5 Days Later...

I did 6 miles in 54:28! Still not that great of a time, but a vast improvement from my prior record. Upset with myself for skipping 5 consecutive days, I took out my aggression on the treadmill. For the last 1/2 a mile, I even cranked the speed to 6.9. Pretty sure the highest I'd EVER had it before today was 6.7. The weather was beautiful today too, but I forced myself to go to the club because I actually push myself there.

I'd like to buy a heart rate monitor watch, but haven't done enough research on them yet. I really need to get serious and keep track of my splits. I'll be more motivated outdoors that way.

Old habits die hard. Once again, I failed to stretch so I could be in pain tomorrow!

Update: I ran so hard today my favorite Old Navy running shorts chafed my waistline! It hurts. Sigh.

Twin Cities Marathon -- Now or Never

This morning, Dave Ryan talked about the "love it" or "hate it" experience of marathon runners, in preparation for the Twin Cities Marathon. He did Twin Cities last year and loved it. Registration opens Thursday, May 3, and online registration starts Friday, May 4. Running a marathon has always been on my list of things to do before I die. I figure this is the year to do it -- I'm 26 years old so there's a mile for every year of my life. Besides, I'm not getting any younger!! So I'm going to take the plunge and sign up.

It's comforting to know it should be relatively cool that time of year, October 7. Also, Dave said it's pretty much all flat except for a slight incline on mile 19 and no matter where you are on the course, there are supporters cheering you on. No music will be a difficult adjustment for me, but hopefully the adrenaline rush will somewhat compensate. At least if it's horrible, I won't have to spend the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like...

Alec Baldwin Calls Dora the Explorer

Check it out.

The Office Brings SexyBack

Laziness

I have not run for the past 4 days!!! I feel like a blimp. Definitely not looking forward to getting back to it.

I Want to Write a Screenplay

I really do. However, I have even less confidence in tackling this endeavor than I do novel writing. I know virtually nothing about the art of film or script writing. I did write a couple plays as a child that my friends and I performed for the neighbors, but apparently, the audience had no idea what was going on so that can't be a good sign! Anyhoo, I thought if I blogged about my desire to do this, I may be more inclined to pursue it. I'll update if any progress is made.

The Amazing Race: Down to Final 3

First time I've made an effort to watch the show week-to-week. I was hoping Rob & Amber would stick around a lot longer. It was shocking when they departed so quickly into the season. Last night Danny and Os were eliminated, narrowing it down to the final three.

I have no choice but to root for the beauty queens, Dustin and Kandice. They came in as the underdogs on their season (10), but won the approval of their competitors, so much so, they were invited back for The Amazing Race: All-Stars, and now find themselves at the head of the pack.

Eric and Danielle, a couple that is dating, are just plain sad to watch. Eric constantly belittles Danielle and forces her to do all the physically challenging roadblocks, where only one person is permitted to do the task at hand. I mostly feel sorry for Danielle and wonder why she wastes her time with such an arrogant prick.

Then we have cousins Charla and Mirna. There couldn't be any two more annoying people on the planet. All they ever do is complain and whine and piss everyone off. They play dirty but then act as if they are the moral authorities of the game.

With two of the three teams comprised of women, it likely could be the first time an all-female team wins The Amazing Race in history.

Qdoba

There's a new one in Dinkytown, beside Potbelly!! Mmmmm!!!

Job Dissatisfaction

After two and a half years at this company, my boss, whom I've said a total of 20 words to, messaged me out of the blue to ask if I wanted to get a cup of coffee and discuss my job. Wow, that is pathetic on his part. Don't get me wrong, this is one of the things I actually like about my company. Not having to deal with bullshit performance reviews and pretending to care about my work. Funny thing is he actually mentioned doing this same thing around Christmas when he delivered my bonus, but never heard from him when it came time to set up a meeting.

A date is scheduled on my calendar for later this week so it should be interesting, seeing as how I'm way beyond faking satisfaction with my job. I refuse to muster enough energy to hide my discontent. It's likely that in response, I'll hear a trail of lies regarding "potential opportunities" he'll look into which means absolutely nothing. I guarantee I won't hear back from him. That's how things work at my company.

First Dog Sitting Gig

So I believe I am scheduled to dog sit for two dogs, a Husky (Lola) and an Australian Shepherd mix (Jersey). It's just for a long weekend, Thursday-Sunday, but I have to say I am rather excited for it. A tad nervous too, since I have no experience with those two breeds, both very strong, powerful dogs, but I think it will be fun!!

