Comments (8)

By kilax, August 26, 2017 6:25 pm

Yesterday was my snister Christina’s birthday. She’s my best friend, I miss her like crazy, and haven’t seen her since MARCH, so I flew to Kansas City to surprise her!

Her husband, Will, coordinated everything with me, and picked me up at the airport (and dropped me off – thank you, Will!!!!!!), and we drove to her office for the surprise. I texted her on the way and asked if she got anything delivered from me. She said no (because I didn’t actually send anything, ha ha) and I acted all mad that “it” wasn’t there yet, and told her I checked and “it” was on its way. Then I showed up with balloons! Surprise!

Only taller cause I’m wearing boots with heels, ha

And she actually was surprised, yay!

And then we got to hang out all last night and all day today (I am flying back tonight), and I got to snuggle with this guy (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

What a great trip!

I wish I was able to see my snister and her family more often. Thank heavens for texting and google hangouts – we’re pretty much chatting all day most days.

And luckily, I already know when my next trip to Kansas City is, and it’s not months away!!! Yay!

I first wrote about August being awesome because I was grateful to have more free time in August 2017 than August 2016, then the second post and this post were about the things I am doing with that free time. I’m enjoying writing about random “awesome” things from the month – maybe I’ll continue it outside of August. 

Comments (18)

By kilax, August 24, 2017 6:27 am

• It’s been a year since Khali first showed up at our house! She’s been living inside for over six months now. Aww, I love our little fluffer butt.

• What is with this search that keeps showing up on my blog? Seriously. Gross.

• I bought my first Christmas present of the year last week! Eek!
• I was talking to my boss about her recent trip to Canada and decided to read my blogs posts from when I went to Montréal in 2005. Holy embarrassing! Everything I wrote was completely cringe-worthy. Heh, I’m sure I’ll feel the same about this in twelve years.
• I confirmed this week that I am going to my ten year college class reunion in October. Time to practice making my job sound interesting, ha ha.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 143

Comments (14)

By kilax, August 17, 2017 6:23 am

• Whenever I pick Snow up, I notice he smells nice and wonder how, being an outdoor cat! I finally figured out what he smells like – cedar! Because… he lives in a house with cedar on it. Duh, Kim. Just, duh.

• I’ve been bringing Snow in at night, when it’s dark, for short visits. The dark part is key – he gets scared if I bring him in when it’s light outside. But at night, his tail is wagging, he’s playing with toys, and hanging out. I feel like I am getting closer to being able to put him in the cat carrier to go get his shots/chip/get neutered (I tried in the winter and spring and it was a disaster).

• I had my first malfunction in the new workspace yesterday when I got there and my locker wouldn’t open. Grrr. Apparently, some of the new lockers came with not-so-new batteries? So mine died on me with my stuff (that I needed!) locked inside. I was impressed the team was able to get it open in forty-five minutes of me reporting the issue! (and I questioned if I should just take my stuff home last night, but I left it in there, and am giving it another try…) On a positive note, I do love that many of the workstations have two external monitors (I usually only have one external monitor)!

• I ordered my 2018 page-a-day-calendar way in advance so the same thing won’t happen as last year! I can’t wait to use it. This year’s has been a bit of a dud.

• Has anyone else seen The Circle with Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, and John Boyega? I need to talk to someone about how horrible it is. Ha ha.
• We’re watching the American version of The Office (I’ve never seen it but Steven has) and I am not sure I can handle it. Michael Scott makes me so uncomfortable, and mad. Does that feeling go away?

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 142

Comments (12)

By kilax, August 15, 2017 6:41 am

Enjoying the hammock Christina gave me!

Now I just need a good book to read out there. I am thinking about getting The Last Tudor, or maybe Three Sisters, Three Queens (it has better reviews). Any other Phillipa Gregory fans out there?

Comments (21)

By kilax, August 10, 2017 6:10 am

• Ha, Jen texted me this image last week and said she thought I’d appreciate the section in red. Long story short – I had been doing this community 5K for YEARS and they changed the format and location this year and I didn’t care for it. Apparently I wasn’t alone! I’m glad it’s going back to its original format.

