Diets are for suckers.

Know what the main difference is between traveling with a group of boy interns and traveling with a group of girl interns? We went to Baskin Robbins tonight...for dinner. And we were all completely happy with our decision.

Of course, there's also the fact that none of my female interns have ever missed a flight because they were too drunk to get to the airport on time, or talked back to their superiors, or acted irritable and rude all day long either. So I think I'm going to make a special request to avoid having to travel with boy interns for the rest of my life.

In other news, Wake beat Duke in a bit of a nail biter tonight. Yay!

Endnote: I'll be in Charlotte for the entire month of February, and I'm going on a serious diet. I'm going to be super cranky for at least the first week. But it's impossible to lose weight on the road, which is where I'll be a vast majority of the time March - June, so I've got to get this done now. No more ice cream for dinner I suppose. Boo.

FYI

It's busy season now, so I won't be updating as often. I'm in TN for the next 2 weeks, babysitting two interns and a new associate. Fortunately, they're a LOT more tolerable than my troupe of extremely annoying interns from last year, so I don't want to kill myself yet. Yay.

I do nothing anymore, but work, eat, sleep, and, god willing, go to the gym. So I have nothing to say. Last weekend was good; we had a Wii party after going to Picasso's to watch Wake basketball beat Clemson and other than that I did some cleaning and packing and sleeping and just generally enjoying the last weekend for a while that I wouldn't have to work. Good times. I also went to David's Bridal with Carrie because she had to try on a bridesmaid dress...and I felt the need to join her because of how hilarious I knew it would be to watch Carrie trying on formalwear. And OMG. I've never see so many fat, unattractive, women trying on cheap formalwear in my life. The accents in that place were unbelievable. Never again. For either of us. We were terrified.

That's all. Hopefully I'll have something more to say sometime soon. Ciao.

Eagles Concert

So the Eagles concert was AWESOME last night. They played for almost three hours. Which is way different from most of the concerts I've been to, where opening acts play for the first two hours and then if you're lucky you get maybe an hour of the main draw. There was no crappy opening act. There were, however, a bunch of drunk middle-aged white people in the audience...haha.

They played a lot from their new album, most of which I didn't know, but then pretty much all of their old school hits as well as some hits from the band members who had solo careers. All four of them sang lead vocals on at least one song and played at least two different instruments. And they all sounded just as good as when you hear them on the radio. Again, this was super different than most concerts, where you're lucky if you're hearing actual singing live, and they have all sorts of special effects to detract from the fact that the artist doesn't sound as good live. I'll trade in the smoke and pyrotechnics any day to hear good music. These guys just stood there and played their music, and it was fabulous.

Not taking away from the situation was the fact that we had luxury box seats, which come with free food and booze. The last concert I went to see at the arena was Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban, and I had second deck seats...and the two adolescent girls behind me were having a "who can screech at the top of their lungs louder and longer" contest right in my ear. It was horrible. The concert was decent, but the experience was awful. I think I need to luxury box it from now on. I shouldn't have to sit with the peons. ;)

Next up: hopefully Billy Joel and Elton John, if we can wrangle some tickets for that. Apparently I really like the same music as most 50-year olds. Haha.

Victory is mine!

When I got to work this morning, I checked the internet...and most of what I ordered from BR last week is on further sale now! I should wind up getting back about $100 when I got price adjust that shit this weekend! And I think we all know what that means. I'm ordering the long sweater in tan. I am also keeping the blue sweater dress, and buying grey shoes to wear with it. Yay!

Also on the victory front, I'm going to the Eagles concert tonight for free! Tim won two tickets to his company's luxury suite in a raffle yesterday and Blake and Bill declined invitations. I asked to make sure that there wasn't some other lady that he wanted to bring (you know, one that would put out), but there apparently wasn't. Yay. And it's at Bobcats Arena, which is across the street from my building, so I won't even have to skip pilates class to make it there in time. Today has been glorious already and it's not even 9am!

Now about that whole "getting work done" thing...

