How Sad

Last night I talked with Cassie, the blushing bride-to-be. It seems like everything is set for Saturday. The only thing she has been having nightmares about is SCUBA diving. She is NOT a fan of going underwater. Cory encouraged her to get SCUBA certified so they could dive on their honeymoon (the resort has free diving). She is not excited at all. I totally understand. I just think it's funny that she is about to get married, and that is what she is worried about.

She also mentioned that her grandparents called her a week or so ago to let her know that they won't be able to make her wedding. Whaa???!!! They claim they can't afford it. I know, I know. There's a recession going on and retired people are probably not doing so well. But, they do have three houses (paid off) and three cars (also paid off) and they have known about the wedding for months. Seems to me that they could have made it work. Cassie is hurt, but we both agreed that it is their loss and that the important thing is that she and Cory will be married. I just feel so bad.

Yesterday I had a scare... I logged into NWA to check our actual flight time. It claimed that I didn't have a reservation. Uh, oh. When we got home Ben checked and thankfully we still do have a reservation. Apparently my WorldPerks number wasn't on the reservation, that's why the computer couldn't find it. The weird thing is that before our cruise, the trip was on my account, under my number. Weird...

Flannel

Why is it that flannel sheets feel so warm when you crawl into bed but regular Cotton sheets don't? This weekend I (finally) put the flannel sheets on our bed. Mmmmmm.....

Since I last posted I have made two new recipes! I am really on a roll here. :) On Wednesday night I made Meatball Soup also from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I made a few slight changes (no surprise there): instead of making my own meatballs, I used frozen ones; I didn't have mini pasta so I used regular sized (and increased to one cup); I also threw in some leftover chopped tomatoes from taco night. It was a pretty tasty soup. And easy!

Last night we had David and Heather over for dinner and Guitar Hero. I made a Vegetable Stuffed Roast (recipe from BH&G). I thought it was pretty tasty. For dessert I made chocolate molten cakes, but I've made them before, so that's not a new recipe.

I guess that brings my new recipe count up to 3. I probably won't make anything new this week. On Friday we are leaving for Texas for Cassie's wedding. So excited for her. And also excited to see John, Sara, Malachi and Val.

Free at Last!

For those of you who are following the saga of Zoey and her kennel, here is the next installment.

Before we left on vacation we bought Zoey a new kennel. This one is all metal. We were hoping this would keep our destructive little girl out of trouble. Well, she doesn't like the kennel. Ever since we got home from vacation she has been trying to escape during the day. I'm serious! Every morning we re-bend the bars so she will be secure.

I'm sure you can guess what happened today... We got home from work, opened the door and there she was with her toy and wagging her tail! Somehow she managed to squeeze through a gap she created. So for some period of time today she had free reign of the house. It doesn't look like she got into any trouble (good girl!). But Ben isn't convinced yet that she should just always roam free. We'll see...

Why I don't run in the winter

This morning Zoey and I went for our normal walk. We were rounding a pile of snow when all of a sudden I was on the ground. I somehow managed to slip. Thankfully all my skydiving training kicked in and I did what I am sure was a very graceful PLF (Parachute Landing Fall - let the soft spots absorb the shock). I am sure I will have a nice blue patch on my butt! Zoey was so cute, as soon as she saw me fall she ran over to check on me. Such a good protector. But that just goes to show you that it is unsafe to run with conditions like we have. It could have been much worse if I was moving faster. I know that you can run on treadmills, but I hate treadmills. My normal stride is too long, so I end up shortening my stride which just kind of messes me up.

