Sex and the City

I started re-watching all of the Sex and the City season's last week to get ready for the movie. The movie opens today. I'm not sure when I will be seeing it. I know I will have to see it before it leaves the theater.

I was watching an episode yesterday from season 3 called "Cock A Doodle Do". How and what Samantha said about the people outside talking outside of her apartment had me laughing for minutes. I replayed the scene several times. When my husband came into the living room, I made him watch the scene. He laughed and replayed it too. Since I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it with everyone.

*Scene contains swearing

Home work

I don't do well with messes.

My husband and his friend started tearing up the porch roof this morning. For a while it has been leaking and it needed to be fixed. The roof has half of its shingles. A large chuck of it is missing due to deteriorating wood and they had to remove some of the siding to pull up the crappy wood. All of the new shingles and other roof equipment is laying all over the front porch. I know they need it to fix the roof, but I want it gone. Too much clutter and messes.

When I pulled into the driveway this evening, it just looked awful. The torn up roof makes the house look terrible. I know that it will be fixed within a couple of days, but I hate my house looking bad. A potential problem has come up. They plan on working more tomorrow, but want to finish it Friday when they both have the day off. There is a problem. It is supposed to rain Friday and Saturday. If it rains then they can't work on the roof until Sunday and I hope it doesn't come to that. Lord knows I wouldn't be able to handle all of the equipment laying all over the front porch, the back deck and have the roof all torn up for four more days.

What I shouldn't be doing

I just got done working an 13.5 hour day. When I got home from work, I let the dogs out, washed up, played with the dogs and changed my clothes. Instead of going to bed, I'm reading blogs. The problem is I'm wide awake and not really tired. Just ask me in five hours how I feel. I'm sure I will feel fabulous when I wake up to my alarm at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday. GRRRR!!

Weekend Update

This past weekend was nice and restful. My husband had to work all weekend, so I stayed around the house, town and did plenty.

In anticipation of the upcoming move, Sex and the City, I started watching the series from the beginning. I don't know if I will see it immanently after it opens, but I will see it before it leaves the movie theater. I am currently on Season 3, Disc 1.

I watched a movie from Netflix. It was Atonement. I tried to read the book a while ago. I stopped 100 pages in. Not my type of book. I played the movie and watched it. My idea of watching it was having it on the background while reading. I thought the movie was slow in many spots. That is when my book on Robert Kennedy received my full attention. I wish Netflix would give the option of rating a movie being OK instead of liked it.

For the fourth time in four weeks, I went shopping at Aeropostale. I told my husband that I was obsessed with that store and I believe it to be very true. Last week, I bought two pairs of shorts, a polo and a t-shirt. They had a sale last week, two polo's for $30. I didn't do it because I thought I had enough polo's. I was wrong. Before buying the clothes at Aeropostale, I bought some new work pants at another store. After wearing a brown pair of pants this week, I felt I didn't have enough tops to go with it. Hence my return Saturday evening. I had all intentions of buying a yellow polo. Unfortunately, they didn't have my size in two yellow polo's. I ended up buying a white and high tide (light blue). This time a different sale was on. All polo's 50% off. I really wanted to buy more, but didn't have the money. Maybe in two weeks when I get paid I will buy more. See I'm obsessed.

I ran Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it was 6 miles. Sunday my legs were tired. I only ran 4 miles. That put my mileage for the week at 20. If I didn't nap or have to work Friday afternoon, my mileage would have been above 20 miles. But I shouldn't worry. The spring sports season will be coming to a close in a couple of weeks. I will have plenty of time to run the late afternoon without worrying about going to work.

After my run Sunday, I was hungry. I wanted something fast and cheap. I found myself at McDonald's. The drive-through line was extremely long, so I went inside. The line inside was long as well. Two families were ordering at the counter, a couple and a woman were ahead of me. Behind me was a mother and her young son and two guys who wanted drink refills. A couple minutes go by and an older man walks in. He skips waiting in line and walks right up to the counter. A cash register on the end of the counter was being used as the drive-through register. He walks to the employee and says he needs to make an order. Hello? There is a line old man. As he is standing there, another employee takes his order. I heard the total was $31. The couple in front of me made remark about the old guy cutting. Of course I didn't say something to the man. The old man was waiting for his food and starting looking at us standing in line. When he got to me, I stared back at him. I'm sure the look I was giving him wasn't nice. But I didn't care. Just because you're old doesn't mean you get to cut.