Massive Monday Headache

I thought about inserting the word 'migraine' in place of 'headache' for the alliteration factor, but I've never had a migraine. In fact, I rarely get headaches, with the exception of caffeine-induced ones, but I've had this bitch of a headache for the last four hours now!!

What a way to start a Monday...

Girl Crush

I met someone last night. We instantly bonded, had great chemistry. We share similar interests such as working out, fashion and judging people. Yes, this person is a she. She is a co-worker of a friend of mine. We first met at happy hour, and in talking, discovered we have a lot in common.

Meeting people is not really one of my things, especially women with all that unspoken animosity. Is she cuter than me? Is she thinner than me? Is she dressed better than me? It's awkward and uncomfortable and forced. But I immediately liked this girl. I warmed to her honesty, particularly when she readily admitted to her judgmental tendencies. I knew we'd get along right then and there.

My favorite part of the evening was when she asked what kind of guys I like. After hearing my description, she said, "So you like IT guys." I'd never thought of it that way before! Pretty sure we are NOT attracted to the same type of men.

We separated from the rest of the group so it turned out to be kind of a crazy night filled with lots of bar hopping and dancing. I guess that's what happens when you start drinking at happy hour and stay out 'til 3:45. The most interesting for me was going to Visage, the club where Tropix used to be. It looks nothing like it did back then! Wow. Aren't I too old for this?!?

So we exchanged phone numbers. All night, we both kept telling each other how glad we were that we met. I hope she calls. I wonder if the 3-day rule applies to same-sex hetero friendships.

Weeds -- Best Season Finale Ever

Wow, the Season 2 finale of Weeds blew me away!!! Just spent a lazy afternoon catching up on the show. There were so many shocking twists! Amazing. Now that is what you call a cliff-hanger. Cannot wait for season 3!

The Office: Barrel of Laughs

The Office was great last night, as usual. Loved Jim's (John Krasinski) imitation of Dwight (Rainn Wilson), especially the bit about the black bear! Classic Dwight-ism. Closing segment was equally entertaining with Dwight's miserable attempt to mimick Jim.

Fitness Fair Hoopla

"Do you wanna go to the fitness fair?" she asks, my co-worker with the 5'2," 200-lb frame and sky-rocketing blood pressure, moments after devouring an apple fritter and chocolate cake doughnut.

"Um, no thanks."

Stretching is Not Overrated

As if I didn't have that pounded into my head every high school track practice by my coach. Yet for some reason, I choose to skip out on warm-ups, cool-downs and stretching during my workouts. Mr. Ertl would be so disappointed. I'd so much rather get it over and done with despite knowing I'm cheating myself out of getting the best results from my workout and potentially preventing injury. My negligence got the best of me the other day when I developed the WORST charley horse in my right calf. Two days later, it's still a little sore. I may have to start stretching. I also need to search online for arm exercises using free weights. My arms looked fat and flabby in pictures taken of me last weekend. Ugh. Didn't run yesterday, had to stay late at work. Today is no good either, which means I can't slack (use excuse of hangover recovery) Saturday and Sunday like I typically do.

Farewell Addison (You'll Hardly be Missed)

Last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy was rather weak with the highlight being the humorous penis fish incident. The speculative reason for the two-hour episode next week is the backdoor pilot for the spin-off, Private Practice, starring Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh). Never been fond of her. She has moments where I start to like her, but it's always overlooked by her stagnant role with dead-end storylines. Last night they tried to create drama by having her choose between McSteamy (Eric Dane) and Alex (Justin Chambers), but that was a major snooze fest. Been there, done that. They couldn't come up with something better than that? So it looks like she will soon be moving to Santa Monica to start a new life (including a baby?) opposite Taye Diggs as the new McDreamy. Doesn't really sound too promising, but worth checking out.

"Where's My Hard Drive?"

One of my co-workers, a woman in her mid-fifties, had her outdated PC replaced with a new laptop and docking station yesterday. Utterly confused by the change, she kept pointing to her new laptop, asking, "So where's my hard drive?"

Idol: A Good Cause Gone Bad

I hope you didn't waste 120 minutes of your life watching last night's episode of American Idol. Or more importantly, I hope you didn't cough up a portion of your hard-earned paycheck to vote for your favorite Idol under false pretenses it would keep him/her safe. At the end of the show, the "biggest shock" was to reveal they couldn't kick anyone off during "charity week" so the votes from this week will be added to next week when two contestants will get the boot. Granted, they raised $30 million for charity due to the 70 million votes they received. But why lie to viewers by not telling them beforehand??

