Friday, June 24, 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Trying to sleep in the pit of DEATH

Have you ever tried to cool down a large, open aired house that has been baking in the sun for 5 days with no open windows and no circulating air? Let me tell you, I have never been to hell and I hope to never GO to hell, but this had to be as close as it gets!

We left Sacramento a cool, breezy 75 degrees. We spent 5 days in cloudy, misty 58 degree Washington. We come back to a 98 degree, suffocating Sacramento and a 8 month old boxer who is having a near death experience because she has never experienced heat before.

So then you ask yourself, do you turn on the AC and try and fill up this empty space with cool air and know that you are charging up your cooling bill as you do it? Or do you open some windows, turn on a few ceiling fans and try and circulate the hot air around in hopes of stirring up some cool air?

Decisions decisions...we have lived in this house since November and this is the very first night that we have had to deal with this. Amazing...so we chose the later option and had the worst night of sleep EVER. I was so hot and grumpy the next morning it wasn't even funny. Following night we took the high road. Turned on the air as soon as we got home, windows closed tight as a drum until the air outside dropped below 80 then opened them up and let in some breeze and turned on the fans...I slept like a baby and so did my pup pup...

Next stop: Whole House Fan...hum baby!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Seattle gets an A for awesome, Sacramento gets a B for better?

As Derek and I took off on yet ANOTHER adventure (I don't think I ever wrote about our recent Mexican Riviera Cruise) I left the wide-world of social networking to spend some much needed time with my immediate and extended family. The reason for the season was the graduation of my youngest cousin from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wa. She has been apart of the graphic Design program at WWU at was not only graduating, but displaying her wares (DESIGN wares) at a portfolio viewing over the weekend...HERE is a bit of what we saw from her workings.

My family, consisting of my husband and I, my parents and my brothers family (three kids in tow) all flew in to Sea/Tac and then cruised up Washington a few hours to B-Ham as we came to call it. Washington is beautiful country if you have never experienced it. We did our best to fit everything we could in to 4 days of Wa Wa state bliss...So what did our trip look like? {Enter Word Cloud}

Cloudy Skies, rental car (20-inch blades on the Impala), flashing lights, Washington State Trooper, "License & Registration", Bellingham (B-Ham), janky hotel, beautiful Western Washington University, Subaru's, hippies, artists, self-expression, When was the last time you showered? logos, printing press, family, Olive Garden, garlic fries, wine, Dairy Queen, The Liqueur store closes at 8pm? Wal-Mart, hard hotel bed, continental breakfast, pedicure, Starbucks, 100-proof vodka, graduation party, Alternative Library neighborhood, naked bike ride (yes) Rumba the 117 lb Labradoodle, The Bellwether Hotel, the harbor, the rock jetty, "Danger, do not cross, Do not Walk" Me and my 5 year-old niece: the climb, the fall, the scrapes, the bruises (me not her) The mosquitoes, the lounge, the family brunch, the family photos, Seattle at last, Stella the English Bulldog with the worlds worst under-bite, old friends, new friends, Game 6, BBQ, wine, the lookout, tourist Seattle, Pike's Public Market, the fish throwers, the very first Starbucks, The monorail, Seattle Science Museum, Mariners game, Elysian Pub, Potato croquettes, sweet yam quesidillas, scalpers, patron, The Black Swan, creepy, sleepy, airport, return home....

98 degrees? WTF happened while I was in Seattle?

Thursday, June 9, 2011

So much time gone by...

I hate that I haven't posted in forever. I suppose I can say that there is only so much time to write in a day and currently I am writing a weekly column for the Sacramentopress.com, updating 4 Twitter sites daily and 5 facebook sites daily plus doing all of my other daily work...
I have also enter the world of writing competitions.

I say that gambling on the fact that my husband is not going to read this because I haven't even told him!

I penned a story not long ago and entered it into a Writers Digest writing competition...I won't know until nearly October if anyone liked it, but I took a bold step and did it anyway. I have had a few people review the story and so far their reviews have been positive. If the story wasn't so long, perhaps I would be bold enough to post it here. Or maybe I am using its length as an excuse not to...

Anyway, I have found myself restless recently and I am not sure what my next move is. I think it is a professional restlessness, but if affects life as a whole. Personally, life is fantastic. I love being married, owning a home and having a dog (even though I want to kill her on a daily basis.)

So what is my next move? How do I cure a restless spirit? I don't know. When I find out I'll let you know.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Expanding my horizons

Last night I attended a workshop at the Sacramento Press headquarters that specifically addressed writing about wine. For anyone who isn't aware, I have been guest writing a weekly relationship piece for the website for a few weeks now. I also posted a few pieces about the Sacramento Kings arena issue and my very FIRST article with them was about (drum roll please) my current obsession: Wine...more specifically, the Old Sugar Mill.

