Happy 279th Birthday George!!!

So in celebration of Mr. George Washington's Birthday, and in turn the Monday holiday, I took a trip to Boise for the weekend. I figured I needed a little mini vacation since the next holiday isn't for another 3 months, and all government agencies may be closing after March 4th if Congress can't decide on a budget or CRA... but I digress.

Boise!! The only time I ever make it to Boise is for work, so this weekend was a real treat. My friend Kim tagged along because she also had people in Boise she wanted to see, so it was nice to have the company on the drive and someone to split the gas with. :) We started the weekend off right and headed out to the bar for some drinks and pool. Unfortunately, Idaho still allows smoking in bars, so I was pretty miserable with the stench and the whole not being able to breathe thing (I'm so spoiled in WA), but we made the best of it. I think the best part of the night was the 3 AM carne asada burrito from the taco truck parked outside the bar. SOOO good (but apparently not up to par, according to my friend, Mike...).

We also did some shopping, went to a Stealheads (hockey) game, and hit the slopes up at Bogus Basin.

Now Bogus was interesting....

So Kim's friend, Cook, came skiing with Mike, Kim and I, and 2 runs into the day she started feeling pretty sickly. She ended up curling up in Mike's truck for most of the day fighting off a stomach bug. :( THEN, sometime after that, I caught my heal edge and took a nasty fall down the mountain hitting my head pretty hard. It took a while for me to realize I had a concussion. Stupidly, I did about 3 more runs before I couldn't do anymore. Like I said... stupid.

The drive down the mountain was interesting. Cook ended up getting sick out the window (somehow missing the truck) while I did everything I could not to do the same. By the time we got back to the house, I had severe nausea, a 100 degree fever, a knarly headache, and vertigo. I just curled up on the couch and reveled in my misery. Not even Mike's homemade turkey noodle soup, with HOMEMADE noodles, could make me feel better...

By Monday morning I felt more human, but I'm so glad Kim was there to drive home. I probably would've stayed in Boise had she not been there... which I actually would've been OK with. :)

So the moral of the story is:

Wear a helmet... or just take up skiing.

slr

Hi, my name is Stephanie, and I'm an infomercial sucker.

Over the past year or two I've fallen prey to a few informercials... Go ahead... say it. I'm super gullable. I've known this about myself since... well, since I could understand what "gullable" meant.

The first one was WEN Haircare...

In my defense, I was in the hospital for that blood thing and miserable beyond belief. The hospital didn't have cable, so in the middle of the night when the nurse would come in and poke me for bloodwork, I would stay up and watch the home shopping network or get suckered into the oh so enticing infomercials for the magic bullet or the fancy, never dull in your lifetime, even after sawing through a brick, knife sets.

Anyway, this WEN stuff lured me in and I called in my order in the wee hours of the morning. I liked the stuff at first, even gifted a bottle or two to friends, but after a while, I got tired of the stuff, and had WAY too much, and canceled my deliveries. I still have 2 bottles at home that will probably take me a year to use...

A few months later I decided to try bareMinerals makeup...

Now, I've had my fair share of bad luck with makeup, but I LOVE this stuff!! My sister even got me some for Christmas!! She's way awesome like that... Anyway, the only part about this that I fell prey to was the mail order delivery. I was paying the same price for half the product, plus shipping. I finally canceled my deliveries last month and started getting the stuff at one of the over priced beauty salons in town (the haircuts and stuff are over priced, not the makeup). :)

The last, most recent and financially STUPID informercial purchase I made was for the Food Lovers Fat Loss System...

Now before you judge me, it was a VERY convincing infomercial... OK, judge me. I deserve it. I got suckered, but not by the program. I actually like the program. I got effed by the "extras." I signed up for some "free" extra stuff, and forgot to cancel in time (my own stupid fault). BUT after I canceled, they were still charging me... so I called last week to bitch about it and demand a refund... and of course they said there was no record of me canceling. And of course I didn't have my cancelation # on me... It was Bullshit!! So... I canceled again, but only after paying up the ASS...and making SURE I wrote down the cancelation # this time. I am so stupid sometimes...

Anyway, the whole reason for this post was to say that after buying the "program" about 3 months ago, in an attempt to get bikini and 5K run ready, I'm finally actually doing it... Or at least this is my 3rd day of 21. We'll see how long I last. It's supposed to be life changing.... I'll let you know when I'm allowed to have tasty, frosty beverages again...

slr

Bieber fever baby!!

OK, so I'm not running around screaming his name, crying at the very sight of him, or scribbling "Mrs. Justin Bieber" on my notebook (because I'm already promised to Edward Cullen...kidding, I'm kidding. And not to mention that would be so so very wrong on so many levels), but I did take my 11 year old friend Tosha to see Justin Bieber: Never Say Never yesterday. I have to say, I give the boy props for being extremely talented, and for being blessed with great hair.

Anyway, Tosha and I had fun at the movie. We even splurged and saw it in 3D. I felt like I had a hangover after it was over (that 3D shit can be brutal), but I figured if we were doing it, we were doing it right. :-)

We decided it was a buyer... for her, not me.

She said she'd let me borrow it. ;-)

slr

Yes, I'm still alive...

...but life hasn't been all that interesting lately. My days consist of going to work, walking the dog, washing the dog, eating, sleeping, talking myself into going to the gym, deciding I'm too lazy to go, and resisting the urge to just buy a whole new wardrobe. Throw in an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Glee here and there, and you've got my life for the last 6 weeks in a nutshell. Now you see why I've been MIA with the blog.

I did, however, make a quick trip to LA a few weeks back (I forgot I did that!). It was warm, and sunny and beautiful and a really nice trip. Except for actually getting down there... that was a nightmare.

So Allegiant Air has these suuuper cheap flights from Pasco to LA. For a measely $100 round trip, I'm more than willing to subject myself to a middle seat next to a crying baby and a guy farting next to me every 5 minutes. But when the flight is delayed by an hour and a half because some lady doesn't recognize her own name when it's called, and the rest of us have to pull out our IDs and the crew has to go person by person checking IDs to find this woman... that's when I say it may not be worth it. They finally found the woman, after announcing her name 6 times... I was more than a little dumbfounded by the sheer obliviousness of some poeple.

But, I finally made it to LA, and spent a great day with an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen since graduation. We romped around Pasadena, drinking and eating our way through the cozy dive bars, reminiscing about times of old and admiring the incredible architecture. And he educated me in yummy beers and we ate some very tasty cajun muscles.



Pasadena City Hall. Very cool.

Then I was passed off to another friend and we headed up to Valencia. We watched movies, played with the baby, ate cookies and nutella popcorn (SOOOO good), and had a great time spying on the crazy neighbor girl giving a strip tease on her balcony. People in California are crazy...

Needless to say, I will be going back very soon. :)

And I will try harder to live a more exciting life for those that actually read up on what I'm doing...and then blog about it.

slr