Online shopping machine

The great/awful thing about January is that there are fabulous sales everywhere. I think it's safe to say that about half of my clothes shopping every year is done in January, and the rest is spread out fairly evenly throughout the year. Anyway, I've been doing a great deal of online shopping lately (remember the shoes from last week? They are fabulous). The amount of online shopping I do is directly proportional to the hatred for the amount of time I have to spend at work. I had a few BR sprees last week, to be delivered this week (some has already arrived), so I thought I'd share.

I love cashmere sweaters. And dresses. The purchase of this marriage of the two was a no-brainer.

I also got it in this color, which online looks like purple but in real life is more like a dark blue...I'm considering returning it because it doesn't look right with black. It looks ok with grey tights, but then I feel that I need to buy grey shoes, and then I'm opening up a whole new can of worms that I'm not entirely sure I want to get into.

I'll level with you. I'm usually overdressed for work, what with all of the dresses and skirts that I own. But on Fridays, especially during tax season, I want to wear my Uggs all day. So I usually roll with corduroys. I ordered these because they came in 'short' length (perfect for Ugg wear), and because they are on sale for $35. And OMG. They fit PERFECTLY. I went back online today and ordered them in tan as well.

Now on to this sweater. I've been eyeing it up for months, waiting for it to go on sale. And finally, it did. I wanted it to wear over short sleeved dresses in the winter. With a belt. I ordered it separately from all this other stuff, so it hasn't arrived yet, but I'm pumped. If it goes on sale again, I'm getting it in tan as well.

And now it's Shopping Knowledge time. I've many times discussed the Price Adjustment situation on this blog (but if you haven't read it...save your receipts...most stores will give you a price adjustment if you've bought something that is now on sale when you show them a receipt. At Gap/BR/Old Navy, the policy is 14 days. It differs elsewhere, but it's WELL worth looking into). Now I'm going to discuss the Online Promotional Code situation.

If you are buying ANYTHING online, it is completely foolish to not open Google, type in "Promotional codes, XXX" (XXX being the name of the store you are buying from). You will get several responses, and you will 9 times out of 10 find one or two codes to use to get further discounts. For example, I have never paid shipping on an online purchase. And you shouldn't have to. Also, I can occasionally get further discounts by using this method. When you check out online, there is a place to type in the promo codes to get your discount. Now that you've been warned, it is your own fault if you wind up paying too much.

Now that I've dropped an egg of knowledge on you all, I'm going to be productive for the rest of the day. Yaaaay.

Odds and Ends

Hello! Not much to report from this weekend, except for Wake's win over UNC last night (yay). Also, I woke up on Saturday, after nearly a week drug and cold free, completely stuffed up again. I had to start medicating myself again yesterday. And I had to skip Sunday yoga. Awesome. I'm out of daytime drugs now, but I'm hoping I won't need more than NyQuill for a few nights. Really, how does this happen? My throat didn't even hurt first this time. I had virtually no warning. I hate you, sinuses.

I got my workouts mostly back on track last week, successfully completing 4 days of cardio, 3 days of pilates, 3 strength training sessions, and 1 yoga class (that would have been 2, except for the aforementioned stuffiness. Practicing yoga for 90 minutes in a humid 99 degree room is NOT good when you have chest and sinus congestion). I even got my diet somewhat back on track, mostly by not bringing replacement peanut butter to the office (because when I have PB in the office, instead of using it to spread on an apple, for example, I eat heaping spoonfulls of it at random). So this week, I'm going to try to continue my regimen, keeping in mind that I'll be at a stupid hotel for the next two weeks and therefore will probably mess it all up. Good times.

That's about it. I took some pictures of our new TV setup, but I forgot to bring my camera today to remove them. But I'll post them at some point soon.

TV setup preview

Blake made me stay up until almost midnight last night because at 8pm it suddenly became URGENT that we set up the new TV immediately. Two separate trips out to get the appropriate tools later, and we're almost in business. The surround sound will be properly set up tonight, as will the iPod dock for music. And Blake said we can rent Pineapple Express this weekend in BluRay so that should be exciting. The picture on this thing is amazing. I tried to go to bed when Blake was watching the end of the football game, and I couldn't because it was like full sunlight in the house as a result of the brightness and intensity of the picture. Blake also informed me that he couldn't sleep at all last night because he was so excited about the TV. Haha, we're losers.