Anyway, all of that to say, I attended this workshop for two reasons: the first was to get certificated as a community contributor for the website. They have to meet you in person and check your ID before they will do that. Second, if I am going to write about wine, I want to do it in an intelligent manner...so I went. I really enjoyed the workshop. It was taught by former Sacramento Bee food and entertainment writer Rick Kushman, who is quite the little wine expert.

He talked about wine, his love for wine, his credentials to teach and write about wine and what we need to know to write an informative and readable wine piece. Notice I didn't say an "intelligent, educated or anything else that has to do with being a wine expert" piece. Rick addressed several of my concerns when writing about wine.

The first, and might I add largest concern was that I am not an expert. I only started drinking wine 4-5 years ago and only added red wine to my pallet a year or so ago. So who wants to hear what I have to say? Well, maybe people just like me. Maybe people who are me 2 years ago who want to get into wine but don't know where to start.

The second thing he addressed was that the "lingo" isn't what people want to hear. There is only a small population of people who even speak that language so trying to tailor your writing to them is a waste. Write to the masses.

The best piece of advice Rick gave us was to remember that writing about wine is fun. He said that everyone who currently covers wine is angry and boring. He doesn't know WHY, but they are. Wine is fun, it is relaxing and it is meant to be social and enjoyable. So write about it that way.

I can't wait to draft my first real story! Now I just need to go have an experience to write about!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Adventures in Aerobics

I didn't think I would ever USE the word "aerobics" until I was at least 45 because that word conjures up images of old women in spandex in front of a gym mirror jiggling around...

However, I think maybe I was stereotyping (nooooooo) and aerobics is just a word for contained exercises with a leader...what do you think?

Anyway, my point is, after reading my dear friend Lizzy Lou's blog entry about Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred video, I decided to order it and give it a go....I giggled after watching the first video because everything Liz said in her blog about hating Jillian was so true, although I myself work out in big baggy pants and a sports bra when at home (until I lose the muffin top, don't talk to me about "running pants") so I can't empathize with her there.

So goes my mornings; my alarm goes off at an un-godly 5:45am and I quickly turn it off before it wakes my grizzly husband, I tip-toe downstairs and try not to stir Cali, because then she'll be dying to join me (I made that mistake the first day and actually nailed her in the face while doing "butt-kickers") and I turn on Jillian.

I spend exactly 22 minutes with her...2 minute warm up, 18 minutes of work-out time (3 six minute circuits) and 2 minutes of cool down. By the time I am finished Derek has woken up, taken Cali out to pee and we are ready to start out day. Typically the coffee's automatic timer has just started to grind the beans and I am ready to pour a cup as soon as I get out of the shower.

On those rare occasions that Derek has sat down to watch me finish up my work-out, I find myself a bit embarrassed that I am standing in front of a TV, hand weights above my head, balancing on one foot and following after Jillian. He isn't snickering, but he might as well be for the way I am feeling. Then again, I look at Jillian and her two "best girls" on the screen and I say, if I can end up like THAT, I'll do this all day...

I am now nearly three weeks into my little routine and I am feeling great. Getting up in the morning still sucks, but I am more awake and feeling better about life when I get to work. Better yet, when I get home from work I feel better about concentrating on cooking dinner instead of trying to fit in a work-out and then heating up a frozen pizza. So really, Derek wins too.

This week I decided that I wanted a little more focus on my abs, so I decided that Tuesday and Thursday I would skip the video and just do abs. So Jillian gets me 3 days a week (and maybe once on the weekend) and I handle my abs alone (using some of her techniques) two days a week. I haven't seen a huge drop on the scale, but I am feeling leaner for sure, so I may just be toning and swapping fat for muscle...hopefully...

I still have yet to progress to level three in the video. I haven't fully embraced every aspect of level two withoutbreathing hard, so I don't think I am ready to see what Jillian has to throw at me in level three yet. I am thinking this is going to be a 60-Day Shred...

I guess aerobics isn't all that bad...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Weezypalooooza

This weekend we had what we affectionately called "Weezy-Palooooza"

In case you don't get it, and if you aren't specifically related to me on the Ruckle side I don't know why you would, my maternal grandmother's name is Lousie, we have always called her Weez and Sunday was her 80th birthday. She and my grandpa Ben live in San Diego and they hiked their senior tails up here with a few other family members for a full weekend of birthday celebrations so that my grandparents could be with each one of their three grown children.

