failfailfailfailfailfailFAIL

So remember my overly-ambitious 52 in 23* list?  It's looking like a big old pile of FAIL right about now.  I've got just about three and a half months to crank out the rest of my list, and I'm currently at a whopping 30.7%.  This project has major failure written all over it.

Maybe some of you are thinking, "Wow! What a downer! Three and a half months is still plenty of time to get these things done."  Maybe you are thinking I'm being a Negative Nancy and just quitting, throwing in the towel. I wouldn't really argue with you on that, to be perfectly honest.  There are some goals I probably could still accomplish, but I know that they're highly unlikely not to happen, so I figured I should just come to terms with that now and then I will have the next three and a half months to console myself and comfort myself with lots of french fries and ice cream (part of the reason why "Lose 10 pounds" is unlikely to occur).

Here's the list of things I've officially given up on (outside of the things I mentioned here that I would not be doing).

• Run the Boston Half Marathon. - I did this last year, and I know how much training it would require (damn you, rolling hills!), and with my schedule, I just don't have the time for it, so I didn't even sign up for it this year.  The Chicago half is going to be bad enough.
• A side casualty to this is probably "Get my minute/mile pace under 10 minutes", but I'm not giving up on that one just yet.  I will add a quantifier around this: run 5 miles in 49:59:59 minutes or less.
• Visit my penpal. - Sadly, she does not seem interested.
• Go skydiving. - No time, and I'd rather spend my money on football games.

Further things that are highly, highly unlikely to happen, but I am not officially giving up on:

• Go to a college football game.
• Take a road trip to someplace besides Indianapolis, Chicago, or DC.
• Visit my #2.
• Learn how to rollerblade.
• Learn Flash.
• Watch the entire series of Frasier, from beginning to end, in order. [Seriously...24 episodes per season for 11 seasons = 264 episodes x 22 minutes per episode / 60 minutes per hour = 97 hours.  No.]
• Bake my favorite chocolate chip cookies (while living in New York).
• Organize my entire music library. (HA! HA!)
• Finish LEGO Star Wars with Marek (starting from the beginning).
• Lose 10 pounds. (HAAAAAAAA HA HAHAHAHA!)
• Set up my photography website.

There you go.  Don't you feel better about yourself now?

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would you trade?

No, this post isn't an announcement.

In June, I finally got to the travel part of my "up to 100% travel" job.  My normal schedule would be "standard" Monday through Thursday, but my first assignment ended up being a weekend project, which actually didn't bother me too much, as that would mean I'd have the middle of the week to relax, get things done, and hang out with the Royal Devil.  Of course, if we are friends in real life and/or friends on Twitter, then you know that since about the third week of June, I have basically been working every day since I was assigned to a second project.

Fun fact: from June 6 through August 5, I will have had exactly five days off from work.  One of those days was Fourth of July and two of those days were a regular weekend.  I work an average of 10-hour days, 7 days a week.

But on the plus side, spending all that time on the road means racking up lots of hotel points, and I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of a great promotion with one of the big hotel chains.  Basically, at the end of this month, I'll have earned six free nights at a "resort" hotel - hotels that normally go for upwards of $500/night.

We have always wanted to go to the Maldives (we heard it is disappearing!), and it was on the list of available resorts - among the many fabulous destinations, which also included Fiji, Bora Bora, Bali, Tahiti, Seychelles, Mauritius, you get the picture!  Even though the nights are free, getting to the Maldives is another story, so Marek gave me a choice: get engaged this year or go to the Maldives.

Now, most of you know that Marek and I have been together for awhile (more than five years...and if you want to get all technical, substantially more than five years, according to the federal government - pulling a little policy debate nerdiness out for you!), and getting engaged was in the cards for this year.

Until six free nights at the resort hotel in the Maldives entered the picture.  I mean, look at it!!!

So, which would have you picked?  Would you trade getting engaged for a dream vacation?

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More adventures of Fred the cow

(Don't worry, I'll post about something else soon. But even if I don't, it's my blog, so deal with it!)

Marek and I were in the same city this weekend (a really, really big deal), and we went out to dinner to celebrate his upcoming birthday.  We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Texas de Brazil, which is basically a big meat buffet.  So of course we dragged Fred with us!

He hitched a ride from the car to the restaurant in Marek's pocket... lazy cow!

We asked for limes for our water, so Fred set himself up under his little lime-palm tree and glared at us while we ate lots of steak.

Fred did not approve of my plate of beef.  Pretty sure he is still giving me the silent treatment over this one.

After dinner, I had some cake with a nice refreshing glass of milk.  Fred was wishy-washy on this one.

We forced him to change his outfit for the night.  We thought it was rude of him to wear his normal sign when he was in another place!

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My day with Fred the Chick-Fil-A cow

Last week I was having a really crappy day, so I decided to cheer myself up with a new friend - a Chick-Fil-A plush cow, whom I've decided to name Fred - and then I spent the next day toting him around and putting him in silly poses and giggling like we were the best of friends.

First we got up in the morning and admired the lovely view outside of the hotel window.  We are very close to the airport and Fred likes to listen to the planes roar by overhead.  It's especially nice when we're going to bed and trying to sleep.

After we got ready for work - I changed, but Fred was lazy and did not - and then we drove ourselves to the office.  Poor Fred - he has an even harder time seeing out of the car than I do.

Here we are in the infamous bathroom with all the soaps.  Fred could not resist an opportunity to get his picture taken with some of the soaps, so he talked my boss into keeping me at work late so we could take this picture without worrying about people walking in and laughing at us.

After work, we headed over to Red Robin, which Fred wasn't exactly thrilled about, since it's a burger place and he is a cow.  But he couldn't say no to some french fries and a raspberry limeade!

After he ate his food, Fred went and hid in my purse for the rest of the meal.  He didn't want to have any uncomfortable run-ins with anyone at Red Robin, especially Robin himself, who was wandering around (and scared the crap out of me).

Fred loved our car this week - bright red and from California!  It's the farthest away car we've had yet (although Mississippi is a close second), and Fred was already to head west.

Once we got back to the room, Fred parked his fat cow butt in a chair and promptly took control of the remote.

After some TV watching - good way to tire a little toy cow out - Fred hopped into bed and got ready for a good night's sleep.

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