Miles run in 2008

In all of my excitement of receiving my new camera yesterday, I forgot about something. My new camera is fabulous in case you were wondering. I passed 400 miles run for the year. I had the night off from work on Tuesday, so I ran 7 miles to make up for Wednesday. On Wednesday I had to skip my run. I skipped my run due to work. I got back into the swing of things yesterday and ran 3 miles before my photo assignment. I will squeeze in another 3 mile run before my last assignment of the week, a baseball game. I have a three day weekend, so I will be outside enjoying the nice weather and running.

2004: 121.6
2005: 160.7
2006: 207.6
2007: 194.4
2008: 401.5

Today is the day!

My new friend arrives by UPS today.

It is always nice to receive new things. Especially cameras. I haven't had a new camera since 2003. The paper bought all of us photographers Nikon D100s and I have been using it since. In between then and now, I bought a co-worker's personal D100. So it was new to me, but used. My trusty D100 is still in good shape, but I needed something new and faster. I went online and bought myself a Nikon D300. My D100 will become my backup camera.

I'm so excited! A new camera that I bought and that is mine.

Photo Credit: http://www.nikonusa.com/

Salute - Adrian, MI

Books read in 2008

It took me almost two months to finish reading a book. I tried to read Atonement. I couldn't get into the book and it made me not want to read. On a shopping trip a while ago, I found books about subjects that do interest me. I started reading John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth by Michael Munn a couple of days ago and finished it this morning. I hope to get back into the pattern of reading a book every week or two.


A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963, Mark Fuhrman
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, David Talbot
Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Richard D. Mahoney
Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, Donald Spoto
True Grace: The Life and Times of an American Princess, Wendy Leigh
Final Disclosure, David W. Belin
John Wayne: My Life with the Duke, Pilar Wayne
Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow, David Stenn
The Lost Life of Eva Braun, Angela Lambert
Harlow: An Intimate Biography, Irving Shulman
His Way, Kitty Kelley
Natalie, Lana Wood
Rita Hayworth, John Kobal
The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes, Stanley Loomis
The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, Michael Munn

Currently Reading: Robert Kennedy: His Life, Evan Thomas
Up Next: Library trip

Jacket weather

Over the weekend, I photographed a track regional at Hillsdale College. It was chilly and windy out and the temperature was only supposed to be in the low 60s, so I wore a heavier jacket.

During the course of the day, it was mostly sunny with a few clouds. It never felt like it warmed up at all. When the sun went behind the clouds, it felt like the temperature dropped 10 degrees. If it wasn't windy, it wouldn't been that bad. Still too cool for my liking.

I was standing near the finish line waiting for slower heats of the 400 meter dash to finish and another photographer, who was wasn't wearing a jacket, says to me, "Aren't you burning up in that jacket?" I said no. In fact I was cold. Why was this guy so concerned about me wearing a jacket? He must have not looked around at all. Most of the people at the meet were wearing long sleeves or jackets. If I did get warm, I would have taken the jacket off. But I wasn't, so just leave me alone.

Vaulters - Hillsdale, MI

Pole vault participants listen to instructions before warming up during the Division 4 track regional held at Hillsdale College on May 17.

A rose for a fallen officer - Adrian, MI

On May 15 of every year it is Peace Officer's Memorial Day. Family members of police officers killed in the line of duty are invited to attend a memorial service at Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian.

Family members of fallen officers present place a red rose on a memorial wreath. If no family members are present, an officer representing the department of the fallen officer places a rose on the wreath. A blue carnation was also placed on the wreath to symbolize all of the officers still active today.

Whitney

All this week, I read all of the spoiler threads that I could. I had to find out who was going to win America's Next Top Model.

Some threads said Whitney, some said Anya and others said Fatima. I don't know why I needed to know before hand. Its like I was addicted. I have never been like this for a season finale of ANTM.