My uncle came over from Hawaii, my aunt came up from Monterey and of course, my mommy lives here. The family partied for three straight days which included the traditional birthday breakfast complete with bubble wreath and family pictures at 7:30am at my parents house, BBQ lunch at our new place so everyone could view it and was capped off with the oh-so-traditional Leatherbys dinner on Sunday.

I have a few observations about family get-togethers.

1. They can be extremely stressful when several people that don't normally hang together spend copious amounts of time together in a short period of time.
2. Ignoring things that are annoying is probably better than making it awkward by saying something
3. We spend 1/3 of the time talking about the present and 2/3 of time reminiscing about times past
4. As my grandparents get up there and no one knows how much time we have left when them, these times are meant to be cherished. I only get to see them once or twice a year and every time might be my last. I need to treat it as my last every time, say everything I want to say to them, listen to everything they have to say to me and make sure I tell them how much I love them.
5. Nothing else matters

I love you G-rents

Monday, March 7, 2011

What do you want to do today?

Today I am sitting at my desk, on hold for the 32nd minute with AT&T and I am slightly frustrated so I thought, now is as good a time as any to blog! If they finally decide to put down their lunch and answer my call, I can always halt my blogging tirade and finish up my call, then get back to it...

Anyway...before I decided to actually make a blog entry I went back and read some of my old posts...most of them actually. As usual, I kicked myself for how far and few between my entries are. I freaking LOVE blogging...why do I let days go by between posts? I don't know. I wish I did. Sure, some days I am busy and frantic with life, but some days I am not. Every single one of those days I should have an entry up here.

Life is pretty good right now. I am loving married life, owning my own home, having a puppy, being gainfully employed...and exploring the options that this big world has laid out before me. Although I am fairly content with life, I want to live it to the fullest and not regret what I never did.

There are so many activities and experiences to have that if you never do them, you'll never care, but if you pursue them and succeed (or even if you fail), you'll never understand how you lived without them. I want to know the difference...

What do you want to do today?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Oh blog, how I have missed you

A mile a minute doesn't even begin to describe how fast I have been moving these last few months. Work, home, dog...where to begin?

Honestly, who really cares? All that matters is that I have found my way back to my little world of writing that I love so much. The beauty of that is, it means I am also breathing again...trying not to stress and trying not to be consumed with things that don't matter to me...like my job. I don't mean to imply that my job isn't important to me, because it is. It pays the bills...ok, not even some of them but it pays a few of them (like my cell phone bill and occasionally I can take myself out to lunch) but what I meant to say was that I don't want my job to rule my life.

I don't want to think about my job when I go home after work, or when I am laying in bed at night. I don't have that kind of job and more importantly I don't get paid enough for it to occupy my thoughts after hours. I do my job and I do it well. That is enough for me. When I go home, that is my time to chill, to see my husband, to play with my dog. Those are the things I love, the things that occupy my thoughts after hours...the things that matter to me.

I am remiss about all the writing opportunities I have missed the last few months. I think about stories in my head that I could have put to paper (or computer screen) or thoughts I could have shared that may have given you a laugh or helped you in some way. More importantly by not emptying my head of all those things I haven't created room to breathe new life into my thoughts, to create new stories...that is what I regret the most...the stories lost.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Getting back to it...

The holidays have a way of taking a bite out of me, chewing me up and spitting me back out. Now that I am finally on the New Year side of the latest spree of holiday bliss I can finally breathe!

The Haynes household was the hub of this years Christmas extravaganza. We hosted 3 Christmas parties in 3 days...what a whirl wind THAT was. I think all in all we had nearly 40 bodies in and out of our house in 72 hours. It took a whole lot of food to feed all of those people, but apparently not nearly as much food as we MADE, because I was left with piles and piles of food afterward...bad, naughty food...the kind you want to eat but know if you do, the scale will be mocking you for weeks to come.

For New Year's Eve thank GOD we ventured outside of our diggs to ring in 2011. We spent a robust evening with some friends throwing beans bags into a hole, playing beer pong and eating more of that "naughty food". Derek and I made it until about 12:24am and then we headed home amidst jeers. On New Year's Day I found myself again with a room full of boys watching the UFC Fights and stuffing pizza and cheesecake into my mouth.

So what does that mean for me today, the first day back into my routine of the new year? Is it diet time? Well, I won't go THAT extreme, I will just say that it is back to oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, light lunches and I need to MAKE dinners instead of buying them...at least Derek would appreciate that.

My first efforts will be tonight with some chicken thingy...we'll see how it goes...

More importantly, I am committed to blogging more consistently in 2011. I need to make my passion for writing a priority. I love to write and I need a creative release for the thoughts in my head. So far this is the outlet provided for me....until that changes, stay tuned!