Anyway, here is a fuzzy cell phone picture of the stand with the TV attached...and Norman in the cats' new favorite place. It is supposed to be DVD storage. This morning, they got into a full wrestling turf war over the spot. We were very happy that our glass furniture topper had come in, because otherwise they would have already destroyed the wood. Bastards. Norman has also figured out how to jam himself between the TV and the stand and climb up the mounting apparatus so that he can peek his little head over the top of the TV and look at us. Cute...but not amusing to the two people who had spent the preceding hours hanging the TV.

Good thing we didn't go with the 58''...it would not have fit.

WTF is wrong with the women at my gym?

The scale is right across from my locker area. Today, a woman decided to weigh herself. Nude. Completely nude. While I understand that this is the best way to get an accurate weight reading, it is still inappropriate. Now, she wasn't too old (I'd guess 40-ish), and she definitely wasn't fat, but I still took offense to this. I DON'T WANT TO SEE NUDE PEOPLE CHILLIN IN THE GYM LOCKER ROOM. EVER. STOP IT. ALL OF YOU.

That is all.

Back to reality

My gym re-opened on Monday but I didn't make it there until last night. It looks great, although it's not totally set up yet. But I did get to work out in my own gym. However, I had to go after work because I had lunch plans and it is SO BUSY after work. I usually go around 1pm. I had forgotten about the fat old lady that likes to walk around COMPLETELY NUDE in my locker area. And she was there last night. Just chillin, completely nude. Brushing her hair, putting on deodorant, all that. Nude. Have I mentioned that she's old and fat? And that from the brief look I accidentally got (my eyes are going to burn out), she's never had a bikini wax, if you catch my drift. Gross. I go back to afternoon workouts today.

Our new TV stand situation was delivered yesterday and it looks awesome. It matches our other furniture perfectly. We can't put the TV in until this weekend though because the mounting apparatus isn't supposed to arrive until Friday. So the cats have been using the stand and all of it's compartments as a playpen. Norman was up on top of it last night, and laying in the dvd storage area, and all sorts of other ridiculousness. Fantastic. I'll post some pictures at some point soon.

Well, back to work now...I actually have a lot to do. It stinks. I haven't yet come to terms with the fact that I have to start working overtime in two weeks. I hate this crap.

A few wedding pics

Well, Kris has still not sent me pictures from DLo's wedding, but I stole some of DLo's from facebook, so i will post those here as a preview. And yes, Kris, your mouth is open in one of them. This is your punishment for being slow at uploading. :)

Table mates.

Grand entrance.

Mama G!

Collins 3A Reunion.

Why hello there

I haven't updated in a bit so here's the rundown on what I've been doing these last few blissful non-working days.

We purchased a giant TV to go into the media stand that I pictured in a prior post. And then Blake decided that you can't have a new TV without a new receiver unit. Or a new center speaker. Or a new subwoofer. Or a new...you get the idea. We're poor now and in desperate need of our tax refund please. But it's going to look and sound awesome when we get it all set up. The stand arrives tomorrow!

For New Year's Eve, we attended Susan's 30th birthday dinner, which her husband cooked for a few friends. It was delicious. I had come down with a horrible cold that started getting bad in yoga on Tuesday night, so we made an early night of it. I was in bed by 2. Which was good, because I had to heavily medicate myself to sleep at all with all of the congestion and the coughing.

Thursday I headed up to Richmond for Dana "DLo" Givens' glorious "wedding." I put that in quotations because she actually got married a few months ago in order to make it so that her husband could stay in the country. This was just a reception. But it was a lovely Collins 3A reunion. If only Alannah had not taken ill at the airport on her way down, my life would have been complete. Unfortunately, I relied on Kris's camera for the pictures, and she takes forever to unload and send them (get your shit together, Halfpenny) so all I have to post is Dana's facebook picture below. There will be more to follow. I hope.

When I got back on Saturday afternoon, I was still feeling under the weather, and also mildly depressed that I was going to have to head back to work after two plus weeks of vacation, so I did a fair amount of sitting around. But with sitting around comes online shopping. And as you know, Jen + mild depression + the internet = purchases. Behold - my new favorite shoes. They won't really be appropriate until we get some spring weather, but they're still pretty.

Now I have to get my busy season off on the right foot and be productive today. Sigh.