Maybe it was the fact that Whitney, a full figured woman, had a chance to win the title. I know Whitney doesn't represent the size of a models currently walking the runway, but she does represent the average everyday woman. I'm I glad she was selected as the winner.

Photo Credit: CW Network

Words

While watching a baseball and basketball game on TV last night, the announcers used a term that I am starting to dislike. The term they used: a buck. During the baseball game it was, "Player X is batting a buck seventy five." In the basketball game it was, "There is a buck twenty left in the third quarter." When did a buck replace one, one hundred or a minute?

I am very odd and I have a list of words that make me cringe:

Wreak
First Annual
Pic

Wreak - I can't stand when people call car crashes wrecks. I sit by a police scanner every day at work and I never hear the dispatchers using the word wreak. It is either a personal injury crash or property damage crash. I know in some instances the word cannot be avoided like shipwreak. But other then that, I don't use it.

First Annual - I believe that if an event is going to be hosted annually the first time is called inaugural. But according to this and this book it says the term is OK. I still don't like it.

Pic - It bothers me. Please just say photo or picture.

To the readers this blog are there any words that you avoid saying? Or am I just weird?

Full figure - Jackson, MI

Random things

Where is the spring weather? I wore a sweater to work this morning. Currently the temperature is 48 degrees. I don't remember wearing sweaters this far into May last year.

While sweeping the carpet last week, my vacuum cleaner died. A big piece of plastic flew off the vacuum cleaner, dirt dumped all over the floor and it wouldn't move from the upright position. We had the sweeper since we got married almost 7 years ago, so it was time to get a new one. We bought the original Dyson upright. It was a bit expensive, but worth it. The Dyson picked up everything. I had to empty the vacuum cleaner after sweeping three rooms. It was packed with dirt and dog fur, which is a good thing.

I bought John Wayne and Robert Kennedy books a couple of weeks ago. They are still sitting on my side table. I have read only the first chapter of the John Wayne book. It seems like I just don't have the time to sit down and read. I've been too busy squeezing in runs, naps and working a lot to find time for my books. I hope when the spring sports season ends, I will have time to read more because it is something I like to do.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 10 ends on Wednesday when a new winner is named. Only three models are left: Anya, Fatima and Whitney. I would like to see Whitney win. She is a plus sized model (size 10, I think) and they have never made it to the final three. I think she is very likable, not stick thin and would make a good Cover Girl.

Photo Credit: The CW

Whiskers - Jackson, MI

Notice the whiskers that were drawn on the face of this statue.

Not smart.

Burning a hole in my pocket

Last week, my husband and I received our stimulus check. I thought all of it was going to pay bills so I didn't ask about it. My husband surprised me when he gave me some of it.

When he handed me the money, I thought I should save it and buy a couple of tires for my car. That thought didn't last long. I spent some of the money when we went to Toledo last Friday. It was nice to walk into stores and actually buy something like books and clothes. It is rare for me to buy new clothes. On the other hand I could buy new books every week but oh so expensive. That is why I go to the library often.

Now I have a bit of a problem. Should I save the rest of the money for two new front tires? Or should I spend the money on clothes? I do need new work pants. Some of my old pairs that I bought 3-4 years ago have turned into high water pants.

What is a girl to do?

Miles run in 2008

With my completed three mile run yesterday afternoon, I crossed 350 miles run for the year.

My husband and I had a late lunch so that made the little time I had off before my assignment much smaller. I needed to get my run in and I couldn't delay it anymore. I ran about a half hour after I ate. I really enjoyed the churning feeling in my stomach, the side cramps and tasting my lunch through my run. I completed the run without throwing up thankfully.

I will have plenty of time to run today, I don't have to work later. My plan is to run an easy 7 or 8 miles. A couple of years ago, I would have never thought 7 or 8 miles was easy.

2008: 350.5
2007: 175.7
2006: 184.6
2005: 144.9
2004: 143.6

Weekend Update

Friday afternoon I was surprised by what was in the mail. A while ago I told my husband that Jerry Seinfeld is going to performing at The Stranahan Theater in Toledo. My husband never mentioned anything to me about buying tickets, so I didn't think he did. The tickets came in the mail Friday. We will be seeing Jerry on June 20. How exciting.

