we went to Goodwill. . . . and of course we found more crap to buy. My find was two books and Cody found a "stadium blanket" (blanket that folds up for easy carrying), a pet brush mit and the below shown cat dress. It's actually a small dog outfit but it fits great on the cats! Check out the website for additional kitties in dresses photos. Tuppis just ran away when we put it on her and Wiggles just sat on the floor and refused to move. We haven't yet managed to get the dress on Mr. Pickles. :)  

King and I

No, I'm not talking about Cody and I - it's a Thai restaurant, Cody's favorite restaurant actually. They serve obnoxiously hot (spicy, not temperature) food for Cody and some really good healthy type food for me - so it's really a great place for us - except every time we try to go there they're CLOSED! Seriously - I'm not kidding - there's been at least four times that I can think of right off where we've loaded up in the car, headed to South Grand, and driven by only to find them closed. I think two of those times we tried to go for a late lunch/early dinner on a weekend around 3 or 4 pm and come to find out they're closed from around 2 to 5pm - no clue why, but they are. Well, today Cody and I decided to go out to eat so we could relax and discuss his crazy job situation and when we drove by, low and behold, they were closed. Why? But of course, it's Monday - stupid stupid stupid places closing on Monday. I still eat on Monday. I especially like to go OUT to eat on Mondays. I hate cooking on Mondays - though to be fair I hate doing just about anything on Mondays, but especially cooking so it's a great day to go out to eat and spend some quality time together. But they were closed, as it seems they are every time we try to go there. So we ended up at some half-ass Applebees in South City. Neither of us are big chain food people so we usually avoid those types of places, but they usually have decent food at Applebees - I especially like a chicken teriaki bowl they have - lots of yummy veggies and rice and some chicken. So after waiting forever for a waitress, I order the chicken bowl, with no crispy rice noodles (fried = bad). After waiting an eternity for the food, I get my chicken bowl with tons of rice noodles, but no RICE. AGGGGG!!!! So I explained the difference to our waitress with about as many brain cells as Tuppis (the fat cat who likes to smell other cat butts) and she took my bowl of veggies and chicken back to the back. Mistake #22 for me. . . . when they mess up your food, never let them take it back to add something (here, rice) - you never know what they'll come back with. I should have just asked for her to bring me some rice to add to it. So we ate Cody's food and about the time we were done she comes back with my bowl, with mostly rice and somehow most of my veggies and yummy chicken had disappeared - and they added about three cups of very sugary teriaki stuff. Usually I love that stuff but this was overkill. So after simply requesting rice (which should have been there to begin with) I end up with a mean 20 minutes later I couldn't even eat. Should have just eaten frozen pizza at home. :) Next time we go to King and I (if we can ever manage to make it there when they're open), we're leaving a comment card that says "please stay open more then 2 hours per day."

Mardi Gras!

Too tired for a long post so I'll try to post full details tomorrow, but FYI the Mardi Gras pictures are up on the website. It was an absolute blast!!! We had such a great time - it's hard to even describe in a blog (but I'll try - later - not today). There are less pictures then last year since it was colder and it was much more difficult to take pictures with gloves. :) In case it wasn't clear by the pictures we were in the parade as part of the COPS float (the theme this year was Soulard and the small screen, aka TV shows) - Cody and I both dressed up as cops and amazing as it sounds were not overly harassed by cops for our costumes. :) We had a blast throwing beads on the parade route and of course, partying in Soulard afterward. Now we're just worn out, tired and our legs are crazy sore.

Website Update

Mr. Pickle's page on the website finally has some pictures. Check it out for some obnoxiously cute pictures of the cats - and proof Cody doesn't want them all dead all the time. :) Hopefully I'll have some great Mardi Gras pictures to share tomorrow! Cop costumes are finished and ready to go!! So excited . . . .

So busy rambling I forgot my point. . .

