Moving

I hate when people do this so I feel bad doing this. I'm moving. There I said it. Some international freaks took advantage of my absent-mindedness and bought my expired domain. So since I don't have Shoelessruth.com, I took this as a chance to do something different. I bought courtneyb.com and I've installed Wordpress to drive the site. So while I'm playing over there, I'll probably not update here.

For those of you who used my recipes page (you know who you are [cara])-- i've posted those as entries. you can look through the category or use the search feature to find what you're looking for. i'll keep play and add more stuff.

hope to see you there...

where did May go? can i have some back?

i'm not sure where the month has gone. well, i knew where it's gone.. i've been consumed by work: finishing the semester, getting ready for summer, getting things ready for Fall because once graduation is over everyone who can, flees until just before the start of classes.

we have also done a few fun things not work related. let me see, in no particular order:

1. was tested for carbon monoxide poisoning at a friends house after a lovely dinner and a glass of wine. the firemen who came wanted to know if they could join us next time-- for the wine, not the carbon monoxide poisoning. we were all fine, and it was actually fun in their back yard with their two dogs, their cat and braut.

2. caught up on a few movies... we went to the theater to see Iron Man when it came out and Indiana Jones this weekend. We also saw No Country for Old Men, Dan in Real Life and Juno-- thank you Netflix!

3. i got some baby time in with my friend Katherine's daughter one Sunday afternoon before she came down with pneumonia. poor child has been sick her whole life.

4. shopping, shopping, shopping. it's a fun side effect of loosing weight, but i will say it's a bit annoying no matter what size. i did buy a nice barn coat from LLBean this weekend-- it was on clearance for $20, and it'll be a nice light coat to get me through the first part of next fall until i find a new coat.

5. travel planning. for my trip to Tacoma in June as well as for the Browning/Bozeman visit later in June. mom and dad are making their annual pilgrimage to see the grand-dog and my sister and brother-in-law decided to join them. i've been looking at things to do while they're here since i doubt they'd like to stay at my house and paint my bedroom or do other chores.

40 in 4

I'm pretty excited-- last night i weighed in at 40.6 pounds less than i did at the first meeting i went to on january 3 of this year. FOURTY pounds in FOUR months. Seriously, that's freaking cool. I'm so proud of myself (as i sit at my desk eating wasa crackers, laughing cow light cheese, carrots, celery, a banana, apple sauce and a caramel fiber one bar). we've changed our habits for eating and exercise, and it's honestly not been that difficult. sure i sometimes miss eating a half pound of cheese with wine before dinner, but i feel so much better for not doing that.

kelvin has his weigh-in next week for the biggest loser competition at work. i haven't seen anyone else who's participating, but i'm guessing he could take the big prize. i'll let you know.

weekend in DC

I have fun stories and pictures to post tonight or tomorrow, but as I was importing photos from my phone, I came across this other photo of K & I just before Christmas. Wow. What a difference a few months makes. I almost hate to leave this up here, but it does make me realize how good we've been this year. Two-thousand eight is obviously treating us well.

I did post some photos to my Flickr account. I'm still waiting for a few others that are on other cameras-- especially the photo of me with Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame.

jet set

i like to travel. i'd even go so far as to say i love to travel. but i'm tired of travel at the moment. i was in San Francisco week before last and I've been at Washington & Lee in Lexington, Va since sunday at the instructional technology leaders meeting. i'm waiting in the airport here in Roanoke (thank you for free wireless) waiting on my flight to Colorado Springs where i'll be for the rest of the week. one positive things is that i do get to see a friend from college that i haven't seen in years.

SFO

I know several of you are keeping up with this now that I've been posting a little more often, so my apologies for being incognito this week. I was in one of my favorite cities, San Francisco, for the NITLE Summit. It was a great trip. Since I still hang on to bits of my introvert self, it's nice to go to a conference and have some previous relationships to pick up from.

Maybe the highlight of the conference sessions was the keynote on Friday. Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State is someone I've been watching for a while. He has a Digital Ethnography Working Group that has produced some interesting videos that explore the anthropological side of things I'm interested in-- the influence of technology on human interaction.

I of course love the city so any time we weren't doing conference things i was out exploring. I finally made it out to Alcatraz. It's one of those things I've wanted to do and haven't made the time or let the weather get in the way or waited too long to buy tickets. Not this time. I bought tickets on Wednesday after we arrived for Thursday and we lucked out with the weather. It was a beautiful day and the experience was great. I posted a few pictures in Flickr, but don't expect photo greatness; I took them with my iPhone. I posted my favorite here, and you can see the rest on your own.

gnu favorite snack

Since I've been changing my eating habits it's been important to find good things I can eat on the run, and I thought I'd share one of my new favorites. They're hard to find, but much better for me than a bag of cheetos or some other nonsense.