Friday evening my husband and I traveled to Toledo, Ohio for some shopping and dinner. We stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Westfield Franklin Park Mall, Best Buy and Famous Dave's.

While at the mall, we stopped at our usual places: Border's and Dick's Sporting Goods. I bought two books at the bookstore. One about John Wayne and the other about Robert Kennedy. Yea! Now I have something to read that I know that I will finish. My husband bought some new shoes and shorts at Dick's. Then we did something that we never do. We walked into Abercrombie & Fitch to see what they had. At the front of the store was a display of polo shirts. I wear polo shirts for work a lot so I wanted to buy some new ones. I was pleased with many choices of colors. I picked up a green one and put it down immediately. The price for one polo was $49.50. I told my husband that it was expensive so we walked out of the store.

A couple of stores down from A&F is Aeropostale. A couple of weeks ago, I bought two polo shirts for $30. The mall in my town didn't have all of the colors, so I wanted to see what colors the Toledo store had. I found a grass green and a deep olive. I love green so I bought both of them for $32. The cashier thought they were for my husband and she said, "Someone loves green! We also have men's jewelry on sale this week." I said no thanks, grabbed my bag and walked out of the store. I told my husband that the cashier thought the shirts were for him. I kind of wanted to tell the cashier that I don't wear men's jewelry.

One other store that my husband and I always bypass is Hollister Co. We figured since we went into A&F, we would walk into the store. I really liked what they had to offer. My husband came across some polo's that he liked and I found a couple of T-shirts. While in the store, we were surrounded by tweens and teenagers. But we weren't the oldest people in the store. A couple of parents were buying clothes for their kids. When I was looking at t-shirts, a father and son walked into the store. The father said to his boy that he would be sitting in a chair while he shopped. As soon as the boy walked away the father buried his head in his hands. Maybe it was the loud music, dim lighting or he was just tired but all I know the father didn't look excited to be there. I was excited to be there. I like Hollister. I will be back.

Random things

I ran seven miles on my night off yesterday. It was a nice easy run that felt good. Today's three mile run wasn't so good. My legs were tired the instant I started running. I kept telling myself it would be over soon. Soon wasn't soon enough. I had to take a short walking break to help me get to the finish. I hope tomorrow's plan run will be better then this one.

As I type, I'm boxing up my copy of Atonement by Ian McEwan to send to Krista. I told her I would send her the book when I was finished reading it. Earlier this week I picked up the book to continue reading it. I read about 6 to 8 pages when I realized, I didn't remember what I just read. Before buying the book, I read the reviews on Amazon. There were tons of great reviews by readers, so that helped my decision. I guess that I'm in the minority, there was no way I could finish this. The book didn't hold my attention. I have the movie on my Netflix queue. I hope I'll be able to follow the movie all the way until the end.

I haven't finished reading a book since March 31. That is a big drought for me. I usually read about four books a month. When the spring sports season started my daily schedule changed from having lots of time before a game, to hardly any at all. After returning home from work in the morning, I have time to make and eat lunch, catch a short nap, run, shower, then head off to a game. When I return home from my game, it is usually late and I have to eat dinner then go straight to bed. Instead of reading recently, I've watched Seinfeld Seasons 8 and 9 in their entirety. When I watch DVD's of TV shows I need to watch them in order and all of them at once. But with a book that doesn't interest me I can see why I shelved it for an entire month.

Friday afternoon my husband and I will be heading down to Toledo, Ohio to do some shopping and eat dinner. My husband's birthday was last Sunday and he had to work, so tomorrow will sort of be his nice birthday dinner. The restaurant he chose to eat at is Famous Dave's. I know he is looking forward to the ribs. I'm looking forward to the bread pudding.

While down in Toledo, we will stop at Westfield Franklin Park Mall. Inside the mall is a Borders. Maybe when we are in the bookstore, I can find a book to read. I should try my finding a new book with my old favorites: Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, John Wayne, and World War II. Any book on these subjects, I could read it in two days. It doesn't matter how many books I have read about them before. I just can't get enough.