Okay, so in last night's blog I rambled on and on about sugar, ultimately culminating in a profession of my love for Cadbury Creme Eggs and their reappearance on the store shelves. My whole point to that blog however, was that Cody had to go to Wal-Mart yesterday to finish gathering the pieces for his COPS costume for tomorrow's Mardi Gras parade (more on that later) and brought me home a four-pack of Creme Eggs. I thought that was sweet and really showed how well he knows me. That was the whole point of the blog - but I forgot to ever get to it. So, in another corny closing, Nobunny Knows Missy like Cody. :)

Nobunny Knows Easter Better

I swear the world is out to get me - or at least the sugar industry is. If there is one vice I have above all others, it's sugar. I absolutely can not live without it. I seriously can't. If it's around I have to eat it. I can't resist. I used to be absolutely addicted to Mountain Dew - to the tune of 5-6 a day, but I managed to give up not only caffeine but all soda about 10 years ago, in exchange for sugar. I told myself that I just couldn't keep drinking all that soda and eating all the sugar I like and still stay healthy/weigh a reasonable amount. So I gave up soda - it was hard, incredibly hard, but it was worth it so I could keep sugar.

Even so, every now and then I try to reduce my sugar intake, for health's sake. But the sugar industry just seems dead set on shoving it down my throat. There's candy at Halloween, pies at Thanksgiving, everything at Christmas, sweets at Valentine's, cake in June (for my birthday), Memorial Day and Labor Day cupcakes, 4th of July goodies, and then there's Groundhog Day, President's Day, MLK Birthday, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day and Friendship Day (okay, maybe the last bit of those I only use as excuses). And then there's Easter - second only to Halloween in encouraging candy consumption - and at least in my book, miles above it for one reason - Cadbury Cream Eggs. Whoever thought of those yummy delights certainly didn't care about my waistband. At 170 calories and 25 g of sugar in EACH egg, they are calorie and sugar havens and I love them. I got the biggest joy last Sunday when I was reading the Sunday ads and Walgreen's ad listed a sale on Cadbury Eggs - not that I need to get them on sale, they're only about 50 cents not on sale, but it was the fact that it was that time of year again. After all, Nobunny Knows Easter Better than Cadbury!

Toilet Paper

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

Ich learne Deutch.

Yet another day of German. Very cool class. Today we learned out to tell time and how to change money while "in country." I'm really getting excited about the trip. Cody and I even dragged out the old TCC (that's Tallahassee Community College for all you non-Tally natives) Western Civilization book last night so we could catch up on our European history. Learned a lot of interesting stuff we didn't bother to pay attention to at 19 years old. . . . wish we would have paid attention then when we had it right in front of us instead of having to go back and learn it now. But I guess that's the problem with the American education system - you get shoved through 13 years of education and then forced to go right into four plus more years of education. You hit college (at least most of us do) at an age when you care least about learning and most about everything but. Then years and many thousands of dollars in debt later you realize what an opportunity you had with that expensive education and regret that you didn't make more out of it and you rush to read the books you avoided most to learn that which you realize now you need most. I like what some other countries, namely Australia, do in creating a rite of passage of sorts after high school graduation. The kids graduate and then travel the world for a year or so to sort of learn the world. I think they have a better grasp on the "real world" and what really matters and return to their education with a newfound appreciation for the quest for knowledge and its usefullness. A personal example is that I took off some time between undergrad and law school to work in this "real world." And I quickly learned that with a math degree and no real focus or drive the "real world" sucked. Working sucked. And in order to make it not suck (at least not as much) I needed to better my education and find a path I could really take hold of and appreciate. That led me to law school. So at a time where many of my colleges were still living off mom and dad, right out of undergrad and having never worked an honest job in their life, I entered law school with an appreciation for what this degree really could do for me and what I needed to do to make the most of it. I understood how much the real world could suck and how I really needed to do a good job and learn a lot in order to make a life for myself that didn't suck. Profound, huh? :) Enough of that I suppose.
On another rambling subject, I hate drama. Most people who currently know me know this about me. At least now. I must admit in the past I was a full-fledged Drama Queen. I thrived on it. I loved it. I created and encouraged it. Even when things were seemingly nice and normal, I would find drama in some shape or form or just create it - I for some wacky reason needed it. And then I grew up. Not sure exactly when this occurred, but when I was deciding to move up to St. Louis to be with Cody and the weekend I was here his ex-girlfriend kept calling, I distinctly remember telling him, "I don't do drama anymore" (unfortunately he was the brunt of a lot of my previous drama when we were younger). At some point (prior to this visit with Cody) I just decided that I didn't want that for my life or the people in my life. And since I moved up here Cody and I have truely lived with very very minimal drama. We don't argue or yell or pitch fits - we have honestly managed to deal with issues as they arise and deal with them as sane adults. We talk things out - we understand each other and how to push each other's buttons - and avoid doing those things. It's one of the many reasons I think he and I are so wonderful together. While it still rears its ugly head now and then, I truely do attempt to avoid conflict or drama if at all possible and I'm certainly not going to go create it. Well, it's reared it's ugly head in my life lately (not with Cody - it's a friendship situation) - long story, not apropriate for the blog, but I couldn't help but mention it since this blog is about my life. Anyway, it just makes me thankful for all the drama I normally don't have. Hopefully the situation will resolve itself one way or the other at some point, preferably in the near future, but as long as the drama ceases. Most people know I'm training again for a half marathon in April, so I've been running lately - a lot. Well last night after running I was so tired of drama I even went to a Pilates class at the gym just so someone could tell me when to exhale and inhale for an hour. When I get stressed I tend not to breathe well, so it was so nice to have a whole hour of someone telling me to breathe - though I did realize my abs and arms are pathetically out of shape. Time to do push-ups and sit-ups every night. While running will give you great calves and hamstrings it leaves you with weak quads, shins and abs - gotta even yourself out.
Okay, that was WAY too long -sorry for the rambling but I had to babble for a while. :) Take care!