• We’ve been getting the basement ready (removing junk from the ceiling, cleaning, and organizing) for awhile so we could properly set up our workout area, starting with a smith machine for Steven to use! (I plan on using it too!)

• I keep forgetting to ask – who has seen Get Out and what did you think of it? It was different than I thought it would be. For some reason, I had it in my head that it was a slasher movie, and gory. It wasn’t. But it was messed up!
• When I went in to the office this week, it was to a (somewhat) new space/floor. My company is getting rid of all assigned workspaces – when you go in to the office, you either reserve a space to use, or find a hot desk (non-reservable space) to use. Some staff were freaking out about losing storage space and finding a space to sit each office visit and so on and so on, but I am excited to sit in different places and by different people each day I’m in. So far, sitting by different people already let me overhear some interesting information (which is partially the point of this – information sharing and collaboration with people you don’t normally see).
• My Aunt Sue gave me this print with a note that seeing it made her think of me and that she thought maybe I’d like to send it to someone else, but it made me laugh so much I framed it and kept it for myself!

• And… a lovely flashback to a week ago when I had what felt like a million mosquito bites. Ouch.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 141

Comments (6)

By kilax, July 20, 2017 11:58 am

• Has anyone had luck with ShoeKicker lately? I haven’t received any price alerts in a long time, and the other day I found shoes on Amazon for cheaper than listed on ShoeKicker. Hmm.
• I was pumped for the season premiere of Game of Thrones last Thursday, then found the episode to be slow and a bit disappointing. Oh well! That is more likely to happen when something gets way too hyped up. It was fun to look forward to! And I laughed that Khaleesi slept through the entire episode in her cube then popped her head out when her namesake showed up at the end of the show. Ha ha ha!

• It’s always funny to me on social media when something is trending (like the new episode of Game of Thrones) and people post about how they don’t care about it and are annoyed that everyone is talking about it. Well, guess what? Now you are, too. Yes, it’s annoying when everyone seems to be talking about the same thing (thing being hobby or interest), but we don’t have to be negative and say how we don’t like that thing.
• It bums me out when I’m riding my bike and greet another cyclist and they don’t wave/nod/say hello back. It feels so unnatural to me not to acknowledge someone else (related: I ran yesterday in the city and had to hold back from saying hello to everyone).
• Work is making me nuts and I am looking forward to a short break from it in August! (I’d love to write about all the things making me nuts, but I think that’s highly inappropriate to do in a public forum… so it stays offline.)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 140

Comments (4)

By kilax, July 15, 2017 11:10 am

Apparently people don’t know what this means…

We live on a dead-end road (as seen above) that runs west from a main road. The roads north and south of us that run east/west are both closed to the west because of flooding from a local river.

The road north of us…

The road south of us…

So there are A LOT more people on the main road, trying to figure out where the hell to go, which is resulting in lots of cars FLYING down our street, only to get pissed off when they realize it goes no where.

Sigh. Calm down people. People live on this street. People run and bike on this street!!! (ha)

I hope the roads are clear soon, for everyone’s safety. And sanity.

Comments (14)

By kilax, July 13, 2017 6:36 am

• The county I live in has been pounded with rain over the last week (particularly Tuesday night) and there are lots of roads under water, and flooding in businesses and people’s homes. At least two cities (that I saw) have declared a state of local emergency. It’s horrible, and I feel so bad for the people dealing with property damage. I hope we get a break from the rain for awhile (it was supposed to rain last night AGAIN, but luckily, it didn’t!).