Speaking of treadmills, I did (grudgingly) use one on the cruise. I decided to start on my resolution to run 100 miles. I wanted to run on deck, but the first day I tried to the running deck was closed due to the wind. So I went inside to the gym. The first day the treadmill and I took some time to get to know each other. It was somewhat broken - it wouldn't register my heart rate. Oh, well. I picked a speed and started running. I thought it was going well until I looked down and saw that in 8 minutes I had run about 1/2 mile. So I continued to increase my speed to try and find the "right" one. The second time I ran, I picked a different machine. This one worked for heart rate. Except it kept getting mad at me because my heart rate was higher than it thought it should be, so it kept decreasing the speed. So, despite my best attempts, those two days I only ran 1.7 miles each day. Third time is a charm... I went to yet a different machine and just picked a manual workout. It was great. I ran at the speed that I wanted to and finally got up to 3 miles (in the same time frame)! I was so excited! So, all in all I ran 6.4 miles on the cruise. Only 93.6 left to go!

Also on the topic of resolutions, last night I made a new recipe: Cabbage Rolls with Vegetables and Bulgar from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. I couldn't find Bulgar at the store (anyone know where to find it? I looked in the bulk section, the organic section, rice and beans section and baking section and couldn't find it) so I used white rice instead. It was pretty good. Although since I was using rice instead of Bulgar I had to change the cooking times and I think that resulted in crisper veggies than what was intended. Ben thought that it was tasty. The only problem is that it so low cal (only 173!) so we were both pretty hungry around 9.

I'm Baa-ack!

Ben and I had an awesome time on our cruise. We didn't really know what to expect from the work portion of the cruise. Turns out that we had a blast! We met some really awesome people from all over the world. In talking with people Ben got a bunch of ideas of things that he can work on. The funny thing is that I did too. I can't wait to get started on some of my ideas. It might be a little slow going as Ben will have to show me how to do a lot of the stuff and he is uber busy for a while....

It just occurred to me that most people are probably scratching their head saying, "What the crap is she talking about?!" so, I guess I'll give a brief explanation. For the past two years or so, Ben has been dabbling in Internet marketing. The basic idea (coming from someone who is not in the biz) is that you market something on the Internet and make money. The marketing is sometimes for a physical item (i.e. book) but sometimes it's for a service (i.e. coaching). It was really cool for me to hear what people are doing and what ideas they have. I had a few conversations with people about their products and am thinking of teaming up with some of them (probably just one to start off with) to create my own stuff. I'm not going to give any more details as I work to think through everything, but just be warned that I may be asking some of you for input. :)

Anyway, when we weren't networking (which to be honest was most of the time) we had a very relaxing time together. We had a lot of fun at the ports. We went to St. Maarten, St. Kitts and Tortola. We hit the beach at each of the ports, but had different adventures at each place.

I was going to type up a bunch of stuff on each beach, but decided that it would take too long.

Not Bad

Today we hosted the annual Glover/Obert Christmas. My mom's best friend from high school and her family and my family have been getting together every Christmas time since before I was born. It is always so much fun. In the old days it was 8 of us. Over the years it has grown to 16. Yikes! We alternate years hosting, and this year it was the Obert's turn. Since we have a new house, we decided to host. We decided to do a taco bar this year. After everyone said they would bring something, the only thing left for me was the meat. Easy.

Everyone came around noon. We gave tours, then had lunch. Then we played the dice game for presents. It was a lot of fun. Ben ended up with a puzzle, which I am excited about but he isn't and I got a cold/hot pack for muscle aches. Neither one of us are excited about that one. Oh, well. Maybe I will just gift it back next year.

After family pictures, everyone started heading out. I cleaned up the kitchen and was ready for our next "to-do" list item by 3:30. Not bad.

I know I'm a few days late on this, but I thought I would share my New Year's Resolutions with you. I don't usually do this, but Ben did it last year and it inspired me to do the same. So here they are:
1. Run 100 miles during 2009 - While this might not sound too impressive for those that run, (or maybe even to those that don't) last year I run about 40 miles. So this is a big increase. But last year I had a sore foot until May and a house move in July. Without those two things in my way this year, I think that this is a do-able goal.
2. Try out two new recipes a month - I was going to try one each week, but then decided with vacations and stuff, I might not get to a new recipe every week. A side goal to this one is to have better-for-you meals. I will try to post all my new recipe adventures.

Anyway, that's about it. Wednesday Ben and I leave for vacation, so it's been very busy getting ready for today and for vacation.