Uncle Bob and Elizabeth get passports to see the Titanic

This weekend was low key. We needed a nice low key weekend. Cody's been ill lately and even missed work on Thursday and Friday (it takes a lot for Cody to miss work) so we wanted to just lay low and relax this weekend. Sometimes you just need that. And I must admit it was great.
Saturday we got up early (by "early" I mean by our standards - none of this 7 a.m. stuf or anything, but I think we were up and moving before noon which is a rarity). We went to the Post Office and got everything turned in for Cody's passport. It should be here 4-6 weeks, so plenty of time for the Germany trip. :) Then Cody's Uncle Bob from Wisconsin called as he was passing through St. Louis so we got to have a great lunch with him and catch up on everything with the family. One thing I just can't say enough is how great I think Cody's family is. They really are some of the nicest people you'll ever come across. Uncle Bob is a great example of this.
After lunch, Meghan and Danny came over with their adorable 3 month-old, Elizabeth, so we could all go to the Science Center to see the new Titanic exhibit. Though it's only about a block from our house, Meghan and I got the guys to drop us off with Elizabeth and then find parking so we didn't have to walk in the 8 degree weather. The exhibit was great, but even better was spending time with Elizabeth. She is absolutely beautiful and Meghan and Danny are just wonderful parents. She was a little fussy at the beginning of the exhibit (it interferred with her eating time) so I got to hold her through most of the exhibit to try to calm her . . . . totally made my day. By the end I could feel it in my arms, but I didn't even care. She was just so cute . . . she was totally fine as long as I was moving or dancing around with her but she didn't like it when I would just stand still!!! But I must say, as much as I adore her and want kids one day, this is in no way an indication that we are having kids anytime soon. As all of my friends have heard me say a dozen times, we can barely take care of ourselves and the turtles, much less a kid. :)
Today we went shopping with the guys - not often you would hear me say that! :) Anyway, we're in the Mardi Gras parade next weekend and needed our costumes. The float theme is the TV show "Cops," so everyone needs to dress like a criminal, convict, cop, or what-have-you. So we wandered around town trying to figure something out. . . some progress but not complete yet. Any ideas? Send them along!