Gnu foods makes these flavor & fiber bars that are pretty yummy. Today I finished sampling all the flavors, and my favorite is the Banana Walnut. I think second favorite may be the orange cranberry. They are difficult to find; I was able to get chocolate and orange cranberry at a Trader Joe's but to get the others we went to The Vitamin Shoppe.

lunch

we've been taking pictures of our food lately. here's my lunch for today. i resisted other options and went for the big salad. lettuce, cherry tomatoes, fungus and a sprinkle of fat free cheese. i used the balsamic spritzer and a shake of Penzey's 4/S seasoning to top it off.

you're jealous right?

last weekend's project: build an ark

crazy rain. i thought it would never stop last weekend.

we went down to Delaware saturday to do a little shopping, and attend the friends and family opening of Ameritage Bistro in Wilmington. It's the vision of our friend Bethany's step-dad Henry. The food was great, and we had a great time seeing the final product we've heard about for a while now.

goal accomplished: -10%

for those of you following along at home, that's 10% of my start weight i've lost in 10 weeks. i'm pretty excited, and proud of my work. i've been going to they gym regularly at least 3 times a week, but usually 4. i finally decided this was going to be my year-- my year to take better care of myself, and i'm doing that. weight watchers is really helping. i like the group on wednesday nights, and it gives me the accountability i need and it allows me to be competitive which leads to motivation.

i was pretty excited last weekend. i went to the mall and for the first time in a while, i bought pants at a store and in a section that wasn't for "Women size 14-24"; thank you New York & Co for still being around and making pants for people who lack hips and tush.

Swell

Swell's a great word. I've tried recently to come up with something to say when people ask "how's it going?" Because we all know people ask just to be polite; they don't really care. I feel like swell is a way to reply in what others think is positive while meanwhile I think things are shitty. So it's like shitty + well = swell.

I should be more positive I know. I had a fun night last night with the ladies from sewing circle. We went to dinner at Ocean to hang out and finally reveal our secret Santa Cupid Leprechaun. Hedge, my secret whatever got me a cool book on bead making, some clay to try my own and a tool to help make them. I'm excited to play.

merry president's day

what a crazy day. we had the option this year of taking MLK or President's day-- just not both. i enjoyed my MLK day last month with kelvin in Lancaster and Newark, Delaware so today I was in the office. it's been quiet. it's pretty icky outside. it actually feels like louisiana winter so it doesn't bother me, but some people are disturbed by the warmish-wet weather. they don't have to be upset for long, i think snow is coming later this week.

i wish i had some funny stories to share or exciting things to report, but i don't really. it was a pretty uneventful weekend. we did our shopping, saw Jumper on Saturday with our friend Kelly who needed to get out of town for a few hours, fulfilled my bbq craving and cleaned up the house.

i have been pretty disappointed that it seems two of my favorite local restaurants have thrown in the towel. my favorite chinese place, Panda House has been dark for several weeks now; much longer than the new year's celebration. and we confirmed Hog Hollow in Phillipsburg is closed. i hate to see local places close. i guess it touches a little to close to home (RIP. the potato factory, my dad's restaurant in the '80's).

the tease is over

it's been a week of nasty weather and a nasty cold. i think both may be almost over. the sun's out again for the second day, melting the icy sludge. and i can breath and almost talk in a way that i don't sound like kermit the frog the entire time.

i had appointments at both of my doctor's offices on tuesday. my afternoon appointment was with a doctor i really like. he's an alum of the college where i work, and he was a non-traditional student when he went there. i have a lot of respect for someone who gets through college and med school with small children at home. he's a really nice guy, and he always starts the appoint off just talking. tuesday he looked at me and asked how i was doing. before i could answer he said "you look happy."

i guess i'm glad it's obvious. i was pretty cranky at the end of last year so i'm glad that's turned. i've been working on becoming a gym rat, and kelvin and i have been eating better. it makes such a difference.

such a tease

the weather here is such a tease. i heard on the news this morning that this is a record for the area that we haven't had any measurable snow fall in the month of January. but instead we've had beautiful days like today where the sky is blue, the sun is out and it's FREAKING freezing.

i'm excited though because I feel good and i'm ready to party this weekend with friends. we have over 30 people coming to our mardi gras party saturday. i have a few theories as to why it was a good weekend for people:
1. see the first paragraph. winter makes people feel like they're dating the pretty girl who won't put out so they are looking for things to do that gets them out of the house.
2. people think louisiana is a freak show so they are coming for the entertainment value of eating crawfish, pickled okra and king cake.
3. people just love us so much they want to hang out.

it's probably all three. and it doesn't matter, i'm just happy to have people over. but we do need to get a bigger house...

quick

a new semester started at work yesterday so it's been busy, busy. i've been needing to work on the blog, but haven't (obviously). here are a few random updates:

1. got to go to louisiana for the holiday. it was nice to see see everyone and hang out. wish we lived closer.

2. came back and joined weight watchers. i've lost 11.6 pounds since 1/3/08. pretty excited about that. we've been eating healthy and working out which i'm convinced is the key for me.

3. spent MLK weekend and day with kelvin. we went to lancaster and on to newark, de to hang out with the crew there. super enjoyable. a few pictures to post, but in a hurry now.

4. hosting a mardi gras party saturday. pretty excited about that. we have over 30 people who've said they're coming so the pressure is on. gumbo, rice, individual crawfish pies, king cake. can't wait. guess i should figure out the points value and save up my weekly flex for saturday.

That's it for now...