Rain we got at our house this week

• Luckily, we didn’t have any issues at our house. We did get a lot of rain, and our power went out early Wednesday morning (12:30 am), but the generator kept the sump pumps running (for over twelve hours until the power came back). Steven and I both had interesting commutes, with all the flooding. The route I take to work had an intersection under water, and Steven had to completely reroute the way he normally goes (the town his warehouse is in is one of the towns that declared a state of emergency).
• I’ve actually had stuff I wanted to write about this week, but I’ve been in training all day since Tuesday and haven’t made the time to post. I signed up for this leadership class at work and was hoping I’d learn some new skills and concepts, but so far, it’s been stuff I already know (ladder of inference, Myers Briggs, etc) and mostly activities I’ve done before (GAH, if I have to build a “tower” with my team again, my head will explode), The teacher is engaging and I like the people I am in class with, so there’s that! Maybe today is the day I will learn something new!
• I had to turn off the screen on my Garmin app that shows how many steps I do per day and if I was reaching my “goal.” Seeing it made me kind of nuts about it, when it’s something I don’t care about. I turned it off and immediately stopped thinking about it.
• Snow (our outdoor cat) is extremely lovey dovey and I like to spend time holding and petting him each day, but the mosquitoes have been SO horrible that I get eaten up when I go outside to see him. Snow is afraid of coming inside, but I’ve been bringing him in for little bouts so I can pet him and not get bit (by mosquitoes, ha). Last night I brought Snow in, and Steven got him all buttered petting him while he ate. After that, he was chill (for Snow) and stayed in the house for quite some time! When I opened the door to offer for him to go back outside, he didn’t bolt straight for it, but casually walked outside. Winning!

• Who else is excited for the Game of Thrones season premiere on Sunday? I hope our HBO app doesn’t crash!!! (That’s been an issue in the past with so many people trying to stream it live – I hope they’ve figured that out.)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 139

Comments (12)

By kilax, June 29, 2017 6:21 am

• Our power went out last night! Why am I excited? Because our generator kicked on right away, and we were able to keep watching Game of Thrones during the storm (and more importantly, our sump pumps keep running). The generator ran for an hour and a half, then the power came back on.
• Khali was freaked out during the storm. She wanted Data to comfort her, but all he wanted to do was give her side-eye.

• I’ve mentioned this before but I am going to be more specific this time (and could definitely dedicate a whole post to this rant). What is with people one-upping each other on Facebook when someone else posts an athletic achievement? I constantly see people posting a specific distance they ran/biked/swam and instead of (some, not all) commenters simply liking it or saying “good for you” they just comment with how they did more that day. Sigh. PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW YOU WORKED OUT MORE! I also see similar stuff when people post what time of day they worked out (“I worked out earlier than that,” etc.). Sigh. I guess some people don’t care about sharing what they do, until they can use it look like they are doing more than someone else? And this is (part of) why I don’t post or do much on Facebook.
• At the same time, I also don’t get people who lie about their athletic achievements on social media. The truth is out there, and the internets will find it. Ha ha.
• THIS IS NOT SPONSORED! Steven bought some OxiClean to work on a stain and holy schnit, this stuff is the bomb. My running hydration vest was so stinky I thought I was going to have to throw it out and get a new one, but I soaked it in OxiClean and hot water and it doesn’t smell anymore! It also got the smell out of some other items. I had tried other methods (vinegar, soaking in detergent, sports wash) and they’d never worked – I am really excited this does!

• ALSO NOT SPONSORED. We bought a handheld vacuum to clean up cat hair and other small messes and so far I really like it! I will post the brand/model after we use it some more.
• I send my mom and snis pics during my runs and my snister said (about the one below) “that looks like it should be a Dell desktop background.” Ha! Now I will have to try to send them more “desktop background” worthy pictures.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 138

Comments (6)

By kilax, June 22, 2017 6:14 am

• Our generator was installed in May (which means now we’ll never lose power)! On Saturday, Steven planted emerald green arborvitae trees to block it from view from the front yard. We’ll let the trees grow as high as the wing wall over the next several years, then trim them to that height.

• After the generator was installed in May, Steven built out framing to hold in the pea gravel around it and the air conditioners. It looks so nice compared to how it was before!

• I love that our yard is filled with perennials we don’t have to think about planting each spring!

• In early June, we hung up some maps, which makes me very happy (I love maps). I hope we hang up more of our prints this year. They make the house feel more “ours.”

• A year ago, we were flying to Alaska for Nick and Alyssa’s wedding! We haven’t done a “big” trip since then. I am hoping we can go on a trip for our ten year anniversary this year!
• I’m having a hard time finishing Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time. It’s too cheesy for me. Steven listened to it in one day and has already moved on to a new book! I need to decide if I am finishing it or giving up on it so I can re-join Book Club for Two.
• My bike is fixed and I am picking it up today! I better ride it before the race Sunday!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 137