While Ellen DeGeneres' $100,000 contribution is admirable, did the judges match her generosity? It seemed rather disingenous to watch filthy-rich millionaires, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, exploit the misfortune of a young, African boy to encourage viewers to make a charitable donation. Undeniably, poverty awareness is important, and for that, the show deserves credit. However, the least they could have done was solicit donations in a sincere way, such as informing viewers no one was leaving this week, but their votes would still be going toward a good cause.

Screen of Death Reappears

About a year and a half ago, a blue screen popped up on my laptop that said, "beginning physical dump of memory." When I asked my IT friend about it, he told me in IT world, that is referred to as the "screen of death." Hence I would eventually need to replace my hard drive. At which point, I was advised to purchase a hard drive from Newegg.com, which I did, and my friend was nice enough to install it for me and everything. Pretty sure I also purchased a 3 year warranty with my hard drive through newegg, but I have no idea where my receipt is. How is it possible the screen of death came back to haunt me only a year and a half after replacing my hard drive? I'm gonna be so pissed if I have to buy a new computer or hard drive again! Why do my computers always crash?!? Although, if I do have to buy a new one, I'd really, really like a macbook!! Guess it's time to finally put that external hard drive I got for Christmas to use.

This is Why I Hate Work

My co-worker insisted I looked like a bumblebee today because I wore a yellow top, black pants and white sweater. Tomorrow, I'm going for ladybug.

I've had that god-awful This is Why I'm Hot song stuck in my head all day!

Brody Gets Zapped

Yesterday he was in for a shock, literally. The system, PetSafe, uses the same concept as invisible fencing, and it's a third of the cost. It is a portable, wireless safe zone for dogs within 90 feet of the transmitter.

There are 5 levels of shock settings, 5 being the highest. My brother put the collar on his wrist and stepped over the boundary, first on level 2, then 3. He said there was a big leap between 2 and 3, but my parents wanted to make sure 3 was enough to teach Brody, so they tried it out.

The instant he crossed over, ears and tail down, he ran for dear life, making a beeline for the house, dragging my mom behind him on the other end of the leash. He knows the collar is responsbile so he now refuses to even step outside if it's around his neck.

Funny story about a family friend's dog. Their Golden Retriever/Husky mix, Maya, was introduced to invisible fencing recently. A neighbor was out walking their little Yorkie one day and Maya couldn't resist going up to say 'hello.' Maya got zapped and now every time she sees the Yorkie, she's terrified and runs and hides behind the house.

Brody Goes to Obedience School

Yes, he does. He's only had two classes thus far, yet he's already received two doses of lemon juice in his mouth for snarling at classmates. He was instructed not to make eye contact with the other dogs. It was recommended by the veterinarian he enroll in school to develop socialization skills after he displayed aggressive behavior toward the Culligan man.

New Record

I was dreading going back indoors to the treadmill yesterday, but I had positive results. Usually it takes me a long time to build up speed, gradually increasing with each mile. But I started off strong, running at 6.5. Then at the 2-mile mark, my shoelace came untied. Could there be anything more annoying?!? I always pause my machine because I don't trust myself to be able to get back on at the same pace without falling off. So I lost all my momentum and struggled the next couple miles to regain my stride. It did get easier, however, around 5 miles, particularly when I realized I was beating my old record from a few weeks ago when I mentioned doing 6 miles in 57:18. This time I did 6 in 55:24, so I was very pleased!! Oh, and I was surrounded by three men, all of whom I outran. Must have been the new techno workout album I downloaded from iTunes.

Entourage: 'Sex & the City' in Male Form

Before I saw Entourage, a guy friend of mine described it as "Sex & the City" for men. It really is. Only not as good (call me biased). But like SATC, they both offer honest, humorous insight as to how the male/female mind works. I enjoyed the episode from Season 3 called, "Three's Company," where Eric's girlfriend, Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui), offers to do a threesome with her and her friend, Tori. The following morning, Eric (Kevin Connolly) wakes up spooning (or "cuddling" as he refers to it) Tori instead of Sloan. So funny and awkward!

Too bad Sloan is WAY too hot for Eric and given her personality, I doubt she'd be so quick to agree to that in the first place. It also gets weird on the next episode when Eric starts falling for Tori. Doesn't seem all that realistic to me, but oh well. Show is very entertaining!

Ari is my favorite character. I imagine it's difficult to play a likeable asshole, so kudos to Jeremy Piven. He makes the show!